nd of her low voice fell upon his straining ears, he had
reached out the arm that still held life, and had drawn her head down
upon his breast, and wept like a motherless babe. But what he had
said, if aught, about the abandoned mother who, on the banks of the
distant river, years gone, had yielded her life to him and his child,
no one knew. Of but one thing was there any certainty: the name of
Padre Jose de Rincon had not crossed their lips during those dark
days.

And so two weeks passed. Then strong men lifted the giant from his bed
and placed him in a wheel chair; and Carmen drew the chair out into
the conservatory, among the ferns and flowers, and sat beside him, his
hand still clasped in both of hers. That he had found life, no one who
marked his tense, eager look, which in every waking moment lay upon
the girl, could deny. His body was dead; his soul was fluttering
feebly into a new sense of being.

But with the awakening of conscience, in the birth-throes of a new
life, came the horrors, the tortures, the wild frenzy of self-loathing;
and, but for the girl who clung so desperately to him, he would have
quickly ended his useless existence. What had he done! God! What mad
work had he done! He was a murderer of helpless babes! He was the
blackest of criminals! The stage upon which the curtain had risen,
whereon he saw the hourly portrayal of his own fiendish deeds, stood
always before him like a haunting spectre; and as he gazed with
horrified eyes, his hair grew hourly white.

And the torture was rendered more poignant by the demands of his
erstwhile associates and henchmen. They had taken fright at the first
orders which had issued from the sick-bed, but now they swooped down
upon the harassed man to learn what might be expected from him in the
future. What were to be his policies now in regard to those manifold
interests which he was pursuing with such vigor a few weeks ago? Was
he still bent upon depriving Senator Gossitch of the seat which the
Ames money had purchased? Was the Ketchim prosecution to continue? The
Amalgamated Spinners' Association must know at once his further plans.
The Budget needed money and advice. His great railroad projects, his
mining ventures, his cotton deals, his speculations and gambling
schemes--whither should they tend now? Ward bosses, dive keepers,
bank presidents, lawyers, magnates, and preachers clamored for
admission at his doors when they learned that he would live, but th