d many a poor wretch had he sent to his long home after he became
useless to the government.

He had never been credited with possessing either fear or a heart, but
now he showed that he was a moral as well as a physical coward, and was
racked by most agonizing fears.

"Barnwell," he finally said, "see that the old man is decently buried,
and a prayer said over his grave. Yes, be sure and bury him decently in
a coffin, and a grave so deep that the worms may not reach it, and then
come to me again. But see that you bury him tenderly, and say nothing of
this to any person living."

"You shall be obeyed, sir," said Barnwell, hurrying from the room, glad
to carry out such an order in the dead old exile's behalf.

CHAPTER X.

BURIED DECENTLY.

It was a mournful pleasure to William Barnwell to be able to place the
body of poor old Batavsky in a respectable coffin and see it given a
Christian burial, instead of being thrown, like hundreds of others, into
a ravine, for the wolves to devour and fight over.

And it caused no little comment and speculation among those employed
about the hospital, for they had become so used to seeing the dead
barbarously disposed of, that it was an event to see one given Christian
burial.

Some said Batavsky was an exiled nobleman, and that he had been thus
buried by order of the governor, but no one suspected for a moment that
it was at the orders of the surgeon-in-chief, whose dream had frightened
him into the semblance of a human being.

When all had been done, and the grave marked with Batavsky's prison
number, Barnwell returned, as ordered, to Kanoffskie.

"Is he buried?" was his first question.

"He is, sir."

"And decently?"

"As a Christian should be buried, sir."

"And a prayer was said?"

"Yes, sir."

Kanoffskie vented a sigh of relief, but he was a frightened and an
altered man.

He was pale and trembling, and he glared wildly about, as though
expecting to see the ghosts of his victims, or the real return of
Batavsky to drag him down, as he had done in that awful dream.

"Have you any further orders, sir?"

"No; but stay--come to me again just before dark--I may want you," said
Kanoffskie, hesitatingly.

"Very well," replied Barnwell, bowing himself from the room.

He understood very well that the iron had entered the tyrant's heart,
and he resolved to work upon it.

That terrible dream was not all for nothing, even though he did not
believe in dreams, a