last evening, M'sieur.'

"'Seven--ah; eighteen hours. Give me something to eat, quick, while the
horses are being put to.'

"At the next the calculation would be sixteen hours.

"Passing a lonely chalet, Monsieur puts his head out of the window:--

"'How long since a carriage passed this way, with a tall, fair man
inside?'

"'Such a one passed early this morning, M'sieur.'

"'Thanks, drive on, a hundred francs apiece if you are through the pass
before daybreak.'

"'And what for dead horses, M'sieur?'

"'Twice their value when living.'

"One day the man who was ridden by Fear looked up, and saw before him the
open door of a cathedral, and, passing in, knelt down and prayed. He
prayed long and fervently, for men, when they are in sore straits, clutch
eagerly at the straws of faith. He prayed that he might be forgiven his
sin, and, more important still, that he might be pardoned the
consequences of his sin, and be delivered from his adversary; and a few
chairs from him, facing him, knelt his enemy, praying also.

"But the second man's prayer, being a thanksgiving merely, was short, so
that when the first man raised his eyes, he saw the face of his enemy
gazing at him across the chair-tops, with a mocking smile upon it.

"He made no attempt to rise, but remained kneeling, fascinated by the
look of joy that shone out of the other man's eyes. And the other man
moved the high-backed chairs one by one, and came towards him softly.

"Then, just as the man who had been wronged stood beside the man who had
wronged him, full of gladness that his opportunity had come, there burst
from the cathedral tower a sudden clash of bells, and the man, whose
opportunity had come, broke his heart and fell back dead, with that
mocking smile still playing round his mouth.

"And so he lay there.

"Then the man who had done the wrong rose up and passed out, praising
God.

"What became of the body of the other man is not known. It was the body
of a stranger who had died suddenly in the cathedral. There was none to
identify it, none to claim it.

"Years passed away, and the survivor in the tragedy became a worthy and
useful citizen, and a noted man of science.

"In his laboratory were many objects necessary to him in his researches,
and, prominent among them, stood in a certain corner a human skeleton. It
was a very old and much-mended skeleton, and one day the long-expected
end arrived, and it tumbled to pieces.

"Thus