y poor dear child, who have
been betrayed by miserable assassins. And by the Eternal!" cried
Obed, with a deeper solemnity in his voice, raising up at the same
time his colossal arm and his clenched fist to heaven--"by the
Eternal! I swear I'll trace all this out yet, and pay it out in full
to these infernal devils!"

"Oh, my God!" cried Zillah. "What do you mean? Do you mean that Hilda
has not been here at all?"

"No such person has ever been in Naples."

"Why, was she not picked up adrift? and where could they have taken
her?"

"She never was picked up. Rely upon that. No such ship as the one she
mentions has ever been here."

"Then she has written down 'Naples' in mistake," cried Zillah, while
a shudder passed through her at Obed's frightful insinuation.

"No," said Obed. "She wrote it down deliberately, and wrote it
several times. Her repetition of that name, her description of the
charms of Naples, show that she did this intentionally. Besides, your
envelope has the Naples postage stamps and the Naples post-marks. It
was mailed here, whether it was written here or not. It was sent from
here to fetch you to this place, on this journey, which resulted as
you remember."

"Oh, my God!" cried Zillah, as the full horror of Obed's meaning
began to dawn upon her. "What do you mean? What do you mean? Do you
wish to drive me to utter despair? Tell me where you have been and
what you have done. Oh, my God! Is any new grief coming?"

"My child, the Lord on high knows," said Obed Chute, with solemn
emphasis, "that I would cut off my right hand with my own
bowie-knife, rather than bring back to you the news I do. But what
can be done? It is best for you to know the whole truth, bitter as it
is."

"Go on," said Zillah, with an effort to be calm.

"Come," said Obed, and he led her to a seat. "Calm yourself, and
prepare for the worst. For at the outset, and by way of preparation
and warning, I will say that yours is a little the darkest case that
I ever got acquainted with. The worst of it is that there is ever so
much behind it all which I don't know any thing about."

Zillah leaned her head upon her hand and looked at him with awful
forebodings.

"When I left you," said Obed Chute, "I went at once to the Hotel de
l'Europe, expecting to find her there, or at least to hear of her. I
will not relate the particulars of my inquiry there. I will only say
that no such person as Miss Lorton had been there. I found, howev