y
counting the tassels finishing off its edge, growing wroth over one that
was worn, till she hated that sixth tassel and mentally determined that
if she ever outlived this night she would strip them all off and be done
with them.

The wind had lessened, but the air had grown cooler and the snow made a
sharp sound where it struck the panes. She felt it falling, though she
had cut off all view of it. It seemed to her that a pall was settling
over the world and that she would soon be smothered under its folds.

Meanwhile no sound came from the kitchen. A dreadful sense of doom was
creeping upon her--a sense growing in intensity till she found herself
watching for the shadow of that lifted stick on the wall of the entry
and almost imagined she saw the tip of it appearing.

But it was the door which again blew in, admitting another man of so
threatening an aspect that she succumbed instantly before him and forgot
all her former fears in this new terror.

The second intruder was a negro of powerful frame and lowering aspect,
and as he came forward and stood in the doorway there was observable in
his fierce and desperate countenance no attempt at the insinuation of
the other, only a fearful resolution that made her feel like a puppet
before him, and drove her, almost without her volition, to her knees.

"Money? Is it money you want?" was her desperate greeting. "If so,
here's my purse and here are my rings and watch. Take them and go."

But the stolid wretch did not even stretch out his hands. His eyes went
beyond her, and the mingled anxiety and resolve which he displayed would
have cowed a stouter heart than that of this poor woman.

"Keep de trash," he growled. "I want de company's money. You've got
it--two thousand dollars. Show me where it is, that's all, and I won't
trouble you long after I close on it."

"But it's not in the house," she cried. "I swear it is not in the house.
Do you think Mr. Chivers would leave me here alone with two thousand
dollars to guard?"

But the negro, swearing that she lied, leaped into the room, and tearing
open the cupboard above her husband's desk, seized the bag from the
corner where they had put it.

"He brought it in this," he muttered, and tried to force the bag open,
but finding this impossible he took out a heavy knife and cut a big hole
in its side. Instantly there fell out the pile of old receipts with
which they had stuffed it, and seeing these he stamped with rage, and