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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bronze Hand, by
+Anna Katharine Green (Mrs. Charles Rohlfs)
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Bronze Hand
+       1897
+
+Author: Anna Katharine Green (Mrs. Charles Rohlfs)
+
+Release Date: September 29, 2007 [EBook #22806]
+Last Updated: October 2, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BRONZE HAND ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+THE BRONZE HAND
+
+By Anna Katharine Green (Mrs. Charles Rohlfs)
+
+Copyright, 1897, by Anna Katharine Green
+
+
+
+
+I. THE FASCINATING UNKNOWN.
+
+HER room was on the ground floor of the house we mutually inhabited,
+and mine directly above it, so that my opportunities for seeing her were
+limited to short glimpses of her auburn head as she leaned out of the
+window to close her shutters at night or open them in the morning. Yet
+our chance encounter in the hall or on the walk in front, had made so
+deep an impression upon my sensibilities that I was never without the
+vision of her pale face set off by the aureole of reddish brown hair,
+which, since my first meeting with her, had become for me the symbol of
+everything beautiful, incomprehensible and strange.
+
+For my fellow-lodger was a mystery.
+
+I am a busy man now, but just at the time of which I speak, I had
+leisure in abundance.
+
+I was sharing with many others the unrest of the perilous days
+subsequent to the raid of John Brown at Harper’s Ferry. Abraham Lincoln
+had been elected President. Baltimore, where the incidents I am relating
+transpired, had become the headquarters of men who secretly leagued
+themselves in antagonism to the North. Men and women who felt that their
+Northern brethren had grievously wronged them planned to undermine the
+stability of the government. The schemes at this time were gigantic
+in their conception and far-reaching in their scope and endless
+ramifications.
+
+Naturally under these conditions, a consciousness of ever-present danger
+haunted every thinking mind. The candor of the outspoken was regarded
+with doubt, and the reticence of the more cautious, with distrust. It
+was a trying time for sensitive, impressionable natures with nothing to
+do. Perhaps all this may account for the persistency with which I sat
+in my open window. I was thus sitting one night--a memorable one to
+me--when I heard a sharp exclamation from below, in a voice I had long
+listened for.
+
+Any utterance from those lips would have attracted my attention; but,
+filled as this was with marked, if not extraordinary, emotion, I
+could not fail to be roused to a corresponding degree of curiosity and
+interest.
+
+Thrusting out my head, I cast a rapid glance downward. A shutter
+swinging in the wind, and the escaping figure of a man hurrying round
+the corner of the street, were all that rewarded my scrutiny; though,
+from the stream of light issuing from the casement beneath, I perceived
+that her window, like my own, was wide open.
+
+As I continued to watch this light, I saw her thrust out her head with
+an eagerness indicative of great excitement. Peering to right and left,
+she murmured some suppressed words mixed with gasps of such strong
+feeling that I involuntarily called out:
+
+“Excuse me, madam, have you been frightened in any way by the man I saw
+running away from here a moment ago?”
+
+She gave a great start and glanced up. I see her face yet--beautiful,
+wonderful; so beautiful and so wonderful I have never been able to
+forget it. Meeting my eye, she faltered out:
+
+“Did you see a man running away from here? Oh, sir, if I might have a
+word with you!”
+
+I came near leaping directly to the pavement in my ardor and anxiety to
+oblige her, but, remembering before it was too late that she was neither
+a Juliet nor I a Romeo, I merely answered that I would be with her in a
+moment and betook myself below by the less direct but safer means of the
+staircase.
+
+It was a short one and I was but a moment in descending, but that moment
+was long enough for my heart to acquire a most uncomfortable throb,
+and it was with anything but an air of quiet self-possession that I
+approached the threshold I had never before dared to cross even in
+fancy.
+
+The door was open and I caught one glimpse of her figure before she was
+aware of my presence. She was contemplating her right hand with a look
+of terror, which, added to her striking personality, made her seem at
+the instant a creature of alarming characteristics fully as capable of
+awakening awe as devotion.
+
+I may have given some token of the agitation her appearance awakened,
+for she turned towards me with sudden vehemence.
+
+“Oh!” she cried, with a welcoming gesture; “you are the gentleman from
+up-stairs who saw a man running away from here a moment ago. Would you
+know that man if you saw him again?”
+
+“I am afraid not,” I replied. “He was only a flying figure in my eyes.”
+
+“Oh!” she moaned, bringing her hands together in dismay. But,
+immediately straightening herself, she met my regard with one as
+direct as my own. “I need a friend,” she said, “and I am surrounded by
+strangers.”
+
+I made a move towards her; I did not feel myself a stranger. But how was
+I to make her realize the fact?
+
+“If there is anything I can do,” I suggested.
+
+Her steady regard became searching.
+
+“I have noticed you before to-night,” she declared, with a directness
+devoid of every vestige of coquetry. “You seem to have qualities that
+may be trusted. But the man capable of helping me needs the strongest
+motives that influence humanity: courage, devotion, discretion, and a
+total forgetfulness of self. Such qualifications cannot be looked for in
+a stranger.”
+
+As if with these words she dismissed me from her thoughts, she turned
+her back upon me. Then, as if recollecting the courtesy due even to
+strangers, she cast me an apologetic glance over her shoulder and
+hurriedly added:
+
+“I am bewildered by my loss. Leave me to the torment of my thoughts. You
+can do nothing for me.”
+
+Had there been the least evidence of falsity in her tone or the
+slightest striving after effect in her look or bearing, I would have
+taken her at her word and left her then and there. But the candor of
+the woman and the reality of her emotion were not to be questioned, and
+moved by an impulse as irresistible as it was foolhardy, I cried with
+the impetuosity of my twenty-one years:
+
+“I am ready to risk my life for you. Why, I do not know and do not care
+to ask. I only know you could have found no other man so willing to do
+your bidding.”
+
+A smile, in which surprise was tempered by a feeling almost tender,
+crossed her lips and immediately vanished. She shook her head as if in
+deprecation of the passion my words evinced, and was about to dismiss
+me, when she suddenly changed her mind and seized upon the aid I had
+offered, with a fervor that roused my sense of chivalry and
+deepened what might have been but a passing fancy into an active and
+all-engrossing passion.
+
+“I can read faces,” said she, “and I have read yours. You will do for me
+what I cannot do for myself, but----Have you a mother living?”
+
+I answered no; that I was very nearly without relatives or ties.
+
+“I am glad,” she said, half to herself. Then with a last searching look,
+“Have you not even a sweetheart?”
+
+I must have reddened painfully, for she drew back with a hesitating
+and troubled air; but the vigorous protest I hastened to make seemed to
+reassure her, for the next word she uttered was one of confidence.
+
+“I have lost a ring.” She spoke in a low but hurried tone. “It was
+snatched from my finger as I reached out my hand to close my shutters.
+Some one must have been lying in wait; some one who knows my habits
+and the hour at which I close my window for the night. The loss I have
+sustained is greater than you can conceive. It means more, much more,
+than appears. To the man who will bring me back that ring direct from
+the hand that stole it, I would devote the gratitude of a lifetime.
+Are you willing to make the endeavor? It is a task I cannot give to the
+police.”
+
+This request, so different from any I had expected, checked my
+enthusiasm in proportion as it awoke a senseless jealousy.
+
+“Yet it seems directly in their line,” I suggested, seeing nothing
+but humiliation before me if I attempted the recovery of a simple
+love-token.
+
+“I know that it must seem so to you,” she admitted, reading my thoughts
+and answering them with skilful indirectness. “But what policeman would
+undertake a difficult and minute search for an article whose intrinsic
+value would not reach five dollars?”
+
+“Then it is only a memento,” I stammered, with very evident feeling.
+
+“Only a memento,” she repeated; “but not of love. Worthless as it is in
+itself, it would buy everything I possess, and almost my soul to-night.
+I can explain no further. Will you attempt its recovery?”
+
+Restored to myself by her frank admission that it was no lover’s
+keepsake I was urged to recapture and return, I allowed the powerful
+individuality of this woman to have its full effect upon me. Taking in
+with one glance her beauty, the impassioned fervor of her nature, and
+the subtle charm of a spirit she now allowed to work its full spell upon
+me, I threw every practical consideration to the winds, and impetuously
+replied:
+
+“I will endeavor to regain this ring for you. Tell me where to go, and
+whom to attack, and if human wit and strength can compass it, you shall
+have the jewel back before morning.
+
+“Oh!” she protested, “I see that you anticipate a task of small
+difficulty. You cannot recover this particular ring so easily as that.
+In the first place, I do not in the least know who took it; I only know
+its destination. Alas! if it is allowed to reach that destination, I am
+bereft of hope.”
+
+“No love token,” I murmured, “and yet your whole peace depends on its
+recovery.”
+
+“More than my peace,” she answered; and with a quick movement she closed
+the door which I had left open behind me. As its sharp bang rang
+through the room, I realized into what a pitfall I had stumbled. Only a
+political intrigue of the most desperate character could account for the
+words I had heard and the actions to which I had been a witness. But I
+was in no mood to recoil even from such dangers as these, and so my look
+showed her as she leaned toward me with the words:
+
+“Listen! I am burdened with a secret. I am in this house, in this city,
+for a purpose. The secret is not my own and I cannot part with it;
+neither is my purpose communicable. You therefore will be obliged to
+deal with the greatest dangers blindfold. One encouragement only I can
+give you. You will work for good ends. You are pitted against wrong, not
+right, and if you succumb, it will be in a cause you yourself would call
+noble. Do I make myself understood, Mr.--Mr. ------”
+
+“Abbott,” I put in, with a bow.
+
+She took the bow for an affirmative, as indeed I meant she should. “You
+do not recoil,” she murmured, “not even when I say that you must take
+no third party into your confidence, no matter to what extremity you are
+brought.”
+
+“I would not be the man I think I am, if I recoiled,” I said, smiling.
+
+She waved her hand with almost a stern air.
+
+“Swear!” she commanded; “swear that, from the moment you leave this
+door till you return to it, you will breathe no word concerning me, your
+errand, or even the oath I am now exacting from you.”
+
+“Ah!” thought I to myself, “this is serious.” But I took the oath under
+the spell of the most forceful personality I had ever met, and did not
+regret it--_then_.
+
+“Now let us waste no more time,” said she.
+
+“In the large building on ------ Street there is an office with the name
+of Dr. Merriam on the door. See! I have written it on this card, so that
+there may be no mistake about it. That office is open to patients from
+ten in the morning until twelve at noon. During these hours any one can
+enter there; but to awaken no distrust, he should have some ailment.
+Have you not some slight disorder concerning which you might consult a
+physician?”
+
+“I doubt it,” said I; “but I might manufacture one.”
+
+“That would not do with Dr. Merriam. He is a skilful man; he would see
+through any imposture.”
+
+“I have a sick friend,” I ruminated. “And by the way, his case is
+obscure and curious. I could interest any doctor in it in five minutes.”
+
+“That is good; consult him in regard to your friend; meantime--while you
+are waiting for the interview, I mean--take notice of a large box you
+will find placed on a side-table. Do not seem to fix your attention on
+it, but never let it be really out of your sight from the moment the
+door is unlocked at ten till you are forced by the doctor’s importunity
+to leave the room at twelve. If you are alone there for one minute
+(and you will be allowed to remain there alone if you show no haste to
+consult the doctor) unlock that box--here is the key--and look carefully
+inside. No one will interfere and no one will criticize you; there is
+more than one person who has access to that box.”
+
+“But--” I put in.
+
+“You will discover there,” she whispered, “a hand of bronze lying on
+an enamelled cushion. On the fingers of this hand there should be, and
+doubtless are, rings of forged steel of peculiar workmanship. _If there
+is one on the middle finger_, my cause is lost, and I can only await the
+end.” Her cheek paled. “_But if there is not_, you may be sure that an
+attempt will be made by some one to-morrow--I do not know whom--to put
+one there before the office closes at noon. The ring will be mine--the
+one stolen from my hand just now--and it will be your business to
+prevent the box being opened for this purpose, by any means short of
+public interference involving arrest and investigation; for this, too,
+would be fatal. The delay of a day may be of incalculable service to me.
+It would give me time to think, if not to act. Does the undertaking seem
+a hopeless one? Am I asking too much of your inexperience?”
+
+“It does not seem a hopeful one,” I admitted; “but I am willing to
+undertake the adventure. What are its dangers? And why, if I see the
+ring on the finger you speak of, cannot I take it off and bring it back
+to you?”
+
+“Because,” said she, answering the last question first, “the ring
+becomes a part of the mechanism the moment it is thrust over the last
+joint. You could not draw it off. As for the dangers I allude to, they
+are of a hidden character, and part of the secret I mentioned. If,
+however, you exercise your wit, your courage, and a proper amount of
+strategy, you may escape. Interference must be _proved_ against you.
+That rule, at least, has been held inviolate.”
+
+Aghast at the mysterious perils she thus indicated in the path toward
+which she was urging me, I for one instant felt an impulse to retreat.
+But adventure of any kind has its allurements for an unoccupied youth
+of twenty-one, and when seasoned, as this was, by a romantic, if
+unreasonable, passion, proved altogether too irresistible for me to give
+it up. Laughing outright in my endeavor to throw off the surplus of my
+excitement, I drew myself up and uttered some fiery phrase of courage,
+which I doubt if she even heard. Then I said some word about the doctor,
+which she at once caught up.
+
+“The doctor,” said she, “may know, and may not know, the mysteries of
+that box. I would advise you to treat him solely as a doctor. He who
+uses the key you now hold in your hand cannot be too wary; by which I
+mean too careful or too silent. Oh, that I dared to go there myself! But
+my agitation would betray me. Besides, my person is known, or this ring
+would never have been taken from me.
+
+“I will be your deputy,” I assured her. “Have you any further
+instructions?”
+
+“No,” said she; “instructions are useless in an affair of this kind.
+Your actions must be determined by the exigencies of the moment.
+Meantime, my every thought will be yours. Good-night, sir; pray God, it
+may not be good-by.”
+
+“One moment,” I said, as I arose to go. “Have you any objection to
+telling me your name?”
+
+“I am Miss Calhoun,” she said, with a graceful bow.
+
+This was the beginning of my formidable adventure with the bronze hand.
+
+
+
+
+II. THE QUAKER-LIKE GIRL, THE PALE GIRL, AND THE MAN WITH A BRISTLING MUSTACHE.
+
+THE building mentioned by my new-found friend was well known to me. It
+was one of the kind in which every other office is unoccupied the year
+round. Such tenants as gave it the little air of usefulness it possessed
+were of the bad-pay kind. They gave little concern to their own affairs
+and less to those of their neighbors. The public avoided the building,
+and the tenants did nothing to encourage a change. In a populous city,
+on the corner made by frequented streets, it stood as much alone and
+neglected as if it were a ruin. Old or young eyes may have looked
+through its begrimed windows into the busy thoroughfare beneath, but
+none in the street ever honored the old place with a glance or thought.
+No one even wasted contempt upon its smoky walls, and few disturbed the
+accumulated dust upon the stairs or in the dimly-lighted hallways.
+
+Had a place been sought for wherein the utmost secrecy might be
+observed, surely this was that place. As I neared the door upon which I
+read the doctor’s name, I found myself treading on tip-toe, so impressed
+had I become by a sense of caution, if not of dread.
+
+I had made every effort to be on hand at precisely ten o’clock, and felt
+so sure that I had been the first to arrive that I reached out to the
+door-knob with every expectation of entering, unseen by any one, and
+possibly unheard. To my dismay, the first twist I gave it resulted in a
+rusty shriek that set my teeth on edge, and echoed down the gloomy hall.
+With my flesh creeping, I opened the door and passed into the doctor’s
+outer room.
+
+It was far from being empty. Seated in chairs ranged along two sides of
+the room, I saw a dozen or more persons, male and female. All wore the
+preoccupied air that patients are apt to assume while awaiting their
+turn to be called by the doctor. One amongst the number made an effort
+at indifference by drawing out and pushing back a nail in the flooring
+with the sole of her pretty shoe. It may have been intended for
+coquetry, and at another time might have bewitched me; now it seemed
+strangely out of place. The man who was to all appearance counting the
+flies in the web of an industrious spider was more in keeping with the
+place, my feelings, and the atmosphere of despondency that the room gave
+out.
+
+As I had no doubt that the ring I was seeking was in the possession of
+some one of these persons, I gave each as minute an examination as was
+possible under the circumstances. Only two amongst them appeared open to
+suspicion. Of these, one was a young man whose naturally fine features
+would have prepossessed him in my favor had it not been for the peculiar
+alertness of his bright blue eye, which flashed incessantly in every
+direction till each and all of us seemed to partake of his restlessness
+and anxiety. Why was he not depressed? The other was the girl, or,
+rather, the young lady to whose pretty foot I have referred. If she was
+at all conspicuous, it was owing to the contrast between her beautiful
+face and the Quaker-like simplicity of her dress. She was restless also;
+her foot had ceased its action, but her hand moved constantly. Now
+it clutched its fellow in her lap, and now it ran in an oft-repeated
+action, seemingly beyond her control, up and down and round and round a
+plain but expensive leather bag she wore at her side. “She carries the
+ring,” thought I, sitting down in the chair next her.
+
+Meantime, I had not been oblivious of _the box_. It stood upon a plain
+oak table directly opposite the door by which I had come in. It
+was about a foot square, and was the only object in the room at all
+ornamental. Indeed, there was but little else for the eye to rest on,
+consequently most of us looked that way, though I noticed that but few
+seemed to take any real interest in that or anything else within sight.
+This was encouraging, and I was on the point of transferring my entire
+attention to the two persons I have named, when one of them, the
+nearest, rose hurriedly and went out.
