l, well!"

"Ah!" exclaimed the voice outside with an unmistakable accent of relief
in its tone as it added, with unlettered eagerness: "It's me--Bob!"

However, if his reawakened animation had revived his deadened spirit,
it also restored the appreciation of his disaster, as, with a glance of
vivid comprehension, he looked from the coal heap to the register,
toward which he leaped with astonishing agility.

In an instant the inner recess was secure; in another the radiator was
replaced, and Raikes, proceeding to the door, raised the bar, unlocked
the catches and exclaimed, "Enter!"

As the breezy Bob crossed the threshold, the question of his eyes was
instantly transformed to an expression of utter astonishment as he
beheld the extraordinary blend of soil and pallor upon the countenance
of his uncle.

"For the Lord's sake!" he cried, "what ails your face?" and strongly
tempted to laugh at the absurd spectacle, and as urgently impelled to
restrain himself by the glittering eyes of the raging Raikes, he added,
by way of apology for his noisy intrusion:

"We knew that you were in here, but could not make you hear us. You are
almost two hours beyond your usual time."

Directly in the rear of the young man stood the spinster, who gazed
with widened eyes and parted lips upon her brother's soiled visage.

"Well," snarled Raikes, "I am all right, you see; now leave me until I
get myself in shape to make an appearance."

As the door closed behind the pair, Raikes hurried to the mirror, and
above the crack which extended, like a spasm, diagonally across its
surface he beheld his bloodless cheeks and forehead, and below, the dry
slit of his mouth and his chin spattered with black and white.

As he witnessed the sorry sight, the unhappy man, unable for the moment
to account for his plight, stood aghast, until his gaze, penetrating to
the rear of his smudged physiognomy, beheld the reflection of the coal
heaps upon the table.

At once a savage grin distorted his features into the degree of ugliness
not already accomplished by its dusky resting place of the hour
previous. A grin that was scarcely human and almost diabolical, as if
the miserable creature had caught sight of the shriveled soul peering
through the chinks which imprisoned his rat eyes and found a malignant
enjoyment in the contemplation of its contemptible littleness.

From this debasing inspection Raikes turned slowly to the washstand to
remove the grime f