Stop a minute," I interposed; "I have rather a fancy for seeing this
man before you wake him up. I'm a doctor; and if this queer sleeping and
dreaming of his comes from anything wrong in his brain, I may be able to
tell you what to do with him."

"I rather think you will find his complaint past all doctoring, sir,"
said the landlord; "but, if you would like to see him, you're welcome,
I'm sure."

He led the way across a yard and down a passage to the stables, opened
one of the doors, and, waiting outside himself, told me to look in.

I found myself in a two-stall stable. In one of the stalls a horse
was munching his corn; in the other an old man was lying asleep on the
litter.

I stooped and looked at him attentively. It was a withered, woe-begone
face. The eyebrows were painfully contracted; the mouth was fast set,
and drawn down at the corners.

The hollow wrinkled cheeks, and the scanty grizzled hair, told their
own tale of some past sorrow or suffering. He was drawing his breath
convulsively when I first looked at him, and in a moment more he began
to talk in his sleep.

"Wake up!" I heard him say, in a quick whisper, through his clinched
teeth. "Wake up there! Murder!"

He moved one lean arm slowly till it rested over his throat, shuddered a
little, and turned on his straw. Then the arm left his throat, the
hand stretched itself out, and clutched at the side toward which he
had turned, as if he fancied himself to be grasping at the edge of
something. I saw his lips move, and bent lower over him. He was still
talking in his sleep.

"Light gray eyes," he murmured, "and a droop in the left eyelid; flaxen
hair, with a gold-yellow streak in it--all right, mother--fair white
arms, with a down on them--little lady's hand, with a reddish look under
the finger nails. The knife--always the cursed knife--first on one side,
then on the other. Aha! you she-devil, where's the knife?"

At the last word his voice rose, and he grew restless on a sudden. I
saw him shudder on the straw; his withered face became distorted, and
he threw up both his hands with a quick hysterical gasp. They struck
against the bottom of the manger under which he lay, and the blow
awakened him. I had just time to slip through the door and close it
before his eyes were fairly open, and his senses his own again.

"Do you know anything about that man's past life?" I said to the
landlord.

"Yes, sir, I know pretty well all about it," was the answ