+
+This was an unexpected move on her part, and I did not know what to make
+of it. Had I annoyed her by my scrutiny, or had she divined my errand?
+In my doubt, I consulted the face of the man I secretly thought to be
+her accomplice. It was non-committal, and, in my doubt as to the meaning
+of all this, I allowed myself to become interested in a pale young woman
+who had been sitting on the other side of the lady who had just left.
+She was evidently a patient who stood in great need of assistance. Her
+head hung feebly forward, and her whole figure looked ready to drop. Yet
+when a minute later the door of the inner office opened, and the doctor
+appeared on the sill in an expectant attitude, she made no attempt to
+rise, but pushed forward another woman who seemed less indisposed than
+herself. I had to compel myself to think of all I saw as being real and
+within my experience.
+
+Surprised by this action on the part of one so ill, I watched the pale
+girl for an instant, and almost forgot my mission in the compassion
+aroused by her sickly appearance. But soon that mission and my motive
+for being in this place were somewhat vividly recalled to me by an
+unexpected action on this very young woman’s part. With the sudden
+movement of an acutely suffering person, she bounded from her seat and
+crossed the floor to where the box stood, gasping for breath, and almost
+falling against the table when she reached it.
+
+A grunt from the good-looking young man followed; but neither he nor
+the middle-aged female with a pitiful skin disease, who had been sitting
+near her, offered to go to her assistance, though the latter looked as
+if she would like to. I was the only one to rise. The truth is, I
+could see no one touch _the box_ without having something more than my
+curiosity awakened. Approaching her respectfully, and with as complete a
+dissimulation of my real feelings as possible, I ventured to say:
+
+“You are very ill, miss. Shall I summon the doctor?”
+
+She was clutching the side of the table for support, and her head,
+drooping helplessly over the box, was swaying from side to side as she
+rocked to and fro in her pain.
+
+“Thank you!” she gasped, without turning, “I will wait. I would rather
+wait.”
+
+At that moment the doctor’s door opened again.
+
+“There he is now,” said I.
+
+“I will wait,” she insisted. “Let the others take their turn.”
+
+Satisfied now that something besides pain caused her interest in the
+box, I drew back, asking myself whether she had been in possession of
+the ring from the beginning, or whether it had been passed to her by her
+restless neighbor. Meanwhile, another patient had disappeared into the
+adjoining room.
+
+A few minutes passed. The man with the restless eye began to fidget.
+Could it be that she was simply guarding the box, and that he was the
+one who wished to open it? As the doubt struck me, I surveyed her
+more attentively. She was certainly doing something besides supporting
+herself with that sly right hand of hers. Yes, that was a click I heard.
+She was fitting a key into the lock. Startled, but determined not
+to betray myself, I assumed an air of great patience, and, taking a
+memorandum book from my pocket, began to write in it. Meantime, the
+doctor had disposed of his second patient and had beckoned to a third.
+To my astonishment, my friend with the nervous manner responded, thus
+acquitting himself in my eyes from any interest in the box.
+
+The interview he had with the doctor lasted some time; meantime, the
+young woman in the window remained more or less motionless. When the
+fourth person left the room, she turned and cast a quick glance at
+myself and the other person present.
+
+I knew what it meant. She was anxious to be left alone in order to lift
+that mysterious lid. She was no more ill than I was.
+
+There was even a dash of color in her cheeks, and the trembling she
+indulged in was caused by great excitement and suspense, and not by
+pain.
+
+Compassion at once gave way to anger, and I inwardly resolved not to
+spare her if we came into conflict over the box.
+
+My companion was an old and non-observant man, who had come in after the
+rest of us. When the doctor again appeared, I motioned to this old man
+to follow him, which he very gladly did, leaving me alone with the pale
+girl. At once I got up, showing my fatigue and slightly yawning.
+
+“This is very tedious,” I muttered aloud, and stepped idly towards the
+door leading into the hall.
+
+The girl at the box could not restrain her impatience. She cast me
+another short glance. I affected not to see it; took out my watch,
+consulted it, put it back quickly and slipped out into the hall. As I
+closed the door behind me, I heard a slight creak. Instantly I was back
+again, and with so sudden a movement that I surprised her, with her face
+bent over the open box.
+
+“Oh, my poor young lady,” I exclaimed, springing towards her with every
+appearance of great concern. “You do not look able to stand. Lean on me
+if you feel faint, and I will help you to a seat.”
+
+She turned upon me in a fury, but, meeting my eye, assumed an air of
+composure, which did not impose upon me in the least, or prevent me from
+pressing close to her side and taking one look into the box, which she
+had evidently not had sufficient self-possession to close.
+
+The sight which met my eye was not unexpected, yet was no less
+interesting on that account. A hand--_the_ hand--curiously made of
+bronze, and of exquisite proportions, lay on its enamelled cushion, with
+rings on all of its fingers save one. That one I was delighted to see
+was the middle one, proof positive that the mischief contemplated by
+Miss Calhoun had not yet been accomplished.
+
+Restored to complete self-possession by this discovery, I examined the
+box and its contents with an air of polite curiosity. I surprised myself
+by my self-possession and _bonhomie_.
+
+“What an odd thing to find in a physician’s office!” I exclaimed.
+“Beautiful, is it not? An unusual work of art; but there is nothing in
+it to alarm you. You shouldn’t allow yourself to be frightened at such
+a thing as that.” And with a quick action, she was wholly powerless to
+prevent, I shut down the lid, which closed with a snap.
+
+Startled and greatly discomposed, she drew back, hastily thrusting her
+hand behind her.
+
+“You are very officious,” she began, but, seeing nothing but good nature
+in the smile with which I regarded her, she faltered irresolutely, and
+finally took refuge again in her former trick of invalidism. Breaking
+out into low moanings, she fell back upon the nearest chair, from which
+she immediately started again with the quick cry, “Oh, how I suffer! I
+am not well enough to be out alone.” And turning with a celerity that
+belied her words, she fled into the hall, shutting the door violently
+behind her.
+
+Astonished at the completeness of my victory, I spent the first moments
+of triumph in trying to lift the lid of the box. But it was securely
+locked. I was just debating whether I could now venture to return to my
+seat, when the hall door reopened and a gentleman entered.
+
+He was short, sturdy and had a bristling black mustache. I needed to
+look at him but once to be certain he was interested both in the box and
+me, and, while I gave no evidence of my discovery, I prepared myself
+for an adventure of a much more serious nature than that which had just
+occupied me.
+
+Modeling my behavior upon that of the young girl whose place I had
+usurped, I placed my elbow on the box and looked out of the window. As
+I did so I heard a shuffling in the adjoining room, and knew that in
+another moment the doctor would again appear at the door to announce
+that he was ready for another patient. How could I evade the summons?
+The man behind me was a determined one. He was there for the purpose
+of opening the box, and would not be likely to leave the room while I
+remained in it. How, then, could I comply with the requirements of the
+situation and yet prevent this new-comer from lifting the lid in my
+absence? I knew of but one way--a way which had suggested itself to
+me during the long watches of the previous night, and which I had come
+prepared to carry out.
+
+Taking advantage of my proximity to the box, I inserted in the keyhole a
+small morsel of wax which for some minutes past I had been warming in
+my hand. This done, I laid my hat down on the lid, noting with great
+exactness as I did so just where its rim lay in reference to the various
+squares and scrolls with which the top was ornamented. By this means I
+felt that I might know if the hat were moved in my absence. The doctor
+having showed himself by this time, I followed him into his office with
+a calmness born of the most complete confidence in the strategy I had
+employed.
+
+Dr. Merriam, whom I have purposely refrained from describing until now,
+was a tall, well-made man, with a bald head and a pleasant eye, but
+careless in his attire and bearing. As I met that eye and responded to
+his good-natured greeting, I inwardly decided that his interest in the
+box was much less than his guardianship of it would seem to betoken.
+And when I addressed him and entered upon the subject of my friend’s
+complaint, I soon saw by the depth of his professional interest that
+whatever connection he might have with the box, neither that nor any
+other topic whatever could for a moment vie with his delight in a new
+and strange case like that of my poor friend. I consequently entered
+into the medical details demanded of me with a free mind and succeeded
+in getting some very valuable advice, for which I was of course truly
+grateful.
+
+As soon as this was accomplished I took my leave, but not by the usual
+door of egress. Saying that I had left my hat in the ante-room, I bowed
+my acknowledgments to the doctor and returned the way I came. But not
+without meeting with a surprise. There was still but one person in the
+room with the box, but that person was not the man with the bristling
+mustache and determined eye whom I had expected to find there. It was
+the pretty, Quaker-like girl who had formerly aroused my suspicions; and
+though she sat far from the box, a moment’s glance at her flushed face
+and trembling hands assured me she had but that moment left it.
+
+Going at once to the box, I saw that my hat had been moved. But more
+significant still was the hairpin lying on the floor at my feet, with
+a morsel of wax sticking to one of its points. This was conclusive. The
+man had discovered why his key would not work, and had called to his aid
+the young lady, who had evidently been waiting in the hall outside.
+
+She had tried to pick out the wax--a task in which I had happily
+interrupted her.
+
+Proud of the success of my device, and satisfied that the danger was
+over for that day (it being well on to twelve o’clock), I said a few
+words more to the doctor, who had followed me into the room, and then
+prepared to take my departure. But the young lady was more agile than I.
+Saying something about a very pressing engagement which would not allow
+her to consult the doctor that day, she hurried ahead of me and ran
+quickly down the long hall. The doctor looked astonished, but dismissed
+the matter with a shrug; while, with the greatest desire to follow her,
+I stood hesitating on the threshold, when my eye fell on a small object
+lying under the chair on which she had been sitting. It was the little
+leathern bag I had seen hanging at her side.
+
+Catching it up, I explained that I would run after the young lady and
+restore it; and glad of an excuse which would enable me to follow her
+through the streets without risking the suspicion of impropriety, I
+hastened down the stairs and happily succeeded in reaching the pavement
+before her skirts whisked round the corner. I was therefore but a few
+paces behind her, which distance I took good care to preserve.
+
+
+
+
+III. MADAME.
+
+My motive in following this young girl was not so much to restore
+her property, as to see where her engagement was taking her. I felt
+confident that none of the three persons who had shown interest in the
+box was the prime mover in an affair so important; and it was necessary
+above all things to find out who the prime mover was. So I followed the
+girl.
+
+She led me into a doubtful quarter of the town. As the crowd between us
+diminished and we reached a point where we were the only pedestrians on
+the block we were then traversing, I grew anxious lest she should turn
+and see me before arriving at her destination. But she evidently was
+without suspicion, for she passed without any hesitation up a certain
+stoop in the middle of this long block and entered an open door on which
+a brass plate was to be seen, inscribed with this one word in large
+black letters:
+
+“MADAME.”
+
+This was odd; and as I had no inclination to encounter any “madame”
+ without some hint as to her character and business, I looked about me
+for some one able and willing to give me the necessary information.
+An upholsterer’s shop in an opposite basement seemed to offer me the
+opportunity I wanted. Crossing the street, I saluted the honest-looking
+man I met in the doorway, and pointing out madame’s house, asked what
+was done over there.
+
+He answered with a smile.
+
+“Go and see,” he said; “the door’s open. Oh, they don’t charge
+anything,” he made haste to protest, misunderstanding, no doubt, my air
+of hesitation. “I was in there once myself. They all sit round and she
+talks; that is, if she feels like it. It is all nonsense, you know, sir;
+no good in it.”
+
+“But is there any harm?” I asked. “Is the place reputable and safe?”
+
+“Oh, safe enough; I never heard of anything going wrong there. Why,
+ladies go there; real ladies; veiled, of course. I have seen two
+carriages at a time standing in front of that door. Fools, to be sure,
+sir; but honest enough, I suppose.”
+
+I needed no further encouragement. Recrossing the street, I entered
+the house which stood so invitingly open, and found myself almost
+immediately in a large hall, from which I was ushered by a silent
+negress into a long room with so dim and mysterious an interior that
+I felt like a man suddenly transported from the bustle of the out-door
+world into the mystic recesses of some Eastern temple.
+
+The causes of this effect were simple, A dim light suggesting worship;
+the faint scent of slowly burning incense; women and men sitting on low
+benches about the walls. In the center, on a kind of raised dais, backed
+by a drapery of black velvet, a woman was seated, in the semblance of
+a Hindoo god, so nearly did her heavy, compactly crouched figure, wound
+about with Eastern stuffs and glistening with gold, recall the images we
+are accustomed to associate with the worship of Vishnu. Her face, too,
+so far as it was visible in the subdued light, had the unresponsiveness
+of carven wood, and if not exactly hideous of feature, had in it a
+strange and haunting quality calculated to impress a sensitive mind
+with a sense of implacable fate. Cruel, hard, passionless, and yet
+threatening to a degree, must this countenance have seemed to those who
+willingly subjected themselves to its baneful influence.
+
+I was determined not to be one of these, and yet I had not regarded her
+for two minutes before I found myself forgetting the real purpose of my
+visit, and taking a seat with the rest, in anticipation of something for
+which as yet I had no name, even in my own mind.
+
+How long I sat there motionless I do not know. A spell was on me--a
+spell from which I suddenly roused with a start. Why or through what
+means I do not know. Nobody else had moved. Fearing a relapse into
+this trance-like state, I made a persistent effort to be freed from its
+dangers. Happily the full signification of my errand there burst upon
+me. Finding myself really awake, I ventured to peer about, expecting to
+see the more willing devotees affected as I had been. I encountered a
+flash from the eyes of the young lady whose bag I held in my hand. She
+was under no spell. She had not only seen but recognized me.
+
+I held the bag towards her. She gave a furtive glance in the direction
+of Madame--a glance not free from fear--then clutched the bag. Before
+releasing my hold upon it I ventured upon a word of explanation. I got
+no further, for at this moment a voice was heard.
+
+By the effect it had upon the expectant ones, I knew it could have
+emanated only from the idol-like being who had filled the place with her
+awesome personality.
+
+At first the voice sounded like a distant call, musically sweet and low;
+the kind of note that we can imagine the Indian snake-charmers to
+use when the cobra raises its winged head in obedience to the pipe’s
+resistless charm. Every ear was strained to hear; mine with the rest. So
+much preparation, so much faith must result in something. What was it to
+be? The incoherent sounds became more and more distinct, and, finally,
+took on the articulate form of words. The quiet was deathly. Every one
+was prepared to interpret her utterances into personal significance.
+The dread and trouble of the times filling all minds, men wished to be
+forehanded with the decrees of Providence. Into this brooding silence
+the low, vibrating tones of this mysterious voice entered, and this is
+what we heard:
+
+“_Doom! doom! For him--the one--the betrayer--the passing bell is
+tolling. Hear it, ye weak ones and grow strong. Hear it, ye mighty and
+tremble. Not alone for him will it ring. For ye! for ye! if the decree
+of the linked rings goes forth---_”
+
+Here there was a perceptible quiver of the drapery back of the dais.
+Others may not have noted it; I did. When, therefore, a very white hand
+came slowly from between its folds and placed its fingers upon the right
+temple of Madame, I was not much startled. What did startle me was
+the fact let out before that admonishing hand touched her, that this
+being--I can hardly call her woman--seemingly so far removed from the
+political agitations of the day, was, in very deed, either consciously
+or unconsciously--I could not decide which--intimately connected
+with the conspiracy I was at that very moment striving to defeat.
+How intimately? Was she the prime mover I was seeking, or simply an
+instrument under the control of another, and yet stronger, personality
+imaged in the owner of that white hand?
+
+There was no means of determining at that moment. Meanwhile, the fingers
+had left the temple of Madame. The hand was slowly withdrawn. Sleep
+apparently fell again upon the dreamer, but only long enough for her to
+bring forth the words:
+
+“I have said.”
+
+The silence that followed, gave me time to think. It was necessary.
+She had bidden the mighty tremble and had pronounced death to one--the
+betrayer. Was this senseless drivel, prophetic sight, or threatened
+murder? I inclined to consider it the last, and this was why: For some
+weeks now, murder, or, at least, sudden death, had been rampant in
+the country. My flesh crept as I remembered the many mysterious deaths
+reported within the month from St. Louis, Boston, New Orleans, New York
+and even here in Baltimore. Like a flash it came across me that every
+name was identified, more or less closely, with the political affairs of
+the time. Coupling my knowledge with what I conjectured, was it strange
+I saw a confirmation of the worst fears expressed by Miss Calhoun in the
+half-completed sentences of this seeming clairvoyant?
+
+So occupied had I been with my own thoughts that I feared I might have
+done something to call an undesirable attention to myself. Glancing
+furtively to one side, I heard, in the opposite direction, these words:
+
+“She has never failed. What she has said will come to pass. Some one of
+note will die.”
+
+These gloomy words were the first to break the ominous silence.
+Turning to face the speaker, I encountered the cold eye of a man with a
+retreating chin, a receding forehead, and a mouth large and cruel enough
+to stamp him as one of those perverted natures who, to the unscrupulous,
+are usefully insane.
+
+Here, then, was a being who not only knew the meaning of the fateful
+words we had heard, but, to my mind, could be relied upon to make them a
+verity.
+
+It was a relief to me to turn my gaze from his repellant features to the
+fixed countenance of Madame. She had not stirred; but either the room
+had grown lighter or my eyes had become more accustomed to the darkness,
+for I certainly saw a change in her look. Her eyelids were now raised,
+and her eyes were bent directly upon me. This was uncomfortable,
+especially as there was malevolence in her glance, or so I thought,
+and, far from being pleased with my position, I began to wish that I
+had never allowed myself to enter the place. Under the influence of this
+feeling I let my eyes drop from the woman’s countenance to her hands,
+which were folded, as I have said, in a fixed position across her
+breast. The result was an increase of my mental disturbance. They were
+brown, shining hands, laden with rings, and, in the added light, under
+which I saw them, bore a strange resemblance to the bronze hand I had
+just left in Dr. Merriam’s office.
