l on the open field, saw a man from
a rude dwelling nearby go hurriedly toward him, firing his own revolver,
as if to make the death deed doubly sure. Then, as the train slacked its
speed, with the view, perhaps, to take the body on board, he heard the
man who had reached Mark and was bending over him, call out: "Go on;
I'll tend to him. He is dead as a stone; bullet went right through
here," and he turned the dead man's face toward the train, so all could
see the blood pouring from the temple which the finger of the rebel
ruffian touched.

"Oh, Helen! poor Helen! How can I tell her, when she loved him so much!"
Bell sobbed, while Bob repeated many things to prove how strong was the
love the unfortunate Mark Ray had borne for his young wife.

"He used to make pictures of her," he said, "with a pencil which he had,
and once he whittled out her face with a lily in the hair. It was a good
likeness, too, and I saw Mark kiss it more than once when he thought he
was not seen. He had her photograph, it seems, but a brutal keeper took
it away, for no earthly purpose except to distress him. I never saw Mark
cast down till then, when for two whole days he scarcely spoke, but
would stand for hours with his face turned toward the North, and a
quivering motion around his lips, as if his heart were broken."

Bell could hear no more, but motioned him to stop.

"It's too terrible even to think about," she said. "Oh, how can I tell
Helen!"

"You will do it better than any one else," Bob said. "You will be very
tender with her; and, Bell, tell her, as some consolation, that he did
not break with the treatment, as most of us wretches did; he kept up
wonderfully--said he was perfectly well--and, indeed, he looked so. Tom
Tubbs, who was his shadow, clinging to him with wonderful fidelity, will
corroborate what I have said. He was with us, he saw him, and only
animal force prevented him from leaping from the car and going to him
where he fell. I shall never forget his shriek of agony at the sight of
that blood-stained face turned an instant toward us."

"Don't, don't!" Bell cried again; "I can't endure it!" and as Mrs.
Reynolds then came in, she left her lover, and with a foreboding heart,
started for Mrs. Banker's, meeting on the steps Tom Tubbs himself, who
had come on an errand similar to her own.

"Sit here in the hall a moment," she said to him, as the servant
admitted them both. "I must see Mrs. Ray first."

Helen was reading