She was on her way down the main street, and my first
thought was, that she was bound for some neighbor's house or perhaps for
the hotel itself; but the settled swing into which she soon altered her
restless pace satisfied me that she had some distant goal in prospect;
and before long I found myself passing the hotel with its appurtenances,
even the little schoolhouse, that was the last building at this end of
the village, and stepping out into the country beyond. What could it
mean?

But still her fluttering figure hasted on, the outlines of her form,
with its close shawl and neat bonnet, growing fainter and fainter in the
now settled darkness of an April night; and still I followed, walking on
the turf at the side of the road lest she should hear my footsteps and
look round. At last we reached a bridge. Over this I could hear her
pass, and then every sound ceased. She had paused, and was evidently
listening. It would not do for me to pause too, so gathering myself into
as awkward a shape as possible, I sauntered by her down the road, but
arrived at a certain point, stopped, and began retracing my steps with a
sharp lookout for her advancing figure, till I had arrived once more at
the bridge. She was not there.

Convinced now that she had discovered my motive for being in her house
and, by leading me from it, had undertaken to supply Hannah with an
opportunity for escape, I was about to hasten back to the charge I had
so incautiously left, when a strange sound heard at my left arrested me.
It came from the banks of the puny stream which ran under the bridge,
and was like the creaking of an old door on worn-out hinges.

Leaping the fence, I made my way as best I could down the sloping field
in the direction from which the sound came. It was quite dark, and my
progress was slow; so much so, that I began to fear I had ventured upon
a wild-goose chase, when an unexpected streak of lightning shot across
the sky, and by its glare I saw before me what seemed, in the momentary
glimpse I had of it, an old barn. From the rush of waters near at hand,
I judged it to be somewhere on the edge of the stream, and consequently
hesitated to advance, when I heard the sound of heavy breathing near me,
followed by a stir as of some one feeling his way over a pile of loose
boards; and presently, while I stood there, a faint blue light flashed
up from the interior of the barn, and I saw, through the tumbled-down
door that faced me, the for