+
+I had never considered myself a weak man, but, from that instant, I
+began to have a crawling fear of this woman--a fear that was in nowise
+lessened by the very evident agitation visible in the girl, who had been
+for me the connecting link between that object of mystery and this.
+
+Unendurable quiet was upon us all again. It was aggravated by awe--an
+awe to which I was determined not to succumb, notwithstanding the secret
+uneasiness under which I was laboring. So I let my eyes continue to
+roam, till they fell upon the one thing moving in the room. This was a
+man’s foot, which I now saw projecting from behind the drapery through
+which I had seen the white hand glide. It was swinging up and down in an
+impatient way, so out of keeping with the emotions perceptible on this
+side of the drapery that I felt forced to ask myself what sort of person
+this could be who thus kept watch and ward with such very commonplace
+impatience over a creature who was able to hold every other person in
+her presence under a spell. The drapery did not give up its secrets, and
+again I yielded to the fascinations of Madame’s face.
+
+There was a change in it; the eyes no longer looked my way, but into
+space, which seemed to hold for them some terrible and heart-rending
+vision. The lips, which had been closed, were now parted, and from them
+issued a breath which soon formed itself into words.
+
+“‘Vengeance is mine! I will repay,’ saith the Lord.” What passionate
+utterance was this? The voice that had been musical now rang with
+jangling discord. The swinging of the foot behind the drapery ceased.
+Madame spoke on:
+
+“Through pain, sorrow, blood and death shall victory come. Life for
+life, pang for pang, scorn for scorn!”
+
+The swinging foot disappeared, and the small white hand passed quickly
+through the curtain and rested again upon the forehead of Madame. But
+without a calming effect this time. On the contrary, it seemed to urge
+and incite her, for she broke into a new strain, speaking rapidly,
+wildly, as if she lived in what she saw, or, what was doubtless truer,
+had lived in it and was but recalling her own past in one of those
+terrible hours of memory that recur on the border-land of dreams.
+
+“I see a child, a girl. She is young; she is beautiful. Men love her,
+many men, but she loves only one. He is of the North; she is of the
+South. He is icy like his clime; she is fiery like her skies. The fire
+cannot warm the ice. It is the ice puts out the fire! Woe! woe!”
+
+The left hand came from the drapery; found its way to the left temple
+of the woman. But it, too, was ineffectual. Hurriedly, madly, the words
+went on, tripping each other up in their haste and passion. The voice
+now became hoarse with rage.
+
+“The girl is now a woman. A child is given her. The man demands the
+child. She will not give it up. He curses it; he curses her, but she is
+firm and holds it to her breast till her arms are blackened by the blows
+he deals her. Then he curses her _country_, the land that gave her a
+_heart_; and, hearing this, she rises up and curses him and his with an
+oath the Lord will hear and answer from His judgment throne. _For the
+child was slain between them_ and its pitiful, small body blocks the
+passage of Mercy between his and hers forever. Woe! woe!”
+
+As suddenly as the vehement change had come upon her, she had become
+calm again. The eyes retained their stony stare, but a cold and cruel
+smile formed about her lips, as if, with the utterance of that last
+word, she saw a futurity of blood and carnage satisfying her ferocious
+soul.
+
+It was revolting, horrible; but no one else seemed to feel it as I did.
+To most it was a short glimpse into a suffering soul. To me it was the
+revelation of causes which had led, and would lead yet, to miseries for
+which she had no pity, and which I felt myself too weak to avert.
+
+That it was not intended that the devotees of Madame should have heard
+these ravings was evident; for at this juncture the owner of the two
+white hands that had failed to control the spirit of Madame came out
+from behind the drapery of the dais. He proved to be none other than
+the man with the bristling mustache whose plans I had disarranged at the
+doctor’s office by plugging the keyhole of the box with wax.
+
+This was enough. “Chicanery!” was my inmost thought as I noted his cool
+and calculating eye. “But very dangerous chicanery,” I added. Was the
+ring upon whose immediate capture I now saw that a life, if not lives,
+depended, in his possession, or in that of Madame, or in that of the
+Quaker-like girl sitting a few seats from me? How impossible to tell,
+and yet how imperative to know! As I was debating how this could be
+brought about, I watched the man.
+
+Self-control was a habit with him, but I saw the nervous clutch of his
+delicate hand. This did not indicate complete mastery of himself at
+that moment. He spoke with care, but as if he were in haste to deliver
+himself of the few necessary words of dismissal, without betraying his
+lack of composure.
+
+“Madame will awake presently; she will be heard no more to-day. Those
+who wish to kiss her robes may pass in front of her; but she is still
+too far away from earth to hear your voices or to answer any questions.
+You will therefore preserve silence.”
+
+So! so! more chicanery. Or was it strategy, pure and simple? Was there
+at the bottom of his words the wish to see me nearer or was he just
+playing with the credulity of such believers as the man next me, for
+instance? I did not stop to determine. My anxiety to see Madame, without
+the illusion of even the short distance between us, induced me to join
+the file of the faithful who were slowly approaching the seated woman.
+I would not kiss her robes, but I would look into her eyes and make sure
+that she was as far away from us all as she was said to be.
+
+But as I drew nearer to her I forgot all about her eyes in the interest
+awakened by her hands. And when it came my turn to pause before her,
+it was upon the middle finger of her right hand my eyes were fixed. For
+there I saw THE RING; the veritable ring of my fair neighbor, if the
+description given by her was correct.
+
+To see it there was to have it; or so I vowed in my surprise and
+self-confidence. Putting on an air of great dignity, I bowed to the
+woman and passed on, resolving upon the course I would pursue, which
+must necessarily be daring in order to succeed. At the door I paused
+till all who followed me had passed out; then I turned back, and once
+again faced Madame.
+
+She was alone. Her watchful guardian had left her side, and to all
+appearances the room. The opportunity surpassed my expectations, and
+with a step full of nerve I pushed forward and took my stand again
+directly in front of her. She gave no token of seeing me; but I did not
+hesitate on that account. Exerting all my will power, I first subjected
+her to a long and masterful look, and then I spoke, directly and to the
+point, like one who felt himself her superior,
+
+“Madame,” said I, “the man you wish for is here. Give me the ring, and
+trust no more to weak or false emissaries.”
+
+The start with which she came to life, or to the evidence of life,
+was surprising. Lifting her great lids, she returned my gaze with one
+equally searching and powerful, and seeing with what disdain I sustained
+it, allowed an almost imperceptible tremor to pass across her face,
+which up to now had not displayed the shadow even of an emotion.
+
+“You!” she murmured, in a dove-like tone of voice; “who are you that I
+should trust you more than the others?”
+
+“I am he you expect,” said I, venturing more as I felt her impassibility
+giving way before me. “Have you had no premonition of my coming? Did you
+not know that he who controls would be in your presence to-day?”
+
+She trembled, and her fingers almost unclasped from her arms.
+
+“I have had dreams,” she murmured, “but I have been bidden to beware of
+dreams. If you are the person you claim to be, you will have some token
+which will absolve me from the charge of credulity. What is your token?”
+
+Though doubtful, I dared not hesitate. “This,” I said, taking from my
+pocket the key which had been given me by my fair neighbor.
+
+She moved, she touched it with a finger; then she eyed me again.
+
+“Others have keys,” said she, “but they fail in the opening. How are you
+better than they?”
+
+“You know,” I declared--“you know that I can do what others have failed
+in. Give me the ring.”
+
+The force, the assurance with which I uttered this command moved her in
+spite of herself. She trembled, gave me one final, searching look, and
+slowly began to pull the ring from off her finger. It was in her hand,
+and half way to mine, when a third voice came to break the spell.
+
+“Madame, Madame,” it said; “be careful. This is the man who clogged the
+lock, and hindered my endeavors in your behalf in the doctor’s office.”
+
+Her hand which was so near mine drew back; but I was too quick and too
+determined for her. I snatched the ring before she could replace it on
+her own hand, and, holding it firmly, faced the intruder with an air of
+very well-assumed disdain.
+
+“Attempt no argument with me. It was because I saw your weakness
+and vulgar self-confidence that I interfered in a matter only to be
+undertaken by one upon whom all can rely. Now that I have the ring,
+the end is near. Madame, be wiser in the choice of your confidants,
+_To-morrow this ring will be in its proper place_.”
+
+Bowing as I had done before, I advanced to the door. They had made no
+effort to regain the ring, and I felt that my rashness had stood me in
+good stead. But as, with a secret elation I was just capable of keeping
+within bounds, I put my foot across the threshold, I heard behind me a
+laugh so triumphant and mocking that I felt struck with consternation;
+and, glancing down into my hand, I saw that I held, not the peculiar
+steel circlet destined for the piece of mechanism in the doctor’s
+office, but an ordinary ring of gold.
+
+She had offered me the wrong ring, _and I had taken it_, thus proving
+the falsity of my pretensions.
+
+There was nothing left for me but to acknowledge defeat by an
+ignominious departure.
+
+
+
+
+IV. CHECKMATE.
+
+I HASTENED at once home, and knocked at Miss Calhoun’s door. While
+waiting for a response, the mockery of my return without the token I had
+undertaken to restore to her, impressed itself upon me in full force. It
+seemed to me that in that instant my face must have taken on a haggard
+look. I could not summon up the necessary will to make it otherwise.
+Any effort in that direction would have made my failure at cheerfulness
+pitiable.
+
+The door opened. There she stood. Whatever expectancy of success she may
+have had fled at once. Our eyes met and her countenance changed. My face
+must have told the whole story, for she exclaimed:
+
+“You have failed!”
+
+I was obliged to acknowledge it in a whisper, but hastened to assure her
+that the ring had not yet been placed upon the bronze hand, and was not
+likely to be till the lock had been cleaned, out. This interested her,
+and called out a hurried but complete recital of my adventure. She hung
+upon it breathlessly, and when I reached the point where Madame and her
+prophetic voice entered the tale, she showed so much excitement that any
+doubts I may have cherished as to the importance of the communication
+Madame had made us vanished in a cold horror I with difficulty hid from
+my companion. But the end agitated her more than the beginning, and when
+she heard that I had taken upon myself a direct connection with this
+mysterious matter, she grew so pale that I felt forced to inquire if the
+folly I had committed was likely to result badly, at which she shuddered
+and replied:
+
+“You have brought death upon yourself. I see nothing but destruction
+before us both. This woman--this horrible woman--has seen your face,
+and, if she is what you describe, she will never forget it. The man, who
+is her guardian or agent, no doubt, must have tracked you, and finding
+you here with me, from whose hand he himself may have torn the ring
+last night, will record it as treason against a cause which punishes all
+treason with death.
+
+“Pshaw!” I ejaculated, with a jocular effort at indifference, which I
+acknowledge I did not feel. “You seem to forget the law. We live in the
+city of Baltimore. Charlatans such as I have just left behind me do not
+make away with good citizens with impunity. We have only to seek the
+protection of the police.”
+
+She met my looks with a slowly increasing intentness, which stilled this
+protest on my lips.
+
+“I am under no oath,” she ruminated. “I can tell this man what I will.
+Mr. Abbott, there has been formed in this city an organization against
+which the police are powerless. I am an involuntary member of it, and I
+know its power. It has constrained me and it has constrained others, and
+no one who has opposed it once has lived to do so twice. Yet it has
+no recognized head (though there is a chief to whom we may address
+ourselves), and it has no oaths of secrecy. All is left to the
+discretion of its members, and _to their fears_. The object of this
+society is the breaking of the power of the North, and the means by
+which it works is _death_. I joined it under a stress of feeling I
+called patriotism, and I believed myself right till the sword was
+directed against my own breast. Then I quailed; then I began to ask
+by what right we poor mortals constitute ourselves into instruments of
+destruction to our kind, and having once stopped to question, I saw
+the whole matter in such a different light that I knowingly put a
+stumbling-block in the path of so-called avenging justice, and thus
+courted the doom that at any moment may fall upon my head.” And she
+actually looked up, as if expecting to see it fall then and there.
+“This Madame,” she went on in breathless haste, “is doubtless one of the
+members. How so grotesque and yet redoubtable an individuality should
+have become identified with a cause demanding the coolest judgment as
+well as the most acute political acumen, I cannot stop to conjecture.
+But that she is a member of our organization, and an important one, too,
+her prophecies, which have so strangely become facts, are sufficient
+proof, even had you not seen my ring on her finger. Perhaps, incredible
+as it may appear, she is the _chief_. If so--But I do not make myself
+intelligible,” she continued, meeting my eyes. “I will be more explicit.
+One peculiar feature of this organization is the complete ignorance
+which we all have concerning our fellow-members. We can reveal nothing,
+for we know nothing. I know that I am allied to a cause which has for
+its end the destruction of all who oppose the supremacy of the South,
+but I cannot give you the name of another person attached to this
+organization, though I feel the pressure of their combined power upon
+every act of my life. _You_ may be a member without my knowing it--a
+secret and fearful thought, which forms one of the greatest safeguards
+to the institution, though it has failed in this instance, owing”--here
+her voice fell--“to my devotion to the man I love. What?”--(I had not
+spoken; my heart was dying within me, but I had given no evidence of
+a wish to interrupt her; she, however, feared a check, and rushed
+vehemently on.) “I shall have to tell you more. When, through pamphlets
+and unsigned letters--dangerous communications, which have long since
+become ashes--I was drawn into this society (and only those of the most
+radical and impressionable natures are approached) a ring and a key were
+sent me with this injunction: ‘When the man or woman whose name will
+be forwarded to you in an otherwise empty envelope, shall have, in your
+honest judgment, proved himself or herself sufficiently dangerous to
+the cause we love, to merit removal, you are to place this ring on the
+middle finger of the bronze hand locked up in the box openly displayed
+in the office of a Dr. Merriam on ------ Street. With the pressure of
+the whole five rings on the fingers of this piece of mechanism, the
+guardian of our rights will be notified by a bell, that a victim awaits
+justice, and the end to be accomplished will be begun. As there are five
+fingers, and each one of these must feel the pressure of its own ring
+before connection can be made between this hand and the bell mentioned,
+no injustice can be done and no really innocent person destroyed. For,
+when five totally disconnected persons devoted to the cause agree that
+a certain individual is worthy of death, mistake is impossible. You
+are now one of the five. Use the key and the ring according to
+your conscience.’ This was well, if I had been allowed to follow my
+conscience; but when, six weeks ago, they sent me the name of a man of
+lofty character and unquestioned loyalty, I recoiled, scarcely believing
+my eyes. Yet, fearing that my own judgment was warped, or that some
+hidden hypocrisy was latent in a man thus given over to our attention,
+I made it my business to learn this man’s inner life. I found it so
+beautiful----” She choked, turned away for a moment, controlled herself,
+and went on rapidly and with increased earnestness: “I learned to love
+this man, and as I learned to love him I grew more and more satisfied of
+the dangerous character of the organization I was pledged to. But I had
+one comfort. He could not be doomed without my ring, and that was safe
+on my finger. Safe! You know how safe it was. The monster whom you have
+just seen, and who may have been the person to subject this noble man to
+suspicion, must have discovered my love and the safeguard it offered to
+this man. The ring, as you know, was stolen, and as you have failed to
+recover it, and I to get any reply from the chief to whom I forwarded my
+protest, to-morrow will without doubt see it placed upon the finger of
+the bronze hand. The result you know. Fantastic as this may strike you,
+it is the dreadful truth.”
+
+Love, had I ever felt this holy passion for her, had no longer a place
+in my breast; but awe, terror and commiseration for her, for him, and
+also perhaps for myself, were still active passions within me, and at
+this decided statement of the case, I laughed in the excitement of the
+moment, and the relief I felt at knowing just what there was to dread in
+the adventure.
+
+“Absurd!” I cried. “With Madame’s address in my mind and the Baltimore
+police at my command, this man is as safe from assault as you or I are.
+Give me five minutes’ talk with Chief----”
+
+Her hand on my arm stopped me; the look in her eye made me dumb.
+
+“What could you do without _me?_” she said; “and my evidence you cannot
+have. For what would give it weight can never pass my lips. The lives
+that have fallen with my connivance stand between me and confession. I
+do not wish to subject myself to the law.”
+
+This placed her in another light before me, and I started back.
+
+“You have----” I stammered.
+
+“Placed that ring three times on the hand in Dr. Merriam’s office.”
+
+“And each time?”
+
+“A man somewhere in this nation has died suddenly. I do not know by what
+means or by whose hand, but he died.”
+
+This beautiful creature guilty of---- I tried not to show my horror.
+
+“It is, then, a question of choice between you and him?” said I. “Either
+you or he must perish. Both cannot be saved.”
+
+She recoiled, turning very pale, and for several minutes stood surveying
+me with a fixed gaze as if overcome by an idea which threw so immense
+a responsibility upon her. As she stood thus, I seemed not only to look
+into her nature, but her life. I saw the fanaticism that that had
+once held every good impulse in check, the mistaken devotion, the
+unreasoning hatred, and, underneath all, a spirit of truth and
+rectitude which brightened and brightened as I watched her, till it
+dominated every evil passion and made her next words come easily, and
+with a natural burst of conviction which showed the innate generosity of
+her soul.
+
+“You have shown me my duty, sir. There can be no question as to where
+the choice should fall, I am not worth one hair of his noble head. Save
+him, sir; I will help you by every means in my power.”
+
+Seizing the opportunity she thus gave me, I asked her the name of the
+man who was threatened.
+
+In a low voice she told me.
