nsibility seemed fast
ebbing, yet an emotion of joy was visible in his eyes at the appearance
of Mervyn. He seemed likewise to recognise in me his late visitant, and
made no objection to my entrance.

"How are you this morning?" said Arthur, seating himself on the bedside,
and taking his hand. The sick man was scarcely able to articulate his
reply:--"I shall soon be well. I have longed to see you. I want to leave
with you a few words." He now cast his languid eyes on me. "You are his
friend," he continued. "You know all. You may stay."

There now succeeded a long pause, during which he closed his eyes, and
resigned himself as if to an oblivion of all thought. His pulse under my
hand was scarcely perceptible. From this in some minutes he recovered,
and, fixing his eyes on Mervyn, resumed, in a broken and feeble
accent:--

"Clemenza! You have seen her. Weeks ago, I left her in an accursed
house; yet she has not been mistreated. Neglected and abandoned indeed,
but not mistreated. Save her, Mervyn. Comfort her. Awaken charity for
her sake.

"I cannot tell you what has happened. The tale would be too long,--too
mournful. Yet, in justice to the living, I must tell you something. My
woes and my crimes will be buried with me. Some of them, but not all.

"Ere this, I should have been many leagues upon the ocean, had not a
newspaper fallen into my hands while on the eve of embarkation. By that
I learned that a treasure was buried with the remains of the ill-fated
Watson. I was destitute. I was unjust enough to wish to make this
treasure my own. Prone to think I was forgotten, or numbered with the
victims of pestilence, I ventured to return under a careless disguise. I
penetrated to the vaults of that deserted dwelling by night. I dug up
the bones of my friend, and found the girdle and its valuable contents,
according to the accurate description that I had read.

"I hastened back with my prize to Baltimore, but my evil destiny
overtook me at last. I was recognised by emissaries of Jamieson,
arrested and brought hither, and here shall I consummate my fate and
defeat the rage of my creditors by death. But first----"

Here Welbeck stretched out his left hand to Mervyn, and, after some
reluctance, showed a roll of lead.

"Receive this," said he. "In the use of it, be guided by your honesty
and by the same advertisement that furnished me the clue by which to
recover it. That being secured, the world and I will part forever.
W