to get his axe free and plant
it . . . though that would have been useless . . . the Herr cried once
and very loud . . . such a strange cry!--"

"Madame will be glad," interrupted the clergyman again, who had heard
Christian's story at the inquest,--"Madame will be glad"--he addressed
Miss Bracy, who, as he was dimly aware, had been standing throughout
with face averted, staring up at the far-away cliffs. "The young man's
last thoughts--"

But Christian was not to be denied. He had told the story a score of
times during the last three days, and had assured himself by every
evidence that he could tell it effectively. He was something of an
egoist, too, and the climax he had in mind was that of his own emotions
in recrossing the fatal _couloir_ ropeless, with shaking knees, haunted
by the Englishman's last cry.

"Such a strange cry," he persisted. "His eyes were on mine for a moment
. . . then they turned from me to the _couloir_ and the great space
below, It was then he uttered it, stretching out his hands as the rope
pulled him forward--yet not as one afraid. 'Mother!' he cried: just
that, and only once--'Mother!'"

Mr. Frank looked up sharply, and turned his head towards Miss Bracy.
The clergyman and the guide also had their eyes on her, the latter
waiting for the effect of his climax.

"It must be a consolation to you--" the clergyman began to mumble.

But Miss Bracy did not turn. Mr. Frank withdrew his eyes from her and
fixed them again on the gaudy tablecloth. She continued to stare up at
he clean ice-fields, the pencilled cliffs. She did not even move.

So Bassett was avenged.

THE CAPTURE OF THE _BURGOMEISTER VAN DER WERF.

A REPORTED TALE OF A DUTCHMAN AND A PRIVATEER

Yes, a heap of folks have admired that teapot. Hundreds of pounds we
must have been offered for it, first and last, since the night my wife's
grandfather, Captain John Tackabird--or Cap'n Jacka, as he was always
called--brought it into the family over the back-garden wall, and his
funny little wife went for him with the broom-handle. Poor souls, they
were always a most affectionate couple, and religious too, but not much
to look at; and when he took and died of a seizure in the Waterloo year
she wasn't long in following.

Ay, ay--very pleasant in their lives! though not what you would call
lovely. I've heard that, through being allowed by his mother to run too
soon, Tackabird's legs grew up so bandy, the other childre