+
+I was astonished; dumfounded.
+
+“Shameful!” I cried. “What motive, what reason can they have for
+denouncing _him?_”
+
+“He is under suspicion--that is enough.”
+
+“Great heaven!” I exclaimed. “Have we reached such a pass as that?”
+
+“Don’t,” she uttered, hoarsely; “don’t reason; don’t talk; act.”
+
+“I will,” I cried, and rushed from the room.
+
+She fell back in a chair, almost fainting. I saw her lying quiet, inert
+and helpless as I rushed by her door on my way to the street, but I did
+not stop to aid her. I knew she would not suffer it.
+
+The police are practical, and my tale was an odd one. I found it hard,
+therefore, to impress them with its importance, especially as in trying
+to save Miss Calhoun I was necessarily more or less incoherent. I
+did succeed, however, in awakening interest at last, and, a man being
+assigned me, I led the way to Madame’s door. But here a surprise awaited
+me. The doorplate, which had so attracted my attention, was gone, and
+in a few minutes we found that she had departed also, leaving no trace
+behind her.
+
+This looked ominous, and with little delay we hastened to the office of
+Dr. Merriam. Knocking at the usual door brought no response, but when
+we tried the further one, by which his patients usually passed out, we
+found ourselves confronted by the gentleman we sought.
+
+His face was calm and smiling, and though he made haste to tell us that
+we had come out of hours, he politely asked us in and inquired what he
+could do for us.
+
+Not understanding how he could have forgotten me so soon, I looked at
+him inquiringly, at which his face lighted up, and he apologetically
+said:
+
+“I remember you now. You were here this morning consulting me about a
+friend who is afflicted with a peculiar complaint. Have you anything
+further to state or ask in regard to it. I have just five minutes to
+spare.”
+
+“Hear this gentleman first,” said I, pointing to the officer who
+accompanied me.
+
+The doctor calmly bowed, and waited with the greatest self-possession
+for him to state his case.
+
+The officer did so abruptly.
+
+“There is a box in your ante-room which I feel it my duty to examine. I
+am Detective Hopkins, of the city police.”
+
+The doctor, with a gentleness which seemed native rather than assumed,
+quietly replied:
+
+“I am very sorry, but you are an hour too late.” And, throwing open the
+door of communication between the two rooms, he pointed to the table.
+
+_The box was gone_!
+
+
+
+
+
+V. DOCTOR MERRIAM.
+
+This second disappointment was more than I could endure. Turning upon
+the doctor with undisguised passion, I hotly asked:
+
+“Who has taken it? Describe the person at once. Tell what you know about
+the box, I did not finish the threat; but my looks must have been very
+fierce, for he edged off a bit, and cast a curious glance at the officer
+before he answered:
+
+“You have, then, no ailing friend? Well, well; I expended some very good
+advice upon you. But you paid me, and so we are even.”
+
+“The box!” I urged; “the box! Don’t waste words, for a man’s life is at
+stake.”
+
+His surprise was marvelously assumed or very real.
+
+“You are talking somewhat wildly, are you not?” he ventured, with a
+bland air. “A man’s life? I cannot believe that.”
+
+“But you don’t answer me,” I urged.
+
+He smiled; he evidently thought me out of my mind.
+
+“That’s true; but there is so little I can tell you. I do not know what
+was in the box about which you express so much concern, and I do not
+know the names of its owners. It was brought here some six months ago
+and placed in the spot where you saw it this morning, upon conditions
+that were satisfactory to me, and not at all troublesome to my patients,
+whose convenience I was bound to consult. It has remained there till
+to-day, when----”
+
+Here the officer interrupted him.
+
+“What were these conditions? The matter calls for frankness.”
+
+“The conditions,” repeated the doctor, in no wise abashed, “were these:
+That it should occupy the large table in the window as long as they
+saw fit. That, though placed in my room, it should be regarded as the
+property of the society which owned it, and, consequently, free to the
+inspection of its members but to no one else. That I should know these
+members by their ability to open the box, and that so long as these
+persons confined their visits to my usual hours for patients, they were
+to be subject to no one’s curiosity, nor allowed to suffer from any
+one’s interference. In return for these slight concessions, I was to
+receive five dollars for every day I allowed it to stay here, payment to
+be made by mail.”
+
+“Good business! And you cannot tell the names of the persons with whom
+you entered into this contract?”
+
+“No; the one who came to me first and saw to the placing of the box
+and all that, was a short, sturdy fellow, with a common face but very
+brilliant eye; he it was who made the conditions; but the man who came
+to get it, and who paid me twenty dollars for opening my office door
+at an unusual hour, was a more gentlemanly man, with a thick, brown
+mustache and resolute look. He was accompanied----”
+
+“Why do you stop?”
+
+The doctor smiled.
+
+“I was wondering,” said he, “if I should say he was accompanied, or that
+he accompanied, a woman, of such enormous size that the doorway hardly
+received her. I thought she was a patient at first, for, large as she
+is, she was brought into my room in a chair, which it took four men to
+carry. But she only came about the box.”
+
+“Madame!” I muttered; and being made still more eager by this discovery
+of her direct participation in its carrying off, I asked if she touched
+the box or whether it was taken away unopened.
+
+The doctor’s answer put an end to every remaining hope I may have
+cherished.
+
+“She not only touched but opened it. I saw the lid rise and heard a
+whirr. What is the matter, sir?”
+
+“Nothing,” I made haste to say--“that is, nothing I can communicate
+just now. This woman must be followed,” I signified to the officer, and
+was about to rush from the room when my eye fell on the table where the
+box stood.
+
+“See!” said I, pointing to a fine wire protruding from a small hole
+in the center of its upper surface; “this box had connection with some
+point outside of this room.”
+
+The doctor’s face flushed, and for the first time he looked a trifle
+foolish.
+
+“So I perceive _now,_” said he, “The workman who put up this box
+evidently took liberties in my absence. For _that_ I was not paid.”
+
+“This wire leads where?” asked the officer.
+
+“Rip up the floor and see. I know no other way to find out.”
+
+“But that would take time, and we have not a minute to lose,” said I,
+and was disappearing for the second time when I again stopped. “Doctor,”
+ said I, “when you consented to harbor this box under such peculiar
+conditions and allowed yourself to receive such good pay for a service
+involving so little inconvenience to yourself, you must have had some
+idea of the uses to which so mysterious an article would be put. What
+did you suppose them to be?”
+
+“To tell you the truth, I thought it was some new-fangled lottery
+scheme, and I have still to learn that I was mistaken.”
+
+I gave him a look, but did not stop to undeceive him.
+
+
+
+
+VI. THE BOX AGAIN.
+
+But one resource was left: to warn Mr. S------ of his peril. This was
+not so easy a task as might appear. To make my story believed, I should
+be obliged to compromise Miss Calhoun, and Mr. S------‘s well-known
+chivalry, as far as women are concerned, would make the communication
+difficult on my part, if not absolutely impossible. I, however,
+determined to attempt it, though I could not but wish I were an older
+man, with public repute to back me.
+
+Though there was but little in Mr. S------‘s public life which I did not
+know, I had little or no knowledge of his domestic relations beyond the
+fact that he was a widower with one child. I did not even know where he
+lived. But inquiry at police headquarters soon settled that, and in half
+an hour after leaving the doctor’s office I was at his home.
+
+It was a large, old-fashioned dwelling, of comfortable aspect; too
+comfortable, I thought, for the shadow of doom, which, in my eyes,
+overlay its cheerful front, wide-open doors and windows. How should I
+tell my story here! What credence could I expect for a tale so gruesome,
+within walls warmed by so much sunshine and joy. None, possibly; but my
+story must be told for all that.
+
+Ringing the bell hurriedly, I asked for Mr. S------. He was out of town.
+This was my first check. When would he be home? The answer gave me some
+hope, though it seemed to increase my difficulties. He would be in the
+city by eight, as he had invited a large number of guests to his house
+for the evening. Beyond this, I could learn nothing.
+
+Returning immediately to Miss Calhoun, I told her what had occurred,
+and tried to impress upon her the necessity I felt of seeing Mr. S------
+that night. She surveyed me like a woman in a dream. Twice did I have
+to repeat my words before she seemed to take them in; then she turned
+hurriedly, and going to a little desk standing in one corner of the
+room, drew out a missive, which she brought me. It was an invitation to
+this very reception which she had received a week before.
+
+“I will get you one,” she whispered. “But don’t speak to him, don’t tell
+him without giving me some warning. I will not be far from you. I think
+I will have strength for this final hour.”
+
+“God grant that your sacrifice may bear fruit,” I said, and left her.
+
+To enter, on such an errand as mine, a brilliantly illuminated house
+odoriferous with flowers and palpitating with life and music, would
+be hard for any man. It was hard for me. But in the excitement of the
+occasion, aggravated as it was by a presage of danger not only to myself
+but to the woman I had come so near loving, I experienced a calmness,
+such as is felt in the presence of all mortal conflicts. I made sure
+that this was reflected in my face before leaving the dressing-room, and
+satisfied that I would not draw the attention of others by too much or
+too little color, I descended to the drawing-room and into the presence
+of my admired host.
+
+I had expected to confront a handsome man, but not of the exact type
+that he presented. There was a melancholy in his expression I had not
+foreseen, mingled with an attraction from which I could not escape after
+my first hurried glimpse of his features across the wide room. No other
+man in the room had it to so great a degree, nor was there any other
+who made so determined an effort to throw off care and be simply the
+agreeable companion. Could it be that any other warning had forestalled
+mine, or was this his habitual manner and expression? Finding no
+answer to this question, I limited myself to the duty of the hour, and
+advancing as rapidly as possible through the ever-increasing throng,
+waited for the chance to speak to him for one minute alone. Meantime, I
+satisfied myself that the two detectives sent from police headquarters
+were on hand. I recognized them among a group of people at the door.
+
+Whether intentionally or not, Mr. S ------ had taken up his stand before
+the conservatory, and as in my endeavors to reach him I approached
+within sight of this place, I perceived the face of Miss Calhoun shining
+from amid its greenery, and at once remembered the promise I had
+made her. She was looking for me, and, meeting my eyes, made me an
+imperceptible gesture, to which I felt bound to respond.
+
+Slipping from the group with which I was advancing, I stole around to
+a side door towards which she had pointed, and in another moment found
+myself at her side. She was clothed in velvet, which gave to her cheek
+and brow the colorlessness of marble.
+
+“He is not as ignorant of his position as we thought,” said she. “I have
+been watching him for an hour. He is in anticipation of something. This
+will make our task easier.”
+
+“You have said nothing,” I suggested.
+
+“No, no; how could I?”
+
+“Perhaps the detectives I saw there have told him.”
+
+“Perhaps; but they cannot know the whole.”
+
+“No, or our words would be unnecessary.”
+
+“Mr. Abbott,” said she, with feverish volubility, “do not try to
+tell him yet; wait for a few minutes till I have gained a little
+self-possession, a little command over myself; but no--that may be
+to risk his life--do not wait a moment--go now, go now, only----” She
+started, stumbled and fell back into a low seat under a spreading palm.
+“He is coming here. Do not leave me, Mr. Abbott; step back there behind
+those plants. I cannot trust myself to face him all alone.”
+
+I did as she bade me. Mr. S----, with a smile on his face--the first I
+had seen there--came in and walked with a quick step and a resolved
+air up to Miss Calhoun, who endeavored to rise to meet him. But she was
+unable, which involuntary sign of confusion seemed to please him.
+
+“Irene,” said he, in a tone that made me start and wish I had not been
+so amenable to her wishes, “I thought I saw you glide in here, and my
+guests being now all arrived, I have ventured to steal away for a moment,
+just to satisfy the craving which has been torturing me for the last
+hour. Irene, you are pale; you tremble like an aspen. Have I frightened
+you by my words--too abrupt, perhaps, considering the reserve that has
+always been between us until now. Didn’t you know that I loved you? that
+for the last month--ever since I have known you, indeed--I have had but
+the one wish, to make you my wife?”
+
+“Good God!” I saw the words on her lips rather than heard them. She
+seemed to be illumined and overwhelmed at once. “Mr. S------,” said
+she, trying to be brave, trying to address him with some sort of
+self-possession,
+
+“I did not expect--I had no right to expect this honor from you. I
+am not worthy--I have no right to hear such words from your lips.
+Besides----” She could go no further; perhaps he did not let her.
+
+“Not worthy--you!” There was infinite sadness in his tone. “What do you
+think I am, then? It is because you are so worthy, so much better than
+I am or can ever be, that I want you for my wife. I long for the
+companionship of a pure mind, a pure hand----”
+
+“Mr. S------” (she had risen, and the resolve in her face made her
+beauty shine out transcendently), “I have not the pure mind, the pure
+hand you ascribe to me. I have meddled with matters few women could
+even conceive of. I am a member--a repentant member, to be sure--of an
+organization which slights the decrees of God and places the aims of a
+few selfish souls above the rights of man, and----”
+
+He had stooped and was kissing her hand.
+
+“You need not go on,” he whispered; “I quite understand. But you will be
+my wife?”
+
+Aghast, white as the driven snow, she watched him with dilating eyes
+that slowly filled with a great horror.
+
+“Understand!--_you understand!_ Oh, what does that mean? _Why_ should
+you understand?”
+
+“Because”--his voice sunk to a whisper, but I heard it, as I would have
+recognized his thought had he not spoken at that moment--“because I
+am the chief of the organization you mention. Irene, now you have _my_
+secret.”
+
+I do not think she uttered a sound, but I heard the dying cry of her
+soul in her very silence. He may have heard it, too, for his look showed
+sudden and unfathomable pity.
+
+“This is a blow to you,” he said. “I do not wonder; there _is_ something
+hateful in the fact; latterly I have begun to realize it. That is why
+I have allowed myself to love. I wanted some relief from my thoughts.
+Alas! I did not know that a full knowledge of your noble soul would only
+emphasize them. But this is no talk for a ballroom. Cheer up, darling,
+and----”
+
+“Wait!” She had found strength to lay her hand on his arm. “Did you know
+that a man was condemned to-day?”
+
+His face took on a shade of gloom.
+
+“Yes,” he bowed, casting an anxious look towards the room from which
+came the mingled sounds of dance and merriment. “The bell which
+announces the fact rang during my absence. I did not know there was a
+name before the society.”
+
+She crouched, covering her face with her hands. I think she was afraid
+her emotion would escape her in a cry. But in an instant they had
+dropped again, and she was panting in his ear:
+
+“You are the chief and are not acquainted with these matters of life
+and death? Traitors are these men and women to you--traitors! jealous of
+your influence and your power!”
+
+He looked amazed; he measured the distance between himself and the
+door and turned to ask her what she meant, but she did not give him the
+opportunity.
+
+“Do you know,” she asked, “the name of the person for whom the bell rang
+to-day?”
+
+He shook his head. “I am expecting a messenger with it any moment,” said
+he, looking towards the rear of the conservatory. “Is it any one who is
+here to-night?”
+
+The gasp she gave might have been heard in the other room. Language and
+motion seemed both to fail her, and I thought I should have to go to
+her rescue. But before I could move, I heard the click of a latch at
+the rear of the conservatory, and saw, peering through the flowers and
+plants, the wicked face of the man with the receding forehead whom I had
+seen at madame’s, and in his arms he held THE BOX.
+
+It was a shock which sent me further into concealment. Mr. S----, on the
+contrary, looked relieved. Exclaiming, “Ah, he has come!” he went to
+the door leading into the drawing-room, locked it, took out the key and
+returned to meet the stealthy, advancing figure.
+
+The latter presented a picture of malignant joy, horrible to
+contemplate. The lips of his large mouth were compressed and bloodless.
+He came on with the quiet certainty and deadly ease of a slimy thing
+sure of its prey.
+
+As I noted him I felt that not only Mr. S----‘s life but my own was not
+worth a moment’s purchase. But I uttered no cry and scarcely breathed.
+Miss Calhoun, on the contrary, gave vent to a long, shivering sigh. The
+man bowed as he heard it, but with looks directed solely to Mr. S----.
+
+“I was told,” said he, “to deliver this box to you wherever and with
+whomsoever I should find you. In it you will find _the name._”
+
+Mr. S---- gazed in haughty astonishment, first at the box and then at
+the man.
+
+“This is irregular,” said he. “Why was I not made acquainted with the
+fact that a name was up for consideration, and why have you removed the
+box from its place and broken the connection which was made with so much
+difficulty?”
+
+As he said this he looked up through the glass of the conservatory to a
+high building I could see towering at the end of the garden. It was the
+building in which I had first seen that box, and I now understood how
+this connection had been made.
+
+Mr. S----‘s movement had been involuntary.
+
+Dropping his eyes, he finished by saying, with an almost imperceptible
+bow, “You may speak before this lady; she is the holder of a key.”
+
+“The connection was broken because suspicion was aroused; to your other
+question you will find an answer in the box. Shall I open it for you?”
+
+Mr. S------, with a stern frown, shook his head, and produced a key
+from his pocket. “Do you understand all this?” he suddenly asked Miss
+Calhoun.
+
+For reply, she pointed to the box.
+
+“Open!” her beseeching looks seemed to say.
+
+Mr. S---- turned the key and threw up the lid. “Look under the hand,”
+ suggested the man.
+
+Mr. S---- leaned over the box, which had been laid on a small table,
+discovered a paper somewhere in its depth, and drew it out. It was no
+whiter than his face when he did so.
+
+“How many have subscribed to this?” he asked.
+
+“You will observe that there are five rings on the hand,” responded the
+man.
+
+Miss Calhoun started, opened her lips, but paused as she saw Mr. S----
+unfold the paper.
+
+“The name of the latest traitor,” murmured the man, with a look of
+ferocity the like of which I had never seen on any human face before.
