f
mercy on others we shut it on ourselves. For all that you have done for
my father and friends, and for me, I am filled with gratitude and
friendship. Your manly traits have inspired me with an admiration that
was almost hero-worship. For this reason I would save you from a great
crime. O, Pomp, if only for my sake, do not annihilate the noble and
grand image of you which has built itself up in my heart, and leave only
the memory of a strange horror and dread in its place!"

Pomp had turned his eyes away from hers, knowing that if he continued to
be fascinated by them, he must end by yielding. He drooped his head,
leaning on his rifle, and looking down upon the wretch at their feet. A
strong convulsion shook his whole frame, as she ceased speaking. There
was silence for some seconds. Then he spoke, still without raising his
eyes, in a deep, subdued voice.

"This man is the hater of my race. He is of those who rob us of our
labor, our lives, our wives, and children, and happiness. They enslave
both body and soul. They damn us with ignorance and vice. To take from
us the profits of our toil is little; but they take from us our manhood
also. Yet here he came, and accepted life and safety at my hands. He
made an oath, and I made an oath. His oath was never to betray my poor
Cudjo's secret. The oath I made was to kill him as I would a dog if his
should be broken. It has been broken. My poor Cudjo is dead. Withers is
dead. Your sister is dead. I see it to be just that this traitor too
should now die!"

Again he poised his rifle. But Virginia threw herself upon the victim,
covering with her own pure bosom his miserable, guilty breast.

Pomp smiled. "Do not fear. For your sake I have pardoned him."

"O, this is the noblest act of your life, Pomp!" she exclaimed, clasping
his hand with joy and gratitude.

He looked in her face. A great weight was taken from his soul. His
countenance was bright and glad.

"Do you think it was not a bitter cup for me? You have taken it from me,
and I thank you. But Bythewood must not know I have relented. We have
yet a work to do with him."

Then those who had been left behind in the cave, listening for the
death-signal, heard the report of a rifle ringing through the chambers
of rock. Not long after Pomp and Virginia returned; and Deslow was not
with them. Augustus heard--Augustus saw--nor knew he any reason why the
fate of Deslow should not presently be his own.

"Is justice done?" s