you haven't told me of
your wife, you know.'

'Wife--ha, ha, ha!' and the Dead Man laughed long and loud; there was
something in his laugh which chilled the blood, and made the heart beat
with a nameless terror.

'True, Pete, I have not yet told you about my wife, as you call her. But
you shall hear. What would you say if I told you that Mrs. Ross, the
lady whose husband I murdered, whose children I blinded, and whom I so
outrageously deceived herself--what would you say if you were told that
the woman who passes for my wife, is that same lady?'

'I should say it was a thing impossible,' replied Pete.

'It is true,' rejoined the Dead Man.--'Listen:--when I left my
counterfeiting friends in New Jersey, and returned to New York with my
new face, I learned by inquiry that Mrs. Ross was living with her blind
twins in a state of poverty, her husband's property, at his death,
having been seized upon by his creditors, leaving her entirely
destitute. I found her in an obscure part of the city, subsisting upon
the charity of neighbors, the occupant of a garret. The woman's
misfortunes, through me, had ruined her intellect;--she had grown fierce
and reckless,--as wild as a tigress. I sat down and conversed with her;
she knew me not. 'You are hideous to look upon,' said she, 'and I like
you for it. The world is fair, but it has robbed me of husband, honor
and taken away my children's eye-sight. Henceforward, all that is
hideous I will love!' I saw that her brain was topsy-turvy, and it
rejoiced me. Her children were still pretty, though they were blind; and
it almost made me laugh to see them grope their way to their mother's
side, and turning their sightless eyes toward her, ask, in childish
accents,--'Mamma, what made the naughty man put out our eyes?' Well, the
woman, with a singular perversity of human nature, liked me, and
commenced to place herself under my protection. She could be of service
to me; but her children were likely to prove a burden--and so I got rid
of them.'

'What did you do with them--no harm, I hope?' asked Pete.

'Certainly not--the Dark Vaults were not a fit place of abode for the
blind babes, and so I sent them to take up their abode in another place,
and that was heaven; to explain, I cut their throats, and threw their
bodies into the sewers.'

'Monster--inhuman villain!' was the involuntary exclamation of Dr.
Sinclair, in his hiding-place behind the tomb-stone.

'Ha--who spoke?' cried the Dea