Wretched woman, I pity you,' said Frank, in a tone of commiseration.

'I deserve not your pity,' she cried, writhing as if in great bodily
torment--'my soul is stained with the guilt of a thousand crimes--and
the only reparation I can make you, to atone for the wrong I intended,
is to warn you to fly from this house as from a pestilence! This is the
abode of murder--it is a charnel-house of iniquity; fly from hence, as
you value your life--for an hour after midnight my husband, the terrible
Dead Man, will return, and although you frustrated me, you cannot escape
his vengeance, should he find you here. Ah, my God! my brain burns--the
deadly potion is at work!'

And thus the miserable woman continued to rave, until the powerful drug
which she had taken fully accomplished its work, and she sank upon the
floor in a state of death-like insensibility.

'Thou art rightly served,' thought Frank, as he contemplated her
prostrate form--'now to penetrate into some of the mysteries of this
infernal den!' Taking the candle from the table, he began his
exploration in that fearful house.

In the apartment which adjoined the chamber he discovered little 'Jack
the Prig,' fast asleep in bed. In the restlessness of slumber, the boy
had partially thrown off the bed-clothes, and he exhibited upon his
naked breast the picture of a gallows, and a man hanging! This appalling
scene had been drawn with India ink, and pricked into the flesh with
needles, so that it never could be effaced. It was the work of the boy's
hideous father, who, not contented with training up his son to a life of
crime, was anxious that he should also carry upon his person, through
life, that fearful representation of a criminal's doom.

'Would it not be a deed of mercy,' thought our hero--'to take the poor
boy from his unnatural parents, and train him up to a life of honesty
and virtue? If I ever get the father in my power, I will look after the
welfare of this unfortunate lad.'

Frank left the room, and descending the stairs, began to explore the
lower apartments of the house. In one, he found a large collection of
tools, comprising every implement used by the villains in their
depredations. There were dark lanterns, crowbars, augers, London
_jimmies_, and skeleton keys, for burglary; also, spades, pickaxes, and
shovels, which were probably used in robbing graves, a crime which at
that period was very common in New York. A large quantity of clothing of
all kinds