+
+It was not observed by either of the actors in the tragedy before
+me. Mr. S---- was gazing with a wild incredulity at the note he had
+unfolded; she was gazing at him. From the room beyond rose and swelled
+the sweet strains of the waltz.
+
+Suddenly a low, crackling sound was heard.
+
+It came from the paper which Mr. S---- had crumpled in his hand.
+
+“So the society has decreed my death,” he said, meeting the man’s
+steel-cold eye for the first time. “Now I know how the men whose doom
+preceded mine have felt in a presence that leaves no hope to mortal man.
+But _you_ shall not be _my_ executioner. I will meet my fate at less
+noxious hands than yours.” And, leaning forward, he whispered a
+few seemingly significant words into the messenger’s ear. The man,
+grievously disappointed, hung his head, and with a sidelong look, the
+venom of which made us all shudder, he hesitated to go.
+
+“To-night?” he said.
+
+“To-night,” Mr. S---- repeated, and pointed towards the door by which
+he had entered. Then, as the man still hesitated, he took him by the arm
+and resolutely led him through the conservatory, crying in his ear, “Go.
+I am still the chief.”
+
+The man bowed, and slipped slowly out into the night.
+
+A burst of music, laughter, voices, joy, rose in the drawing-room. Mr.
+S---- and Irene Calhoun stood looking at each other.
+
+“You must go home,” were the first words he uttered. Then, in a
+half-reproachful, half-pitiful tone, as if on the verge of tears, he
+added: “Was I so bad a chief that even you thought me a hindrance to the
+advancement of the society and the cause to which we are pledged?”
+
+It was the one thing he could say capable of rousing her.
+
+“Oh!” she cried, “it is all a mistake, all a cheat. Did you not get the
+letter I sent to my chief this morning, written in the usual style and
+directed in the usual way?”
+
+“No,” he answered.
+
+“Then there is worse treason than yours among the five. I wrote to
+say that my ring had been stolen; that I did not subscribe to the
+condemnation of the man under suspicion, and that, if it was made, it
+would be through fraud. That was before I knew that the suspected one
+and the man I addressed were one and the same. Now----”
+
+“Well, now?”
+
+“You have but to accuse the woman called Madame. The man you have just
+sent away would forgive you his disappointment if you gave him the
+supreme satisfaction of carrying doom to the still more formidable
+being who prophesies death to those for whom she has already prepared a
+violent end.”
+
+“Irene!”
+
+But her passion had found vent and she was not to be stilled. Telling
+him the whole story of the last twenty-four hours, she waited for the
+look of comfort she evidently expected. But it did not come. His first
+words showed why.
+
+“Madame is inexorable,” said he; “but Madame is but one of five. There
+are three others--true men, sound men, thinking men. If they deem
+me unworthy--and I have shown signs of faltering of late--Madame’s
+animosity or your loving weakness must not stand in the way of their
+decree. It shall never be said I sanctioned the doom of other men and
+shrank from my own. I would be unworthy of your love if I did, and your
+love is everything to me now.” She had not expected this; she had not at
+all reckoned upon the stern quality in this man, forgetting that without
+it he could never have held his pitiless position.
+
+“But it is not regular; it is not according to precedent. Five rings are
+required, and only four were fairly placed. As an honest man, you ought
+to hesitate at injustice, and injustice you will show if you allow them
+to triumph through their own deceit.”
+
+But even this failed to move him.
+
+“I see five rings,” said he, “and I see another thing. Never will I be
+permitted to live even if I am coward enough to take advantage of the
+loophole of escape you offer me. A man who is once seen to tremble loses
+the confidence of such men as call me _chief_. I would die suddenly,
+horribly and perhaps when less prepared for it than now. And you,
+my darling, my imperial one! you would not escape. Besides, you have
+forgotten the young man who, with such unselfishness, has lent himself
+to your schemes in my favor. What could save him if I disappointed the
+malignancy of Madame. No; I have destroyed others, and must submit to
+the penalty incurred by murder. Kiss me, Irene, and go. I command it as
+your chief.”
+
+With a low moan she gave up the struggle. Lifting her forehead to his
+embrace, she bestowed upon him a look of indescribable despair, then
+tottered to the door leading into the garden. As it closed upon her
+departing figure, he uttered a deep sigh, in which he seemed to give up
+life and the world. Then he raised his head, and in an instant was in
+the midst of a throng of beautiful women and dashing men, with a smile
+on his lips and a jest on his tongue.
+
+I made my escape unnoticed. The next morning I was in Philadelphia.
+There I read the following lines in the leading daily:
+
+“Baltimore, Md.--An unexpected tragedy occurred here last evening.
+Mr. S----, the well-known financier and politician, died at his
+supper-table, while drinking the health of a hundred assembled guests.
+He is considered to be a great loss to the Southern cause. The city is
+filled with mourning.”
+
+And further down, in an obscure corner, this short line:
+
+“Baltimore, Md.--A beautiful young woman, known by the name of Irene
+Calhoun, was found dead in her bed this morning, from the effects of
+poison administered by herself. No cause is ascribed for the act.”
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bronze Hand, by
+Anna Katharine Green (Mrs. Charles Rohlfs)
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BRONZE HAND ***
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+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      The Bronze Hand, by Anna Katharine Green (Mrs. Charles Rohlfs)
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bronze Hand, by
+Anna Katharine Green (Mrs. Charles Rohlfs)
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Bronze Hand
+       1897
+
+Author: Anna Katharine Green (Mrs. Charles Rohlfs)
+
+Release Date: September 29, 2007 [EBook #22806]
+Last Updated: October 2, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BRONZE HAND ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      THE BRONZE HAND
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By Anna Katharine Green (Mrs. Charles Rohlfs)
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      Copyright, 1897, by Anna Katharine Green
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Contents
+    </h2>
+    <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto">
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> I. THE FASCINATING UNKNOWN. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> II. THE QUAKER-LIKE GIRL, and OTHERS </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> III. MADAME. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> IV. CHECKMATE. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> V. DOCTOR MERRIAM. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> VI. THE BOX AGAIN. </a>
+          </p>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      I. THE FASCINATING UNKNOWN.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      HER room was on the ground floor of the house we mutually inhabited, and
+      mine directly above it, so that my opportunities for seeing her were
+      limited to short glimpses of her auburn head as she leaned out of the
+      window to close her shutters at night or open them in the morning. Yet our
+      chance encounter in the hall or on the walk in front, had made so deep an
+      impression upon my sensibilities that I was never without the vision of
+      her pale face set off by the aureole of reddish brown hair, which, since
+      my first meeting with her, had become for me the symbol of everything
+      beautiful, incomprehensible and strange.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For my fellow-lodger was a mystery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am a busy man now, but just at the time of which I speak, I had leisure
+      in abundance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was sharing with many others the unrest of the perilous days subsequent
+      to the raid of John Brown at Harper&rsquo;s Ferry. Abraham Lincoln had been
+      elected President. Baltimore, where the incidents I am relating
+      transpired, had become the headquarters of men who secretly leagued
+      themselves in antagonism to the North. Men and women who felt that their
+      Northern brethren had grievously wronged them planned to undermine the
+      stability of the government. The schemes at this time were gigantic in
+      their conception and far-reaching in their scope and endless
+      ramifications.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Naturally under these conditions, a consciousness of ever-present danger
+      haunted every thinking mind. The candor of the outspoken was regarded with
+      doubt, and the reticence of the more cautious, with distrust. It was a
+      trying time for sensitive, impressionable natures with nothing to do.
+      Perhaps all this may account for the persistency with which I sat in my
+      open window. I was thus sitting one night&mdash;a memorable one to me&mdash;when
+      I heard a sharp exclamation from below, in a voice I had long listened
+      for.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Any utterance from those lips would have attracted my attention; but,
+      filled as this was with marked, if not extraordinary, emotion, I could not
+      fail to be roused to a corresponding degree of curiosity and interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thrusting out my head, I cast a rapid glance downward. A shutter swinging
+      in the wind, and the escaping figure of a man hurrying round the corner of
+      the street, were all that rewarded my scrutiny; though, from the stream of
+      light issuing from the casement beneath, I perceived that her window, like
+      my own, was wide open.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As I continued to watch this light, I saw her thrust out her head with an
+      eagerness indicative of great excitement. Peering to right and left, she
+      murmured some suppressed words mixed with gasps of such strong feeling
+      that I involuntarily called out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Excuse me, madam, have you been frightened in any way by the man I saw
+      running away from here a moment ago?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She gave a great start and glanced up. I see her face yet&mdash;beautiful,
+      wonderful; so beautiful and so wonderful I have never been able to forget
+      it. Meeting my eye, she faltered out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you see a man running away from here? Oh, sir, if I might have a word
+      with you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I came near leaping directly to the pavement in my ardor and anxiety to
+      oblige her, but, remembering before it was too late that she was neither a
+      Juliet nor I a Romeo, I merely answered that I would be with her in a
+      moment and betook myself below by the less direct but safer means of the
+      staircase.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a short one and I was but a moment in descending, but that moment
+      was long enough for my heart to acquire a most uncomfortable throb, and it
+      was with anything but an air of quiet self-possession that I approached
+      the threshold I had never before dared to cross even in fancy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The door was open and I caught one glimpse of her figure before she was
+      aware of my presence. She was contemplating her right hand with a look of
+      terror, which, added to her striking personality, made her seem at the
+      instant a creature of alarming characteristics fully as capable of
+      awakening awe as devotion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I may have given some token of the agitation her appearance awakened, for
+      she turned towards me with sudden vehemence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; she cried, with a welcoming gesture; &ldquo;you are the gentleman from
+      up-stairs who saw a man running away from here a moment ago. Would you
+      know that man if you saw him again?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am afraid not,&rdquo; I replied. &ldquo;He was only a flying figure in my eyes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; she moaned, bringing her hands together in dismay. But, immediately
+      straightening herself, she met my regard with one as direct as my own. &ldquo;I
+      need a friend,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;and I am surrounded by strangers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I made a move towards her; I did not feel myself a stranger. But how was I
+      to make her realize the fact?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If there is anything I can do,&rdquo; I suggested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her steady regard became searching.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have noticed you before to-night,&rdquo; she declared, with a directness
+      devoid of every vestige of coquetry. &ldquo;You seem to have qualities that may
+      be trusted. But the man capable of helping me needs the strongest motives
+      that influence humanity: courage, devotion, discretion, and a total
+      forgetfulness of self. Such qualifications cannot be looked for in a
+      stranger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As if with these words she dismissed me from her thoughts, she turned her
+      back upon me. Then, as if recollecting the courtesy due even to strangers,
+      she cast me an apologetic glance over her shoulder and hurriedly added:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am bewildered by my loss. Leave me to the torment of my thoughts. You
+      can do nothing for me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Had there been the least evidence of falsity in her tone or the slightest
+      striving after effect in her look or bearing, I would have taken her at
+      her word and left her then and there. But the candor of the woman and the
+      reality of her emotion were not to be questioned, and moved by an impulse
+      as irresistible as it was foolhardy, I cried with the impetuosity of my
+      twenty-one years:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am ready to risk my life for you. Why, I do not know and do not care to
+      ask. I only know you could have found no other man so willing to do your
+      bidding.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A smile, in which surprise was tempered by a feeling almost tender,
+      crossed her lips and immediately vanished. She shook her head as if in
+      deprecation of the passion my words evinced, and was about to dismiss me,
+      when she suddenly changed her mind and seized upon the aid I had offered,
+      with a fervor that roused my sense of chivalry and deepened what might
+      have been but a passing fancy into an active and all-engrossing passion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can read faces,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;and I have read yours. You will do for me
+      what I cannot do for myself, but&mdash;&mdash;Have you a mother living?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I answered no; that I was very nearly without relatives or ties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad,&rdquo; she said, half to herself. Then with a last searching look,
+      &ldquo;Have you not even a sweetheart?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I must have reddened painfully, for she drew back with a hesitating and
+      troubled air; but the vigorous protest I hastened to make seemed to
+      reassure her, for the next word she uttered was one of confidence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have lost a ring.&rdquo; She spoke in a low but hurried tone. &ldquo;It was
+      snatched from my finger as I reached out my hand to close my shutters.
+      Some one must have been lying in wait; some one who knows my habits and
+      the hour at which I close my window for the night. The loss I have
+      sustained is greater than you can conceive. It means more, much more, than
+      appears. To the man who will bring me back that ring direct from the hand
+      that stole it, I would devote the gratitude of a lifetime. Are you willing
+      to make the endeavor? It is a task I cannot give to the police.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This request, so different from any I had expected, checked my enthusiasm
+      in proportion as it awoke a senseless jealousy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet it seems directly in their line,&rdquo; I suggested, seeing nothing but
+      humiliation before me if I attempted the recovery of a simple love-token.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know that it must seem so to you,&rdquo; she admitted, reading my thoughts
+      and answering them with skilful indirectness. &ldquo;But what policeman would
+      undertake a difficult and minute search for an article whose intrinsic
+      value would not reach five dollars?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then it is only a memento,&rdquo; I stammered, with very evident feeling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only a memento,&rdquo; she repeated; &ldquo;but not of love. Worthless as it is in
+      itself, it would buy everything I possess, and almost my soul to-night. I
+      can explain no further. Will you attempt its recovery?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Restored to myself by her frank admission that it was no lover&rsquo;s keepsake
+      I was urged to recapture and return, I allowed the powerful individuality
+      of this woman to have its full effect upon me. Taking in with one glance
+      her beauty, the impassioned fervor of her nature, and the subtle charm of
+      a spirit she now allowed to work its full spell upon me, I threw every
+      practical consideration to the winds, and impetuously replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will endeavor to regain this ring for you. Tell me where to go, and
+      whom to attack, and if human wit and strength can compass it, you shall
+      have the jewel back before morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; she protested, &ldquo;I see that you anticipate a task of small
+      difficulty. You cannot recover this particular ring so easily as that. In
+      the first place, I do not in the least know who took it; I only know its
+      destination. Alas! if it is allowed to reach that destination, I am bereft
+      of hope.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No love token,&rdquo; I murmured, &ldquo;and yet your whole peace depends on its
+      recovery.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;More than my peace,&rdquo; she answered; and with a quick movement she closed
+      the door which I had left open behind me. As its sharp bang rang through
+      the room, I realized into what a pitfall I had stumbled. Only a political
+      intrigue of the most desperate character could account for the words I had
+      heard and the actions to which I had been a witness. But I was in no mood
+      to recoil even from such dangers as these, and so my look showed her as
+      she leaned toward me with the words:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen! I am burdened with a secret. I am in this house, in this city,
+      for a purpose. The secret is not my own and I cannot part with it; neither
+      is my purpose communicable. You therefore will be obliged to deal with the
+      greatest dangers blindfold. One encouragement only I can give you. You
+      will work for good ends. You are pitted against wrong, not right, and if
+      you succumb, it will be in a cause you yourself would call noble. Do I
+      make myself understood, Mr.&mdash;Mr. &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Abbott,&rdquo; I put in, with a bow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She took the bow for an affirmative, as indeed I meant she should. &ldquo;You do
+      not recoil,&rdquo; she murmured, &ldquo;not even when I say that you must take no
+      third party into your confidence, no matter to what extremity you are
+      brought.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would not be the man I think I am, if I recoiled,&rdquo; I said, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She waved her hand with almost a stern air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Swear!&rdquo; she commanded; &ldquo;swear that, from the moment you leave this door
+      till you return to it, you will breathe no word concerning me, your
+      errand, or even the oath I am now exacting from you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; thought I to myself, &ldquo;this is serious.&rdquo; But I took the oath under
+      the spell of the most forceful personality I had ever met, and did not
+      regret it&mdash;<i>then</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now let us waste no more time,&rdquo; said she.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the large building on &mdash;&mdash;&mdash; Street there is an office
+      with the name of Dr. Merriam on the door. See! I have written it on this
+      card, so that there may be no mistake about it. That office is open to
+      patients from ten in the morning until twelve at noon. During these hours
+      any one can enter there; but to awaken no distrust, he should have some
+      ailment. Have you not some slight disorder concerning which you might
+      consult a physician?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I doubt it,&rdquo; said I; &ldquo;but I might manufacture one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That would not do with Dr. Merriam. He is a skilful man; he would see
+      through any imposture.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have a sick friend,&rdquo; I ruminated. &ldquo;And by the way, his case is obscure
+      and curious. I could interest any doctor in it in five minutes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is good; consult him in regard to your friend; meantime&mdash;while
+      you are waiting for the interview, I mean&mdash;take notice of a large box
+      you will find placed on a side-table. Do not seem to fix your attention on
+      it, but never let it be really out of your sight from the moment the door
+      is unlocked at ten till you are forced by the doctor&rsquo;s importunity to
+      leave the room at twelve. If you are alone there for one minute (and you
+      will be allowed to remain there alone if you show no haste to consult the
+      doctor) unlock that box&mdash;here is the key&mdash;and look carefully
+      inside. No one will interfere and no one will criticize you; there is more
+      than one person who has access to that box.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But&mdash;&rdquo; I put in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will discover there,&rdquo; she whispered, &ldquo;a hand of bronze lying on an
+      enamelled cushion. On the fingers of this hand there should be, and
+      doubtless are, rings of forged steel of peculiar workmanship. <i>If there
+      is one on the middle finger</i>, my cause is lost, and I can only await
+      the end.&rdquo; Her cheek paled. &ldquo;<i>But if there is not</i>, you may be sure
+      that an attempt will be made by some one to-morrow&mdash;I do not know
+      whom&mdash;to put one there before the office closes at noon. The ring
+      will be mine&mdash;the one stolen from my hand just now&mdash;and it will
+      be your business to prevent the box being opened for this purpose, by any
+      means short of public interference involving arrest and investigation; for
+      this, too, would be fatal. The delay of a day may be of incalculable
+      service to me. It would give me time to think, if not to act. Does the
+      undertaking seem a hopeless one? Am I asking too much of your
+      inexperience?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It does not seem a hopeful one,&rdquo; I admitted; &ldquo;but I am willing to
+      undertake the adventure. What are its dangers? And why, if I see the ring
+      on the finger you speak of, cannot I take it off and bring it back to
+      you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because,&rdquo; said she, answering the last question first, &ldquo;the ring becomes
+      a part of the mechanism the moment it is thrust over the last joint. You
+      could not draw it off. As for the dangers I allude to, they are of a
+      hidden character, and part of the secret I mentioned. If, however, you
+      exercise your wit, your courage, and a proper amount of strategy, you may
+      escape. Interference must be <i>proved</i> against you. That rule, at
+      least, has been held inviolate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Aghast at the mysterious perils she thus indicated in the path toward
+      which she was urging me, I for one instant felt an impulse to retreat. But
+      adventure of any kind has its allurements for an unoccupied youth of
+      twenty-one, and when seasoned, as this was, by a romantic, if
+      unreasonable, passion, proved altogether too irresistible for me to give
+      it up. Laughing outright in my endeavor to throw off the surplus of my
+      excitement, I drew myself up and uttered some fiery phrase of courage,
+      which I doubt if she even heard. Then I said some word about the doctor,
+      which she at once caught up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The doctor,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;may know, and may not know, the mysteries of that
+      box. I would advise you to treat him solely as a doctor. He who uses the
+      key you now hold in your hand cannot be too wary; by which I mean too
+      careful or too silent. Oh, that I dared to go there myself! But my
+      agitation would betray me. Besides, my person is known, or this ring would
+      never have been taken from me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will be your deputy,&rdquo; I assured her. &ldquo;Have you any further
+      instructions?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said she; &ldquo;instructions are useless in an affair of this kind. Your
+      actions must be determined by the exigencies of the moment. Meantime, my
+      every thought will be yours. Good-night, sir; pray God, it may not be
+      good-by.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One moment,&rdquo; I said, as I arose to go. &ldquo;Have you any objection to telling
+      me your name?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am Miss Calhoun,&rdquo; she said, with a graceful bow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the beginning of my formidable adventure with the bronze hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      II. THE QUAKER-LIKE GIRL, THE PALE GIRL, AND THE MAN WITH A BRISTLING MUSTACHE.
