that far, and fallen;
and I begged him to help me carry her in the house. He consented, and
then I remembered that there was a side door, which was near Miriam's
room, and if we carried the body through that we should avoid waking
Mrs. Grove. I passed silently through the dining room, and, having
unbolted the door, I returned, and lifted the body of my poor friend in
my arms, while the stranger raised her head. And thus we carried her in
the house, and laid her on the bed. I smoothed her dishevelled hair, and
arranged her torn dress, forgetting that any one else was in the room,
until I was startled by a groan. And then for the first time I looked at
the stranger. It was Ackermann!

My fingers involuntarily closed tighter around the ring, which, all this
time, I had kept shut up in my hand. Not for the world would I have had
him to see it then. I was more afraid of him than I had been of Miriam
during all our journey. She might be called an Avenging Angel. He was a
destroying Fiend.

He trembled violently. He laid his hand heavily upon my arm. It was as
cold as ice, and made a chilly horror creep over me.

'Tell me, Hester,' he said, in a hoarse voice, 'what is the meaning of
this? You and Miriam have been farther than the front door, or your
clothes would not be in this cut and ragged condition. Why do you look
at me so strangely--so horribly? Speak to me! Speak!'

I longed to show him the ring, and confront him then with his horrid
crimes, but he looked so fiercely I dared not. It is well that I did
not. I know not what might have been the result. Justice might have been
cheated of her proper prey, and I not have been here to write this tale.
I made my escape from the room, and left him with his dead victim.

I have a confused recollection of being surrounded with pale and eager
faces, and of telling them my wonderful story, and showing them the
ring. And then I remember nothing more for many hours, for I fell into a
heavy sleep.

That night, so full of horrors, did not turn my hair white, or make me
ill, or cause me to lose my reason. I was subject to a nervous
irritability for some time afterward, but that passed away, and the only
feeling I have left to remind me of that terrible night is my aversion
to sit up with a dead body. I have never done it since.

The route that Miriam and I had followed was carefully traced. Our
tracks were not discernible until the graveyard was nearly reached.
There they found t