A OF IT. 311
' Shout, Franz Adler ; make the sleepers in the distant streets hear
you and bring- help. Shout—and lose no time, for there Is little to
lose. "What, you cannot ? That is a pity; but it is no matter—it
does not always bring help. When you and your cousin murdered a
helpless woman and child in a cabin in. Arkansas—my wife, it was
and my child!—they shrieked for help, you remember; but it did no
good; you remember that it did no good, it is not so ? Your teeth
chatter—then why cannot you shout? Loosen the bandages with
your hands—then you can. Ah, I see—your hands are tied, they
cannot aid you. How strangely things repeat themselves, after long
years; for my hands were tied, that night, you remember ? Yes3 tied
much as yours are now-—how odd that is. 1 could not pull free. It
did not occur to you to untie me; it does not occur to me to untie
you. Sh------! there's a late footstep. It is coming this way. Hark,
how near it is! One can count the footfalls—one—two—three,
There—it is just outside. Kow is the time! Shout, man* shout !—
it is the one sole chance between you and eternity! Ah, yon see you
have delayed too long—it is gone by. There—it is dying out. It is
gone! Think of it—reflect upon it—yon have heard a human foot-
step for the last time. How curious it must be, to listen to so common
a sound as that, and know that one will never hear the fellow to it
again/
Oh, my friend, the agony in that shrouded face was ecstasy to see 1
I thought of a new torture, and applied it—assisting myself with a
trifle of lying invention—
' That poor Kruger tried to save my wife and child, and I did him
a grateful good turn for it when the time came. I persuaded him to
rob you; and I and a woman helped him to desert, and got him away
in safety/
A look as of surprise and triumph shone out dimly through the
anguish in my victim's face. I was disturbed, disquieted. I said—
4 What, then—didn't he escape ? *
A negative shake of the head.
1 ISTo ? What happened, then ? *
The satisfaction in the shrouded face was still plainer. The man
tried to mumble out some words—could not succeed; tried to express
something with his obstructed hands—failed; paused a moment, then