+    </h2>
+
+    <p>
+      THE building mentioned by my new-found friend was well known to me. It was
+      one of the kind in which every other office is unoccupied the year round.
+      Such tenants as gave it the little air of usefulness it possessed were of
+      the bad-pay kind. They gave little concern to their own affairs and less
+      to those of their neighbors. The public avoided the building, and the
+      tenants did nothing to encourage a change. In a populous city, on the
+      corner made by frequented streets, it stood as much alone and neglected as
+      if it were a ruin. Old or young eyes may have looked through its begrimed
+      windows into the busy thoroughfare beneath, but none in the street ever
+      honored the old place with a glance or thought. No one even wasted
+      contempt upon its smoky walls, and few disturbed the accumulated dust upon
+      the stairs or in the dimly-lighted hallways.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had a place been sought for wherein the utmost secrecy might be observed,
+      surely this was that place. As I neared the door upon which I read the
+      doctor&rsquo;s name, I found myself treading on tip-toe, so impressed had I
+      become by a sense of caution, if not of dread.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had made every effort to be on hand at precisely ten o&rsquo;clock, and felt
+      so sure that I had been the first to arrive that I reached out to the
+      door-knob with every expectation of entering, unseen by any one, and
+      possibly unheard. To my dismay, the first twist I gave it resulted in a
+      rusty shriek that set my teeth on edge, and echoed down the gloomy hall.
+      With my flesh creeping, I opened the door and passed into the doctor&rsquo;s
+      outer room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was far from being empty. Seated in chairs ranged along two sides of
+      the room, I saw a dozen or more persons, male and female. All wore the
+      preoccupied air that patients are apt to assume while awaiting their turn
+      to be called by the doctor. One amongst the number made an effort at
+      indifference by drawing out and pushing back a nail in the flooring with
+      the sole of her pretty shoe. It may have been intended for coquetry, and
+      at another time might have bewitched me; now it seemed strangely out of
+      place. The man who was to all appearance counting the flies in the web of
+      an industrious spider was more in keeping with the place, my feelings, and
+      the atmosphere of despondency that the room gave out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As I had no doubt that the ring I was seeking was in the possession of
+      some one of these persons, I gave each as minute an examination as was
+      possible under the circumstances. Only two amongst them appeared open to
+      suspicion. Of these, one was a young man whose naturally fine features
+      would have prepossessed him in my favor had it not been for the peculiar
+      alertness of his bright blue eye, which flashed incessantly in every
+      direction till each and all of us seemed to partake of his restlessness
+      and anxiety. Why was he not depressed? The other was the girl, or, rather,
+      the young lady to whose pretty foot I have referred. If she was at all
+      conspicuous, it was owing to the contrast between her beautiful face and
+      the Quaker-like simplicity of her dress. She was restless also; her foot
+      had ceased its action, but her hand moved constantly. Now it clutched its
+      fellow in her lap, and now it ran in an oft-repeated action, seemingly
+      beyond her control, up and down and round and round a plain but expensive
+      leather bag she wore at her side. &ldquo;She carries the ring,&rdquo; thought I,
+      sitting down in the chair next her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meantime, I had not been oblivious of <i>the box</i>. It stood upon a
+      plain oak table directly opposite the door by which I had come in. It was
+      about a foot square, and was the only object in the room at all
+      ornamental. Indeed, there was but little else for the eye to rest on,
+      consequently most of us looked that way, though I noticed that but few
+      seemed to take any real interest in that or anything else within sight.
+      This was encouraging, and I was on the point of transferring my entire
+      attention to the two persons I have named, when one of them, the nearest,
+      rose hurriedly and went out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was an unexpected move on her part, and I did not know what to make
+      of it. Had I annoyed her by my scrutiny, or had she divined my errand? In
+      my doubt, I consulted the face of the man I secretly thought to be her
+      accomplice. It was non-committal, and, in my doubt as to the meaning of
+      all this, I allowed myself to become interested in a pale young woman who
+      had been sitting on the other side of the lady who had just left. She was
+      evidently a patient who stood in great need of assistance. Her head hung
+      feebly forward, and her whole figure looked ready to drop. Yet when a
+      minute later the door of the inner office opened, and the doctor appeared
+      on the sill in an expectant attitude, she made no attempt to rise, but
+      pushed forward another woman who seemed less indisposed than herself. I
+      had to compel myself to think of all I saw as being real and within my
+      experience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Surprised by this action on the part of one so ill, I watched the pale
+      girl for an instant, and almost forgot my mission in the compassion
+      aroused by her sickly appearance. But soon that mission and my motive for
+      being in this place were somewhat vividly recalled to me by an unexpected
+      action on this very young woman&rsquo;s part. With the sudden movement of an
+      acutely suffering person, she bounded from her seat and crossed the floor
+      to where the box stood, gasping for breath, and almost falling against the
+      table when she reached it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A grunt from the good-looking young man followed; but neither he nor the
+      middle-aged female with a pitiful skin disease, who had been sitting near
+      her, offered to go to her assistance, though the latter looked as if she
+      would like to. I was the only one to rise. The truth is, I could see no
+      one touch <i>the box</i> without having something more than my curiosity
+      awakened. Approaching her respectfully, and with as complete a
+      dissimulation of my real feelings as possible, I ventured to say:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are very ill, miss. Shall I summon the doctor?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She was clutching the side of the table for support, and her head,
+      drooping helplessly over the box, was swaying from side to side as she
+      rocked to and fro in her pain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you!&rdquo; she gasped, without turning, &ldquo;I will wait. I would rather
+      wait.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At that moment the doctor&rsquo;s door opened again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There he is now,&rdquo; said I.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will wait,&rdquo; she insisted. &ldquo;Let the others take their turn.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Satisfied now that something besides pain caused her interest in the box,
+      I drew back, asking myself whether she had been in possession of the ring
+      from the beginning, or whether it had been passed to her by her restless
+      neighbor. Meanwhile, another patient had disappeared into the adjoining
+      room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few minutes passed. The man with the restless eye began to fidget. Could
+      it be that she was simply guarding the box, and that he was the one who
+      wished to open it? As the doubt struck me, I surveyed her more
+      attentively. She was certainly doing something besides supporting herself
+      with that sly right hand of hers. Yes, that was a click I heard. She was
+      fitting a key into the lock. Startled, but determined not to betray
+      myself, I assumed an air of great patience, and, taking a memorandum book
+      from my pocket, began to write in it. Meantime, the doctor had disposed of
+      his second patient and had beckoned to a third. To my astonishment, my
+      friend with the nervous manner responded, thus acquitting himself in my
+      eyes from any interest in the box.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The interview he had with the doctor lasted some time; meantime, the young
+      woman in the window remained more or less motionless. When the fourth
+      person left the room, she turned and cast a quick glance at myself and the
+      other person present.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I knew what it meant. She was anxious to be left alone in order to lift
+      that mysterious lid. She was no more ill than I was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was even a dash of color in her cheeks, and the trembling she
+      indulged in was caused by great excitement and suspense, and not by pain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Compassion at once gave way to anger, and I inwardly resolved not to spare
+      her if we came into conflict over the box.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My companion was an old and non-observant man, who had come in after the
+      rest of us. When the doctor again appeared, I motioned to this old man to
+      follow him, which he very gladly did, leaving me alone with the pale girl.
+      At once I got up, showing my fatigue and slightly yawning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is very tedious,&rdquo; I muttered aloud, and stepped idly towards the
+      door leading into the hall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl at the box could not restrain her impatience. She cast me another
+      short glance. I affected not to see it; took out my watch, consulted it,
+      put it back quickly and slipped out into the hall. As I closed the door
+      behind me, I heard a slight creak. Instantly I was back again, and with so
+      sudden a movement that I surprised her, with her face bent over the open
+      box.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, my poor young lady,&rdquo; I exclaimed, springing towards her with every
+      appearance of great concern. &ldquo;You do not look able to stand. Lean on me if
+      you feel faint, and I will help you to a seat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She turned upon me in a fury, but, meeting my eye, assumed an air of
+      composure, which did not impose upon me in the least, or prevent me from
+      pressing close to her side and taking one look into the box, which she had
+      evidently not had sufficient self-possession to close.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sight which met my eye was not unexpected, yet was no less interesting
+      on that account. A hand&mdash;<i>the</i> hand&mdash;curiously made of
+      bronze, and of exquisite proportions, lay on its enamelled cushion, with
+      rings on all of its fingers save one. That one I was delighted to see was
+      the middle one, proof positive that the mischief contemplated by Miss
+      Calhoun had not yet been accomplished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Restored to complete self-possession by this discovery, I examined the box
+      and its contents with an air of polite curiosity. I surprised myself by my
+      self-possession and <i>bonhomie</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What an odd thing to find in a physician&rsquo;s office!&rdquo; I exclaimed.
+      &ldquo;Beautiful, is it not? An unusual work of art; but there is nothing in it
+      to alarm you. You shouldn&rsquo;t allow yourself to be frightened at such a
+      thing as that.&rdquo; And with a quick action, she was wholly powerless to
+      prevent, I shut down the lid, which closed with a snap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Startled and greatly discomposed, she drew back, hastily thrusting her
+      hand behind her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are very officious,&rdquo; she began, but, seeing nothing but good nature
+      in the smile with which I regarded her, she faltered irresolutely, and
+      finally took refuge again in her former trick of invalidism. Breaking out
+      into low moanings, she fell back upon the nearest chair, from which she
+      immediately started again with the quick cry, &ldquo;Oh, how I suffer! I am not
+      well enough to be out alone.&rdquo; And turning with a celerity that belied her
+      words, she fled into the hall, shutting the door violently behind her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Astonished at the completeness of my victory, I spent the first moments of
+      triumph in trying to lift the lid of the box. But it was securely locked.
+      I was just debating whether I could now venture to return to my seat, when
+      the hall door reopened and a gentleman entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was short, sturdy and had a bristling black mustache. I needed to look
+      at him but once to be certain he was interested both in the box and me,
+      and, while I gave no evidence of my discovery, I prepared myself for an
+      adventure of a much more serious nature than that which had just occupied
+      me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Modeling my behavior upon that of the young girl whose place I had
+      usurped, I placed my elbow on the box and looked out of the window. As I
+      did so I heard a shuffling in the adjoining room, and knew that in another
+      moment the doctor would again appear at the door to announce that he was
+      ready for another patient. How could I evade the summons? The man behind
+      me was a determined one. He was there for the purpose of opening the box,
+      and would not be likely to leave the room while I remained in it. How,
+      then, could I comply with the requirements of the situation and yet
+      prevent this new-comer from lifting the lid in my absence? I knew of but
+      one way&mdash;a way which had suggested itself to me during the long
+      watches of the previous night, and which I had come prepared to carry out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Taking advantage of my proximity to the box, I inserted in the keyhole a
+      small morsel of wax which for some minutes past I had been warming in my
+      hand. This done, I laid my hat down on the lid, noting with great
+      exactness as I did so just where its rim lay in reference to the various
+      squares and scrolls with which the top was ornamented. By this means I
+      felt that I might know if the hat were moved in my absence. The doctor
+      having showed himself by this time, I followed him into his office with a
+      calmness born of the most complete confidence in the strategy I had
+      employed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dr. Merriam, whom I have purposely refrained from describing until now,
+      was a tall, well-made man, with a bald head and a pleasant eye, but
+      careless in his attire and bearing. As I met that eye and responded to his
+      good-natured greeting, I inwardly decided that his interest in the box was
+      much less than his guardianship of it would seem to betoken. And when I
+      addressed him and entered upon the subject of my friend&rsquo;s complaint, I
+      soon saw by the depth of his professional interest that whatever
+      connection he might have with the box, neither that nor any other topic
+      whatever could for a moment vie with his delight in a new and strange case
+      like that of my poor friend. I consequently entered into the medical
+      details demanded of me with a free mind and succeeded in getting some very
+      valuable advice, for which I was of course truly grateful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as this was accomplished I took my leave, but not by the usual
+      door of egress. Saying that I had left my hat in the ante-room, I bowed my
+      acknowledgments to the doctor and returned the way I came. But not without
+      meeting with a surprise. There was still but one person in the room with
+      the box, but that person was not the man with the bristling mustache and
+      determined eye whom I had expected to find there. It was the pretty,
+      Quaker-like girl who had formerly aroused my suspicions; and though she
+      sat far from the box, a moment&rsquo;s glance at her flushed face and trembling
+      hands assured me she had but that moment left it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Going at once to the box, I saw that my hat had been moved. But more
+      significant still was the hairpin lying on the floor at my feet, with a
+      morsel of wax sticking to one of its points. This was conclusive. The man
+      had discovered why his key would not work, and had called to his aid the
+      young lady, who had evidently been waiting in the hall outside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She had tried to pick out the wax&mdash;a task in which I had happily
+      interrupted her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Proud of the success of my device, and satisfied that the danger was over
+      for that day (it being well on to twelve o&rsquo;clock), I said a few words more
+      to the doctor, who had followed me into the room, and then prepared to
+      take my departure. But the young lady was more agile than I. Saying
+      something about a very pressing engagement which would not allow her to
+      consult the doctor that day, she hurried ahead of me and ran quickly down
+      the long hall. The doctor looked astonished, but dismissed the matter with
+      a shrug; while, with the greatest desire to follow her, I stood hesitating
+      on the threshold, when my eye fell on a small object lying under the chair
+      on which she had been sitting. It was the little leathern bag I had seen
+      hanging at her side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Catching it up, I explained that I would run after the young lady and
+      restore it; and glad of an excuse which would enable me to follow her
+      through the streets without risking the suspicion of impropriety, I
+      hastened down the stairs and happily succeeded in reaching the pavement
+      before her skirts whisked round the corner. I was therefore but a few
+      paces behind her, which distance I took good care to preserve.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      III. MADAME.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      My motive in following this young girl was not so much to restore her
+      property, as to see where her engagement was taking her. I felt confident
+      that none of the three persons who had shown interest in the box was the
+      prime mover in an affair so important; and it was necessary above all
+      things to find out who the prime mover was. So I followed the girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She led me into a doubtful quarter of the town. As the crowd between us
+      diminished and we reached a point where we were the only pedestrians on
+      the block we were then traversing, I grew anxious lest she should turn and
+      see me before arriving at her destination. But she evidently was without
+      suspicion, for she passed without any hesitation up a certain stoop in the
+      middle of this long block and entered an open door on which a brass plate
+      was to be seen, inscribed with this one word in large black letters:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;MADAME.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was odd; and as I had no inclination to encounter any &ldquo;madame&rdquo;
+       without some hint as to her character and business, I looked about me for
+      some one able and willing to give me the necessary information. An
+      upholsterer&rsquo;s shop in an opposite basement seemed to offer me the
+      opportunity I wanted. Crossing the street, I saluted the honest-looking
+      man I met in the doorway, and pointing out madame&rsquo;s house, asked what was
+      done over there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He answered with a smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go and see,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;the door&rsquo;s open. Oh, they don&rsquo;t charge anything,&rdquo;
+       he made haste to protest, misunderstanding, no doubt, my air of
+      hesitation. &ldquo;I was in there once myself. They all sit round and she talks;
+      that is, if she feels like it. It is all nonsense, you know, sir; no good
+      in it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But is there any harm?&rdquo; I asked. &ldquo;Is the place reputable and safe?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, safe enough; I never heard of anything going wrong there. Why, ladies
+      go there; real ladies; veiled, of course. I have seen two carriages at a
+      time standing in front of that door. Fools, to be sure, sir; but honest
+      enough, I suppose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I needed no further encouragement. Recrossing the street, I entered the
+      house which stood so invitingly open, and found myself almost immediately
+      in a large hall, from which I was ushered by a silent negress into a long
+      room with so dim and mysterious an interior that I felt like a man
+      suddenly transported from the bustle of the out-door world into the mystic
+      recesses of some Eastern temple.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The causes of this effect were simple, A dim light suggesting worship; the
+      faint scent of slowly burning incense; women and men sitting on low
+      benches about the walls. In the center, on a kind of raised dais, backed
+      by a drapery of black velvet, a woman was seated, in the semblance of a
+      Hindoo god, so nearly did her heavy, compactly crouched figure, wound
+      about with Eastern stuffs and glistening with gold, recall the images we
+      are accustomed to associate with the worship of Vishnu. Her face, too, so
+      far as it was visible in the subdued light, had the unresponsiveness of
+      carven wood, and if not exactly hideous of feature, had in it a strange
+      and haunting quality calculated to impress a sensitive mind with a sense
+      of implacable fate. Cruel, hard, passionless, and yet threatening to a
+      degree, must this countenance have seemed to those who willingly subjected
+      themselves to its baneful influence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was determined not to be one of these, and yet I had not regarded her
+      for two minutes before I found myself forgetting the real purpose of my
+      visit, and taking a seat with the rest, in anticipation of something for
+      which as yet I had no name, even in my own mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How long I sat there motionless I do not know. A spell was on me&mdash;a
+      spell from which I suddenly roused with a start. Why or through what means
+      I do not know. Nobody else had moved. Fearing a relapse into this
+      trance-like state, I made a persistent effort to be freed from its
+      dangers. Happily the full signification of my errand there burst upon me.
