could see its windows
glimmering with faint lights, while, away to the right, there broke upon
me from the hillside a solitary sparkle; but this sparkle came from the
house where, but for the letter hidden in my heart, I should be sitting
at this moment before my own fireside.

"What moved me? God knows. It may have been duty; it may have been
curiosity; it may have been only dread to know the worst and know it
at once; but seeing that single gleam I began to move toward it, and,
before I was aware, I had reached the house, edged up to its unshaded
window and taken a frightened look within.

"I was prepared and yet unprepared for what I saw. Within, standing
alone, with garments dripping, gazing in frenzy at a slip of paper which
clung wet about his hand, stood my husband. My words to him! I could see
it in his eyes and the desperation which lit up all his features.

"Drawing back in terror from the road, I watched him fling that letter
of from his fingers as he would a biting snake, and, striding to a
cupboard high up on the wall, take down something I could not see and
did not guess at till the sharp sound of a pistol-shot cleft my ear,
and I beheld him fall face downward on the carpet of fresh autumn leaves
with which he had hidden the bare floor in expectation of his bride.

"The shriek which involuntarily went up from my lips must have rung far
and wide, but only the groaning of the night-wind answered me. Driven by
my fears to do something to save him if he was not yet dead, I tried the
door, but it was locked; so was the window. Yet I might have battered my
way in at that moment had I not heard two men coming down the road, one
of whom was shouting to the other: 'I did not like his face. I shan't
sleep till I've seen him again.'

"Somewhat relieved, I drew back from the road, but did not quit the
spot till those men, seeing through the window what had happened, worked
their way in and lifted him up in their arms. The look with which they
let him fall back again was eloquent, and convinced me that it was death
I saw. I started again upon my shuddering flight from Boone, secure in
the belief that while my future would surely hold remorse for me, it
would nevermore burden me with a hindrance in the shape of an unloved
husband."

CHAPTER XXIV. THE SINS OF THE FATHERS

The suspense which had held us tense and speechless was for the moment
relieved and Mr. Steele allowed himself the following explanatio