r to a spring at a considerable
distance."

We searched the house, which I did, I confess, with a kind of feverish
excitement, expecting every moment to bring some fatal secret to light.
Meantime, the man gazed upon us with an impenetrable vacancy of look,
and we at last left the cottage without seeing any thing that could
confirm my suspicions. I resolved to inspect the garden once more; and a
number of idlers having been by this time collected, drawn to the spot
by the sight of a stranger with two armed men engaged in searching the
premises, I made inquiries of some of them whether they knew any thing
about a well in that place. I could get no information at first, but at
length an old woman came slowly forward, leaning on a crutch.

"A well!" cried she; "is it the well you are looking after? That has
been gone these thirty years. I remember, as if it were only yesterday,
many a time, when I was a young girl, how I used to amuse myself by
throwing stones into it, and hearing the splash they used to make in the
water."

"And could you tell where that well used to be?" I asked, almost
breathless with excitement.

"As near as I can remember, on the very spot on which your honor is
standing," said the old woman.

"I could have sworn it!" thought I, springing from the place as if I had
trod upon a scorpion.

Need I say, that we set to work to dig up the ground. At about eighteen
inches deep, we came to a layer of bricks, which, being broken up, gave
to view some boards, which were easily removed; after which we beheld
the mouth of the well.

"I was quite sure it was here," said the woman. "What a fool the old
fellow was to stop it up, and then have so far to go for water!"

A sounding-line, furnished with hooks, was let down into the well; the
crowd pressing around us, and breathlessly bending over the dark and
fetid hole, the secrets of which seemed hidden in impenetrable
obscurity. This was repeated several times without any result. At
length, penetrating below the mud, the hooks caught an old chest, upon
the top of which had been thrown a great many large stones; and after
much effort and time, we succeeded in raising it to daylight. The sides
and lid were decayed and rotten; it needed no locksmith to open it; and
we found within, what I was certain we should find, and which paralyzed
with horror all the spectators, who had not my pre-convictions--we found
the remains of a human body.

The police-officers wh