m blood.

"Father, he must be dead, quite dead," whispered Joey, who returned
trembling. "What shall we do?"

"We must go home," replied Rushbrook; "this is a bad night's work;" and,
without exchanging another word until their arrival, Rushbrook and Joey
proceeded back to the cottage, followed by Mum.

CHAPTER FIVE.

THE SINS OF THE FATHER ARE VISITED UPON THE CHILD.

Jane had remained in a state of great anxiety during her husband's
absence, watching and listening to every sound; every five minutes
raising the latch of the door, and looking out, hoping to see him
return. As the time went on, her alarm increased; she laid her head
down on the table and wept; she could find no consolation, no
alleviation of her anxiety; she dropped down on her knees and prayed.

She was still appealing to the Most High, when a blow on the door
announced her husband's return. There was a sulken gloom over his
countenance as he entered: he threw his gun carelessly on one side, so
that it fell, and rattled against the paved floor; and this one act was
to her ominous of evil. He sat down without speaking; falling back in
the chair, and lifting his eyes up to the rafters above, he appeared to
be in deep thought, and unconscious of her presence.

"What has happened?" inquired his wife, trembling as she laid her hand
on his shoulder.

"Don't speak to me now," was the reply.

"Joey," said the frightened woman in a whisper, "what has he done?"

Joey answered not, but raised his hand, red with the blood which was now
dried upon it.

Jane uttered a faint cry, dropped on her knees, and covered her face,
while Joey walked into the back kitchen, and busied himself in removing
the traces of the dark deed.

A quarter of an hour had elapsed--Joey had returned, and taken his seat
upon his low stool, and not a word had been exchanged.

There certainly is a foretaste of the future punishment which awaits
crime; for how dreadful were the feelings of those who were now sitting
down in the cottage! Rushbrook was evidently stupefied from excess of
feeling; first, the strong excitement which had urged him to the deed;
and now from the reaction the prostration of mental power which had
succeeded it. Jane dreaded the present and the future--whichever way
she turned her eyes the gibbet was before her--the clanking of chains in
her ears; in her vision of the future, scorn, misery, and remorse--she
felt only for her husband. Joey, poor boy,