401

LTFE ON THE MTSSIftSTPPT.

Quick—out with it—what did I say 1'

6 You talk so much I can't sleep/

I came to a sitting posture in an instant, with my kidneys in m
throat and my hair on end.
'What did I say?
' Nothing much.'
' It's a lie—you know everything.'

c Everything a-
bout what ?'

'You know well
enough. About that:
' About what ?—
I don't know what
you are talking about.
I tbink you are sick
or crazy or something,
But anyway, you're
awake, and I'll get to
sleep while I've got
a chance.'

He fell asleep and
I lay there in a cold
sweat, turning this
new terror over in

the whirling chaos which did duty as my mind. The burden of my
thought was, How much did I divulge *? How much does he know!
—what a distress is this uncertainty ! But by and by I evolved an
idea—I would wake my brother and probe him with a supposititious
case. I shook him up, and said—

* Suppose a man should come to you drunk—'

* This is foolish—I never get drunk/

*I don't mean you, idiot—I mean the man. Suppose a man
should come to you drunk, and borrow a knife, or a tomahawk, or a
pistol, and you forgot to tell him it was loaded, and------*

* How could you load a tomahawk ?'

11 don't mean the tomahawk, and I didn't say the tomahawk; I
said the pistol. Now don't you keep breaking in that way, because
this is serious. There's been a man killed.*

* What i in this town ?'

I TAMPER WITH MY CONSCIENCE.