ous
suspicion to enter my mind. Was it possible that Mr. Earl had sent me
away from England in order to save my life? My hands began to tremble,
and I felt my face turning red and pale under the searching eyes of my
uncle.

"My boy," said he, "if all the murders were done that men conceive, the
devil would live alone on earth. We shall know some time--I tell you we
shall know! Let us go to Rayel," he said, rising and leading the way.

The interview had greatly excited him, and his speech seemed even more
halting and labored than before. Many of his words were mispronounced
and separated by long pauses; but his manner was marvelously expressive,
and often a peculiar turn of the eye or movement of the hand made his
meaning clear when I was in doubt about his words.

I followed him through a long gymnasium and out upon a grassy courtyard
extending along the rear of the grounds parallel with the river wall
for a hundred yards or more, and adorned with beds of flowers. It was
completely shut off from the eye of the outside world by a thick grove
and an impenetrable growth of underbrush that reached beyond the lowest
branches of the trees. Nothing but the blue sky, in which the sun was
on its downward course, the house, and the walls of living green, were
visible. Out of this Eden-like spot we passed into another wing of the
building with large windows looking out upon it. Rayel met us at the
door, dressed in a black robe of silk that hung gracefully from his
shoulders. Again he took my hand and kissed it, then looked into my eyes
with the same expression of curious interest upon his face that I had
noted before. Still holding my hand, he led me across the room. For
the first time I noticed that its walls were covered with pictures,
unframed, and that an easel stood in the light of each window. We
stopped before one of them. On a large canvas that was stretched across
it I saw a likeness of myself. The eyes wore a haggard look which seemed
unnatural. But there was something strangely real about it, in spite of
that.

"Wonderful!" said I.

Rayel started at the sound of my voice, and glanced from one to the
other with a puzzled, inquiring look. Turning to his father, he uttered
some strange monosyllable in a deep voice. Then he took my hand and
walked back and forth across the room with me, smiling in great delight.
I was fascinated by one of the pictures which showed a great gleaming
eye with a suggestion of lightning in