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IT was nearly midnight.

Sir Murdaugh Westbrooke was sitting
in his library at Westbrooke Hall.

He seemed to have grown ten years
older since the morning, and was livid.

At every instant he looked over his shoulder,
and listened.

“Folly!” he suddenly exclaimed, rising and
uttering a short, harsh laugh; “am I a baby to
start at shadows! All is safe now! discovery
is impossible. My plans succeed—nothing
fails! That woman is safe on board the Fly-by
Night now, and the marriage record is burned!
That man is—”

He stopped. In spite of himself a tremor
agitated him.

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“He too has disappeared! Thus nothing prevents
my marrying Ellinor Maverick on the
day after to-morrow; and he will not be present
any more than that woman to convict me!
Yes—all is safe. I marry and I inherit the
Wentworth property. The obstacles have disappeared—
even Gubbs and Wilde, my tools.
Gubbs will go to St. Domingo, and never more
be heard of; Wilde is yonder in the wood
where I dragged him and the dead gypsy.
When they are found, there will be no questions.
My gamekeeper has fought with a poacher,
and in the affray they have both been killed!”

He sat down, pale and breathing heavily, despite
his reassuring reflections.

“And yet I tremble!” he muttered; “I start
at every sound!”

The hoofs of a horse were heard without.
A mounted man was evidently approaching
rapidly.

The baronet started up.

“Who can that be!”

As he spoke, a knock was heard at the front
door, and then silence followed.

The baronet seemed paralyzed. What to do?
Should he secrete himself? Who was this midnight
visitor?

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“I am a coward!—shadows fright me! I
will face all!”

And he went and opened the front door of
the house. It was necessary that he should do
so. Beside Wilde there had been for weeks
only an old deaf crone of a servant at the
hall.

A serving man was seen at the door.

“Well?” said the baronet in a low tone.

The man's hand went to his hat.

“Has Captain Earle been here, your honor?
I was sent by his lordship to ask, and say that
Captain Earle, who is staying at the castle, went
out for a short ride this evening, and an hour
or two afterwards his horse came back without
any rider. His lordship thought he might have
had an accident, and something might be known
of him here.”

The baronet responded in a low tone.

“Why here?”

“His lordship did not say, your honor.”

“Say to his lordship that I have seen nothing
of Captain Earle.”

The servant touched his hat and retired.

The baronet closed the door, and staggered
rather than walked back to the library.

“Peril surrounds me on every side! The

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ghost of that boy rises to point to the spot where
he is entombed alive! Was I mad to do that?
Am I then the monster of monsters?”

He fell into a seat.

“Doubtless, since I do this monstrous thing!
Well, let me act out my character! I will go
through now to the end! Once married, I will
go abroad and only return when the viscount is
dead! Dead? If he were only dead now, all
were well!”

A cry of pain followed the words.

He had violently clenched his hands. The
movement of that upon which the dissecting
knife had inflicted the wound, caused him acute
agony.

“I had forgotten that!” he muttered, gazing
at the slight puncture, from which he had long
removed the bandage; “who would have believed
that a scratch would cause so much pain?”

He pondered for more than an hour. Then
he suddenly rose.

“The die is cast! Why draw back now!”
he muttered. “All is decided. In two days I
shall be married and on my way to France!”

A smile of ghastly triumph distorted his lips
as he spoke, and, taking a light from the table,
he went to his chamber.

p517-331

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