s
of determination--of vengeance.

Once more he glances down at the grave; then up to the sky, till the
moon, coursing across high heaven, falls full upon his face. With his
body slightly leaning backward, the arms along his sides, stiffly
extended, the hands closed in convulsive clutch, he cries out:--

"By the heavens above--by the shade of my murdered mother, who lies
beneath--I swear not to know rest, never more seek contentment, till
I've punished her murderer! Night and day--through summer and winter--
shall I search for him. Yes; search till I've found and chastised this
man, this monster, who has brought blight on me, death to my mother, and
desolation to our house! Ah! think not you can escape me! Texas,
whither I know you have gone, will not be large enough to hold, nor its
wilderness wide enough to screen you from my vengeance. If not found
there, I shall follow you to the end of the earth--to the end of the
earth, Richard Darke!"

"Charley Clancy!"

He turns as if a shot had struck him. He sees a man standing within six
paces of the spot.

"Sime Woodsy!"

CHAPTER THIRTY SIX.

"SHE IS TRUE--STILL TRUE!"

The men who thus mutually pronounce each other's names are they who bear
them. For it is, in truth, Charles Clancy who stands by the grave, and
Simeon Woodley who has saluted him.

The surprise is all upon the side of Sime, and something more. He
beholds a man all supposed to be dead, apparently returned from the
tomb! Sees him in a place appropriate to resurrection, in the centre of
a burying-ground, by the side of a recently made grave!

The backwoodsman is not above believing in spiritual existences, and for
an instant he is under a spell of the supernatural.

It passes off on his perceiving that real flesh and blood is before
him--Charles Clancy himself, and not his wraith.

He reaches this conclusion the sooner from having all along entertained
a doubt about Clancy being dead. Despite the many circumstances
pointing to, almost proving, his death, Woodley was never quite
convinced of it. No one has taken so much trouble, or made so many
efforts, to clear up the mystery. He has been foremost in the attempt
to get punishment for the guilty man, as in the search for the body of
his victim; both of which failed, to his great humiliation; his grief
too, for he sincerely lamented his lost friend. Friends they were of no
common kind. Not only had they oft hunted in company, but