goings on of late times. There was always something
strange about it,--something strange about Dunwody too! There
ain't no doubt about that. But I'm skeered, too--him a-settin'
thah--"

"But _who_ was she, or it, whatever it was? How come--in--in
there? How long has it been there? What kind of goings on do you
think there has been; in this here place, after all?" Mr. Jones
was not satisfied. They passed apart, muttering, exclaiming,
wondering.

An hour later, Tallwoods mansion house was no more. The last of
cornice and pillar and corner post and beam had fallen into a
smoldering mass. In front of one long window a part of the heavy
brick foundation remained. Some bent and warped iron bars appeared
across a window.

Unable to do anything, these who had witnessed such scenes, scarce
found it possible to depart. They stood about, whispering, or
remaining silent, some regarding the smouldering ruin. Once in a
while a head was turned over shoulder toward a bowed form which sat
close under a sheltering tree upon the lawn.

"He is taking it mighty hard," said this or that neighbor. "Lost
nigh about everything he had in the world." But still his bowed
form, stern in its sentinelship, guarded the something concealed
behind the shadows. And still they dared not go closer.

So, while Dunwody was taking that which had come to him, as human
beings must, the gray of the dawn crawled up, up over the eastern
edge of this little Ozark Valley. After a time the day would come
again, would look with franker eyes upon this scene of horror. As
the light grew stronger, though yet cold and gray, Dunwody,
sighing, raised his head from his hands and turned. There was a
figure seated close to him--a woman, who reached out a hand to take
his scarred and burned ones in her own,--a woman, moreover, who
asked him no questions.

"Oh! Oh God!" he began, for the first time breaking silence, his
burned lips twitching. "And you,--why don't you go away? What
made you come?"

She was silent for a time. "Am I not your friend?" she asked, at
length.

Now he could look at her. "My friend!" said he bitterly. "As if
all the world had a friend for me! How could there be? But you saw
that,--this--?"

She made no answer, but only drew a trifle nearer, seeing him for
the first time unnerved and unstrung. "I saw something, I could
not tell what--when you came out. I supposed--"

"Well, then," said he, with a supreme effort