+      Finding myself really awake, I ventured to peer about, expecting to see
+      the more willing devotees affected as I had been. I encountered a flash
+      from the eyes of the young lady whose bag I held in my hand. She was under
+      no spell. She had not only seen but recognized me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I held the bag towards her. She gave a furtive glance in the direction of
+      Madame&mdash;a glance not free from fear&mdash;then clutched the bag.
+      Before releasing my hold upon it I ventured upon a word of explanation. I
+      got no further, for at this moment a voice was heard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the effect it had upon the expectant ones, I knew it could have
+      emanated only from the idol-like being who had filled the place with her
+      awesome personality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first the voice sounded like a distant call, musically sweet and low;
+      the kind of note that we can imagine the Indian snake-charmers to use when
+      the cobra raises its winged head in obedience to the pipe&rsquo;s resistless
+      charm. Every ear was strained to hear; mine with the rest. So much
+      preparation, so much faith must result in something. What was it to be?
+      The incoherent sounds became more and more distinct, and, finally, took on
+      the articulate form of words. The quiet was deathly. Every one was
+      prepared to interpret her utterances into personal significance. The dread
+      and trouble of the times filling all minds, men wished to be forehanded
+      with the decrees of Providence. Into this brooding silence the low,
+      vibrating tones of this mysterious voice entered, and this is what we
+      heard:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>Doom! doom! For him&mdash;the one&mdash;the betrayer&mdash;the passing
+      bell is tolling. Hear it, ye weak ones and grow strong. Hear it, ye mighty
+      and tremble. Not alone for him will it ring. For ye! for ye! if the decree
+      of the linked rings goes forth&mdash;-</i>&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here there was a perceptible quiver of the drapery back of the dais.
+      Others may not have noted it; I did. When, therefore, a very white hand
+      came slowly from between its folds and placed its fingers upon the right
+      temple of Madame, I was not much startled. What did startle me was the
+      fact let out before that admonishing hand touched her, that this being&mdash;I
+      can hardly call her woman&mdash;seemingly so far removed from the
+      political agitations of the day, was, in very deed, either consciously or
+      unconsciously&mdash;I could not decide which&mdash;intimately connected
+      with the conspiracy I was at that very moment striving to defeat. How
+      intimately? Was she the prime mover I was seeking, or simply an instrument
+      under the control of another, and yet stronger, personality imaged in the
+      owner of that white hand?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no means of determining at that moment. Meanwhile, the fingers
+      had left the temple of Madame. The hand was slowly withdrawn. Sleep
+      apparently fell again upon the dreamer, but only long enough for her to
+      bring forth the words:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have said.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The silence that followed, gave me time to think. It was necessary. She
+      had bidden the mighty tremble and had pronounced death to one&mdash;the
+      betrayer. Was this senseless drivel, prophetic sight, or threatened
+      murder? I inclined to consider it the last, and this was why: For some
+      weeks now, murder, or, at least, sudden death, had been rampant in the
+      country. My flesh crept as I remembered the many mysterious deaths
+      reported within the month from St. Louis, Boston, New Orleans, New York
+      and even here in Baltimore. Like a flash it came across me that every name
+      was identified, more or less closely, with the political affairs of the
+      time. Coupling my knowledge with what I conjectured, was it strange I saw
+      a confirmation of the worst fears expressed by Miss Calhoun in the
+      half-completed sentences of this seeming clairvoyant?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So occupied had I been with my own thoughts that I feared I might have
+      done something to call an undesirable attention to myself. Glancing
+      furtively to one side, I heard, in the opposite direction, these words:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She has never failed. What she has said will come to pass. Some one of
+      note will die.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These gloomy words were the first to break the ominous silence. Turning to
+      face the speaker, I encountered the cold eye of a man with a retreating
+      chin, a receding forehead, and a mouth large and cruel enough to stamp him
+      as one of those perverted natures who, to the unscrupulous, are usefully
+      insane.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here, then, was a being who not only knew the meaning of the fateful words
+      we had heard, but, to my mind, could be relied upon to make them a verity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a relief to me to turn my gaze from his repellant features to the
+      fixed countenance of Madame. She had not stirred; but either the room had
+      grown lighter or my eyes had become more accustomed to the darkness, for I
+      certainly saw a change in her look. Her eyelids were now raised, and her
+      eyes were bent directly upon me. This was uncomfortable, especially as
+      there was malevolence in her glance, or so I thought, and, far from being
+      pleased with my position, I began to wish that I had never allowed myself
+      to enter the place. Under the influence of this feeling I let my eyes drop
+      from the woman&rsquo;s countenance to her hands, which were folded, as I have
+      said, in a fixed position across her breast. The result was an increase of
+      my mental disturbance. They were brown, shining hands, laden with rings,
+      and, in the added light, under which I saw them, bore a strange
+      resemblance to the bronze hand I had just left in Dr. Merriam&rsquo;s office.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had never considered myself a weak man, but, from that instant, I began
+      to have a crawling fear of this woman&mdash;a fear that was in nowise
+      lessened by the very evident agitation visible in the girl, who had been
+      for me the connecting link between that object of mystery and this.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Unendurable quiet was upon us all again. It was aggravated by awe&mdash;an
+      awe to which I was determined not to succumb, notwithstanding the secret
+      uneasiness under which I was laboring. So I let my eyes continue to roam,
+      till they fell upon the one thing moving in the room. This was a man&rsquo;s
+      foot, which I now saw projecting from behind the drapery through which I
+      had seen the white hand glide. It was swinging up and down in an impatient
+      way, so out of keeping with the emotions perceptible on this side of the
+      drapery that I felt forced to ask myself what sort of person this could be
+      who thus kept watch and ward with such very commonplace impatience over a
+      creature who was able to hold every other person in her presence under a
+      spell. The drapery did not give up its secrets, and again I yielded to the
+      fascinations of Madame&rsquo;s face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a change in it; the eyes no longer looked my way, but into
+      space, which seemed to hold for them some terrible and heart-rending
+      vision. The lips, which had been closed, were now parted, and from them
+      issued a breath which soon formed itself into words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Vengeance is mine! I will repay,&rsquo; saith the Lord.&rdquo; What passionate
+      utterance was this? The voice that had been musical now rang with jangling
+      discord. The swinging of the foot behind the drapery ceased. Madame spoke
+      on:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Through pain, sorrow, blood and death shall victory come. Life for life,
+      pang for pang, scorn for scorn!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The swinging foot disappeared, and the small white hand passed quickly
+      through the curtain and rested again upon the forehead of Madame. But
+      without a calming effect this time. On the contrary, it seemed to urge and
+      incite her, for she broke into a new strain, speaking rapidly, wildly, as
+      if she lived in what she saw, or, what was doubtless truer, had lived in
+      it and was but recalling her own past in one of those terrible hours of
+      memory that recur on the border-land of dreams.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see a child, a girl. She is young; she is beautiful. Men love her, many
+      men, but she loves only one. He is of the North; she is of the South. He
+      is icy like his clime; she is fiery like her skies. The fire cannot warm
+      the ice. It is the ice puts out the fire! Woe! woe!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The left hand came from the drapery; found its way to the left temple of
+      the woman. But it, too, was ineffectual. Hurriedly, madly, the words went
+      on, tripping each other up in their haste and passion. The voice now
+      became hoarse with rage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The girl is now a woman. A child is given her. The man demands the child.
+      She will not give it up. He curses it; he curses her, but she is firm and
+      holds it to her breast till her arms are blackened by the blows he deals
+      her. Then he curses her <i>country</i>, the land that gave her a <i>heart</i>;
+      and, hearing this, she rises up and curses him and his with an oath the
+      Lord will hear and answer from His judgment throne. <i>For the child was
+      slain between them</i> and its pitiful, small body blocks the passage of
+      Mercy between his and hers forever. Woe! woe!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As suddenly as the vehement change had come upon her, she had become calm
+      again. The eyes retained their stony stare, but a cold and cruel smile
+      formed about her lips, as if, with the utterance of that last word, she
+      saw a futurity of blood and carnage satisfying her ferocious soul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was revolting, horrible; but no one else seemed to feel it as I did. To
+      most it was a short glimpse into a suffering soul. To me it was the
+      revelation of causes which had led, and would lead yet, to miseries for
+      which she had no pity, and which I felt myself too weak to avert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That it was not intended that the devotees of Madame should have heard
+      these ravings was evident; for at this juncture the owner of the two white
+      hands that had failed to control the spirit of Madame came out from behind
+      the drapery of the dais. He proved to be none other than the man with the
+      bristling mustache whose plans I had disarranged at the doctor&rsquo;s office by
+      plugging the keyhole of the box with wax.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was enough. &ldquo;Chicanery!&rdquo; was my inmost thought as I noted his cool
+      and calculating eye. &ldquo;But very dangerous chicanery,&rdquo; I added. Was the ring
+      upon whose immediate capture I now saw that a life, if not lives,
+      depended, in his possession, or in that of Madame, or in that of the
+      Quaker-like girl sitting a few seats from me? How impossible to tell, and
+      yet how imperative to know! As I was debating how this could be brought
+      about, I watched the man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Self-control was a habit with him, but I saw the nervous clutch of his
+      delicate hand. This did not indicate complete mastery of himself at that
+      moment. He spoke with care, but as if he were in haste to deliver himself
+      of the few necessary words of dismissal, without betraying his lack of
+      composure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madame will awake presently; she will be heard no more to-day. Those who
+      wish to kiss her robes may pass in front of her; but she is still too far
+      away from earth to hear your voices or to answer any questions. You will
+      therefore preserve silence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So! so! more chicanery. Or was it strategy, pure and simple? Was there at
+      the bottom of his words the wish to see me nearer or was he just playing
+      with the credulity of such believers as the man next me, for instance? I
+      did not stop to determine. My anxiety to see Madame, without the illusion
+      of even the short distance between us, induced me to join the file of the
+      faithful who were slowly approaching the seated woman. I would not kiss
+      her robes, but I would look into her eyes and make sure that she was as
+      far away from us all as she was said to be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But as I drew nearer to her I forgot all about her eyes in the interest
+      awakened by her hands. And when it came my turn to pause before her, it
+      was upon the middle finger of her right hand my eyes were fixed. For there
+      I saw THE RING; the veritable ring of my fair neighbor, if the description
+      given by her was correct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To see it there was to have it; or so I vowed in my surprise and
+      self-confidence. Putting on an air of great dignity, I bowed to the woman
+      and passed on, resolving upon the course I would pursue, which must
+      necessarily be daring in order to succeed. At the door I paused till all
+      who followed me had passed out; then I turned back, and once again faced
+      Madame.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was alone. Her watchful guardian had left her side, and to all
+      appearances the room. The opportunity surpassed my expectations, and with
+      a step full of nerve I pushed forward and took my stand again directly in
+      front of her. She gave no token of seeing me; but I did not hesitate on
+      that account. Exerting all my will power, I first subjected her to a long
+      and masterful look, and then I spoke, directly and to the point, like one
+      who felt himself her superior,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madame,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;the man you wish for is here. Give me the ring, and
+      trust no more to weak or false emissaries.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The start with which she came to life, or to the evidence of life, was
+      surprising. Lifting her great lids, she returned my gaze with one equally
+      searching and powerful, and seeing with what disdain I sustained it,
+      allowed an almost imperceptible tremor to pass across her face, which up
+      to now had not displayed the shadow even of an emotion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You!&rdquo; she murmured, in a dove-like tone of voice; &ldquo;who are you that I
+      should trust you more than the others?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am he you expect,&rdquo; said I, venturing more as I felt her impassibility
+      giving way before me. &ldquo;Have you had no premonition of my coming? Did you
+      not know that he who controls would be in your presence to-day?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She trembled, and her fingers almost unclasped from her arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have had dreams,&rdquo; she murmured, &ldquo;but I have been bidden to beware of
+      dreams. If you are the person you claim to be, you will have some token
+      which will absolve me from the charge of credulity. What is your token?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Though doubtful, I dared not hesitate. &ldquo;This,&rdquo; I said, taking from my
+      pocket the key which had been given me by my fair neighbor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She moved, she touched it with a finger; then she eyed me again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Others have keys,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;but they fail in the opening. How are you
+      better than they?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know,&rdquo; I declared&mdash;&ldquo;you know that I can do what others have
+      failed in. Give me the ring.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The force, the assurance with which I uttered this command moved her in
+      spite of herself. She trembled, gave me one final, searching look, and
+      slowly began to pull the ring from off her finger. It was in her hand, and
+      half way to mine, when a third voice came to break the spell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madame, Madame,&rdquo; it said; &ldquo;be careful. This is the man who clogged the
+      lock, and hindered my endeavors in your behalf in the doctor&rsquo;s office.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her hand which was so near mine drew back; but I was too quick and too
+      determined for her. I snatched the ring before she could replace it on her
+      own hand, and, holding it firmly, faced the intruder with an air of very
+      well-assumed disdain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Attempt no argument with me. It was because I saw your weakness and
+      vulgar self-confidence that I interfered in a matter only to be undertaken
+      by one upon whom all can rely. Now that I have the ring, the end is near.
+      Madame, be wiser in the choice of your confidants, <i>To-morrow this ring
+      will be in its proper place</i>.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bowing as I had done before, I advanced to the door. They had made no
+      effort to regain the ring, and I felt that my rashness had stood me in
+      good stead. But as, with a secret elation I was just capable of keeping
+      within bounds, I put my foot across the threshold, I heard behind me a
+      laugh so triumphant and mocking that I felt struck with consternation;
+      and, glancing down into my hand, I saw that I held, not the peculiar steel
+      circlet destined for the piece of mechanism in the doctor&rsquo;s office, but an
+      ordinary ring of gold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She had offered me the wrong ring, <i>and I had taken it</i>, thus proving
+      the falsity of my pretensions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was nothing left for me but to acknowledge defeat by an ignominious
+      departure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      IV. CHECKMATE.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      I HASTENED at once home, and knocked at Miss Calhoun&rsquo;s door. While waiting
+      for a response, the mockery of my return without the token I had
+      undertaken to restore to her, impressed itself upon me in full force. It
+      seemed to me that in that instant my face must have taken on a haggard
+      look. I could not summon up the necessary will to make it otherwise. Any
+      effort in that direction would have made my failure at cheerfulness
+      pitiable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The door opened. There she stood. Whatever expectancy of success she may
+      have had fled at once. Our eyes met and her countenance changed. My face
+      must have told the whole story, for she exclaimed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have failed!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I was obliged to acknowledge it in a whisper, but hastened to assure her
+      that the ring had not yet been placed upon the bronze hand, and was not
+      likely to be till the lock had been cleaned, out. This interested her, and
+      called out a hurried but complete recital of my adventure. She hung upon
+      it breathlessly, and when I reached the point where Madame and her
+      prophetic voice entered the tale, she showed so much excitement that any
+      doubts I may have cherished as to the importance of the communication
+      Madame had made us vanished in a cold horror I with difficulty hid from my
+      companion. But the end agitated her more than the beginning, and when she
+      heard that I had taken upon myself a direct connection with this
+      mysterious matter, she grew so pale that I felt forced to inquire if the
+      folly I had committed was likely to result badly, at which she shuddered
+      and replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have brought death upon yourself. I see nothing but destruction
+      before us both. This woman&mdash;this horrible woman&mdash;has seen your
+      face, and, if she is what you describe, she will never forget it. The man,
+      who is her guardian or agent, no doubt, must have tracked you, and finding
+      you here with me, from whose hand he himself may have torn the ring last
+      night, will record it as treason against a cause which punishes all
+      treason with death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pshaw!&rdquo; I ejaculated, with a jocular effort at indifference, which I
+      acknowledge I did not feel. &ldquo;You seem to forget the law. We live in the
+      city of Baltimore. Charlatans such as I have just left behind me do not
+      make away with good citizens with impunity. We have only to seek the
+      protection of the police.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She met my looks with a slowly increasing intentness, which stilled this
+      protest on my lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am under no oath,&rdquo; she ruminated. &ldquo;I can tell this man what I will. Mr.
+      Abbott, there has been formed in this city an organization against which
+      the police are powerless. I am an involuntary member of it, and I know its
+      power. It has constrained me and it has constrained others, and no one who
+      has opposed it once has lived to do so twice. Yet it has no recognized
+      head (though there is a chief to whom we may address ourselves), and it
+      has no oaths of secrecy. All is left to the discretion of its members, and
+      <i>to their fears</i>. The object of this society is the breaking of the
+      power of the North, and the means by which it works is <i>death</i>. I
+      joined it under a stress of feeling I called patriotism, and I believed
+      myself right till the sword was directed against my own breast. Then I
+      quailed; then I began to ask by what right we poor mortals constitute
+      ourselves into instruments of destruction to our kind, and having once
+      stopped to question, I saw the whole matter in such a different light that
+      I knowingly put a stumbling-block in the path of so-called avenging
+      justice, and thus courted the doom that at any moment may fall upon my
+      head.&rdquo; And she actually looked up, as if expecting to see it fall then and
+      there. &ldquo;This Madame,&rdquo; she went on in breathless haste, &ldquo;is doubtless one
+      of the members. How so grotesque and yet redoubtable an individuality
+      should have become identified with a cause demanding the coolest judgment
+      as well as the most acute political acumen, I cannot stop to conjecture.
+      But that she is a member of our organization, and an important one, too,
+      her prophecies, which have so strangely become facts, are sufficient
+      proof, even had you not seen my ring on her finger. Perhaps, incredible as
+      it may appear, she is the <i>chief</i>. If so&mdash;But I do not make
+      myself intelligible,&rdquo; she continued, meeting my eyes. &ldquo;I will be more
+      explicit. One peculiar feature of this organization is the complete
+      ignorance which we all have concerning our fellow-members. We can reveal
+      nothing, for we know nothing. I know that I am allied to a cause which has
+      for its end the destruction of all who oppose the supremacy of the South,
+      but I cannot give you the name of another person attached to this
+      organization, though I feel the pressure of their combined power upon
+      every act of my life. <i>You</i> may be a member without my knowing it&mdash;a
+      secret and fearful thought, which forms one of the greatest safeguards to
+      the institution, though it has failed in this instance, owing&rdquo;&mdash;here
+      her voice fell&mdash;&ldquo;to my devotion to the man I love. What?&rdquo;&mdash;(I
+      had not spoken; my heart was dying within me, but I had given no evidence
+      of a wish to interrupt her; she, however, feared a check, and rushed
+      vehemently on.) &ldquo;I shall have to tell you more. When, through pamphlets
+      and unsigned letters&mdash;dangerous communications, which have long since
+      become ashes&mdash;I was drawn into this society (and only those of the
+      most radical and impressionable natures are approached) a ring and a key
+      were sent me with this injunction: &lsquo;When the man or woman whose name will
+      be forwarded to you in an otherwise empty envelope, shall have, in your
+      honest judgment, proved himself or herself sufficiently dangerous to the
+      cause we love, to merit removal, you are to place this ring on the middle
+      finger of the bronze hand locked up in the box openly displayed in the
+      office of a Dr. Merriam on &mdash;&mdash;&mdash; Street. With the pressure
+      of the whole five rings on the fingers of this piece of mechanism, the
+      guardian of our rights will be notified by a bell, that a victim awaits
+      justice, and the end to be accomplished will be begun. As there are five
+      fingers, and each one of these must feel the pressure of its own ring
+      before connection can be made between this hand and the bell mentioned, no
+      injustice can be done and no really innocent person destroyed. For, when
+      five totally disconnected persons devoted to the cause agree that a
+      certain individual is worthy of death, mistake is impossible. You are now
+      one of the five. Use the key and the ring according to your conscience.&rsquo;
+      This was well, if I had been allowed to follow my conscience; but when,
+      six weeks ago, they sent me the name of a man of lofty character and
+      unquestioned loyalty, I recoiled, scarcely believing my eyes. Yet, fearing
+      that my own judgment was warped, or that some hidden hypocrisy was latent
+      in a man thus given over to our attention, I made it my business to learn
+      this man&rsquo;s inner life. I found it so beautiful&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; She choked,
+      turned away for a moment, controlled herself, and went on rapidly and with
+      increased earnestness: &ldquo;I learned to love this man, and as I learned to
+      love him I grew more and more satisfied of the dangerous character of the
+      organization I was pledged to. But I had one comfort. He could not be
+      doomed without my ring, and that was safe on my finger. Safe! You know how
+      safe it was. The monster whom you have just seen, and who may have been
+      the person to subject this noble man to suspicion, must have discovered my
+      love and the safeguard it offered to this man. The ring, as you know, was
+      stolen, and as you have failed to recover it, and I to get any reply from
+      the chief to whom I forwarded my protest, to-morrow will without doubt see
+      it placed upon the finger of the bronze hand. The result you know.
+      Fantastic as this may strike you, it is the dreadful truth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Love, had I ever felt this holy passion for her, had no longer a place in
+      my breast; but awe, terror and commiseration for her, for him, and also
+      perhaps for myself, were still active passions within me, and at this
+      decided statement of the case, I laughed in the excitement of the moment,
+      and the relief I felt at knowing just what there was to dread in the
+      adventure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Absurd!&rdquo; I cried. &ldquo;With Madame&rsquo;s address in my mind and the Baltimore
+      police at my command, this man is as safe from assault as you or I are.
+      Give me five minutes&rsquo; talk with Chief&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her hand on my arm stopped me; the look in her eye made me dumb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What could you do without <i>me?</i>&rdquo; she said; &ldquo;and my evidence you
+      cannot have. For what would give it weight can never pass my lips. The
+      lives that have fallen with my connivance stand between me and confession.
+      I do not wish to subject myself to the law.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This placed her in another light before me, and I started back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; I stammered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Placed that ring three times on the hand in Dr. Merriam&rsquo;s office.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And each time?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A man somewhere in this nation has died suddenly. I do not know by what
+      means or by whose hand, but he died.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This beautiful creature guilty of&mdash;&mdash; I tried not to show my
+      horror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is, then, a question of choice between you and him?&rdquo; said I. &ldquo;Either
+      you or he must perish. Both cannot be saved.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She recoiled, turning very pale, and for several minutes stood surveying
+      me with a fixed gaze as if overcome by an idea which threw so immense a
+      responsibility upon her. As she stood thus, I seemed not only to look into
+      her nature, but her life. I saw the fanaticism that that had once held
+      every good impulse in check, the mistaken devotion, the unreasoning
+      hatred, and, underneath all, a spirit of truth and rectitude which
+      brightened and brightened as I watched her, till it dominated every evil
+      passion and made her next words come easily, and with a natural burst of
+      conviction which showed the innate generosity of her soul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have shown me my duty, sir. There can be no question as to where the
+      choice should fall, I am not worth one hair of his noble head. Save him,
+      sir; I will help you by every means in my power.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Seizing the opportunity she thus gave me, I asked her the name of the man
+      who was threatened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a low voice she told me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was astonished; dumfounded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shameful!&rdquo; I cried. &ldquo;What motive, what reason can they have for
+      denouncing <i>him?</i>&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is under suspicion&mdash;that is enough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Great heaven!&rdquo; I exclaimed. &ldquo;Have we reached such a pass as that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t,&rdquo; she uttered, hoarsely; &ldquo;don&rsquo;t reason; don&rsquo;t talk; act.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will,&rdquo; I cried, and rushed from the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She fell back in a chair, almost fainting. I saw her lying quiet, inert
+      and helpless as I rushed by her door on my way to the street, but I did
+      not stop to aid her. I knew she would not suffer it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The police are practical, and my tale was an odd one. I found it hard,
+      therefore, to impress them with its importance, especially as in trying to
+      save Miss Calhoun I was necessarily more or less incoherent. I did
+      succeed, however, in awakening interest at last, and, a man being assigned
+      me, I led the way to Madame&rsquo;s door. But here a surprise awaited me. The
+      doorplate, which had so attracted my attention, was gone, and in a few
+      minutes we found that she had departed also, leaving no trace behind her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This looked ominous, and with little delay we hastened to the office of
+      Dr. Merriam. Knocking at the usual door brought no response, but when we
+      tried the further one, by which his patients usually passed out, we found
+      ourselves confronted by the gentleman we sought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His face was calm and smiling, and though he made haste to tell us that we
+      had come out of hours, he politely asked us in and inquired what he could
+      do for us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not understanding how he could have forgotten me so soon, I looked at him
+      inquiringly, at which his face lighted up, and he apologetically said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I remember you now. You were here this morning consulting me about a
+      friend who is afflicted with a peculiar complaint. Have you anything
+      further to state or ask in regard to it. I have just five minutes to
+      spare.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hear this gentleman first,&rdquo; said I, pointing to the officer who
+      accompanied me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor calmly bowed, and waited with the greatest self-possession for
+      him to state his case.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The officer did so abruptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is a box in your ante-room which I feel it my duty to examine. I am
+      Detective Hopkins, of the city police.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor, with a gentleness which seemed native rather than assumed,
+      quietly replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am very sorry, but you are an hour too late.&rdquo; And, throwing open the
+      door of communication between the two rooms, he pointed to the table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>The box was gone</i>!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      V. DOCTOR MERRIAM.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      This second disappointment was more than I could endure. Turning upon the
+      doctor with undisguised passion, I hotly asked:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who has taken it? Describe the person at once. Tell what you know about
+      the box, I did not finish the threat; but my looks must have been very
+      fierce, for he edged off a bit, and cast a curious glance at the officer
+      before he answered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have, then, no ailing friend? Well, well; I expended some very good
+      advice upon you. But you paid me, and so we are even.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The box!&rdquo; I urged; &ldquo;the box! Don&rsquo;t waste words, for a man&rsquo;s life is at
+      stake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His surprise was marvelously assumed or very real.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are talking somewhat wildly, are you not?&rdquo; he ventured, with a bland
+      air. &ldquo;A man&rsquo;s life? I cannot believe that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you don&rsquo;t answer me,&rdquo; I urged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He smiled; he evidently thought me out of my mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s true; but there is so little I can tell you. I do not know what
+      was in the box about which you express so much concern, and I do not know
+      the names of its owners. It was brought here some six months ago and
+      placed in the spot where you saw it this morning, upon conditions that
+      were satisfactory to me, and not at all troublesome to my patients, whose
+      convenience I was bound to consult. It has remained there till to-day,
+      when&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the officer interrupted him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What were these conditions? The matter calls for frankness.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The conditions,&rdquo; repeated the doctor, in no wise abashed, &ldquo;were these:
+      That it should occupy the large table in the window as long as they saw
+      fit. That, though placed in my room, it should be regarded as the property
+      of the society which owned it, and, consequently, free to the inspection
+      of its members but to no one else. That I should know these members by
+      their ability to open the box, and that so long as these persons confined
+      their visits to my usual hours for patients, they were to be subject to no
+      one&rsquo;s curiosity, nor allowed to suffer from any one&rsquo;s interference. In
+      return for these slight concessions, I was to receive five dollars for
+      every day I allowed it to stay here, payment to be made by mail.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good business! And you cannot tell the names of the persons with whom you
+      entered into this contract?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; the one who came to me first and saw to the placing of the box and
+      all that, was a short, sturdy fellow, with a common face but very
+      brilliant eye; he it was who made the conditions; but the man who came to
+      get it, and who paid me twenty dollars for opening my office door at an
+      unusual hour, was a more gentlemanly man, with a thick, brown mustache and
+      resolute look. He was accompanied&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do you stop?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was wondering,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;if I should say he was accompanied, or that
+      he accompanied, a woman, of such enormous size that the doorway hardly
+      received her. I thought she was a patient at first, for, large as she is,
+      she was brought into my room in a chair, which it took four men to carry.
+      But she only came about the box.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madame!&rdquo; I muttered; and being made still more eager by this discovery of
+      her direct participation in its carrying off, I asked if she touched the
+      box or whether it was taken away unopened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor&rsquo;s answer put an end to every remaining hope I may have
+      cherished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She not only touched but opened it. I saw the lid rise and heard a whirr.
+      What is the matter, sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing,&rdquo; I made haste to say&mdash;&ldquo;that is, nothing I can communicate
+      just now. This woman must be followed,&rdquo; I signified to the officer, and
+      was about to rush from the room when my eye fell on the table where the
+      box stood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See!&rdquo; said I, pointing to a fine wire protruding from a small hole in the
+      center of its upper surface; &ldquo;this box had connection with some point
+      outside of this room.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor&rsquo;s face flushed, and for the first time he looked a trifle
+      foolish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I perceive <i>now,</i>&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;The workman who put up this box
+      evidently took liberties in my absence. For <i>that</i> I was not paid.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This wire leads where?&rdquo; asked the officer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rip up the floor and see. I know no other way to find out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But that would take time, and we have not a minute to lose,&rdquo; said I, and
+      was disappearing for the second time when I again stopped. &ldquo;Doctor,&rdquo; said
+      I, &ldquo;when you consented to harbor this box under such peculiar conditions
+      and allowed yourself to receive such good pay for a service involving so
+      little inconvenience to yourself, you must have had some idea of the uses
+      to which so mysterious an article would be put. What did you suppose them
+      to be?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To tell you the truth, I thought it was some new-fangled lottery scheme,
+      and I have still to learn that I was mistaken.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I gave him a look, but did not stop to undeceive him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      VI. THE BOX AGAIN.
+    </h2>
+
+    <p>But one resource was left: to warn Mr.
+      S&mdash;&mdash;&mdash; of his peril. This was not so easy a task as might
+      appear. To make my story believed, I should be obliged to compromise Miss
+      Calhoun, and Mr. S&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&lsquo;s well-known chivalry, as far as
+      women are concerned, would make the communication difficult on my part, if
+      not absolutely impossible. I, however, determined to attempt it, though I
+      could not but wish I were an older man, with public repute to back me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Though there was but little in Mr. S&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&lsquo;s public life
+      which I did not know, I had little or no knowledge of his domestic
+      relations beyond the fact that he was a widower with one child. I did not
+      even know where he lived. But inquiry at police headquarters soon settled
+      that, and in half an hour after leaving the doctor&rsquo;s office I was at his
+      home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a large, old-fashioned dwelling, of comfortable aspect; too
+      comfortable, I thought, for the shadow of doom, which, in my eyes, overlay
+      its cheerful front, wide-open doors and windows. How should I tell my
+      story here! What credence could I expect for a tale so gruesome, within
+      walls warmed by so much sunshine and joy. None, possibly; but my story
+      must be told for all that.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ringing the bell hurriedly, I asked for Mr. S&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;. He was
+      out of town. This was my first check. When would he be home? The answer
+      gave me some hope, though it seemed to increase my difficulties. He would
+      be in the city by eight, as he had invited a large number of guests to his
+      house for the evening. Beyond this, I could learn nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Returning immediately to Miss Calhoun, I told her what had occurred, and
+      tried to impress upon her the necessity I felt of seeing Mr. S&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;
+      that night. She surveyed me like a woman in a dream. Twice did I have to
+      repeat my words before she seemed to take them in; then she turned
+      hurriedly, and going to a little desk standing in one corner of the room,
+      drew out a missive, which she brought me. It was an invitation to this
+      very reception which she had received a week before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will get you one,&rdquo; she whispered. &ldquo;But don&rsquo;t speak to him, don&rsquo;t tell
+      him without giving me some warning. I will not be far from you. I think I
+      will have strength for this final hour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God grant that your sacrifice may bear fruit,&rdquo; I said, and left her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To enter, on such an errand as mine, a brilliantly illuminated house
+      odoriferous with flowers and palpitating with life and music, would be
+      hard for any man. It was hard for me. But in the excitement of the
+      occasion, aggravated as it was by a presage of danger not only to myself
+      but to the woman I had come so near loving, I experienced a calmness, such
+      as is felt in the presence of all mortal conflicts. I made sure that this
+      was reflected in my face before leaving the dressing-room, and satisfied
+      that I would not draw the attention of others by too much or too little
+      color, I descended to the drawing-room and into the presence of my admired
+      host.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had expected to confront a handsome man, but not of the exact type that
+      he presented. There was a melancholy in his expression I had not foreseen,
+      mingled with an attraction from which I could not escape after my first
+      hurried glimpse of his features across the wide room. No other man in the
+      room had it to so great a degree, nor was there any other who made so
+      determined an effort to throw off care and be simply the agreeable
+      companion. Could it be that any other warning had forestalled mine, or was
+      this his habitual manner and expression? Finding no answer to this
+      question, I limited myself to the duty of the hour, and advancing as
+      rapidly as possible through the ever-increasing throng, waited for the
+      chance to speak to him for one minute alone. Meantime, I satisfied myself
+      that the two detectives sent from police headquarters were on hand. I
+      recognized them among a group of people at the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether intentionally or not, Mr. S &mdash;&mdash;&mdash; had taken up his
+      stand before the conservatory, and as in my endeavors to reach him I
+      approached within sight of this place, I perceived the face of Miss
+      Calhoun shining from amid its greenery, and at once remembered the promise
+      I had made her. She was looking for me, and, meeting my eyes, made me an
+      imperceptible gesture, to which I felt bound to respond.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Slipping from the group with which I was advancing, I stole around to a
+      side door towards which she had pointed, and in another moment found
+      myself at her side. She was clothed in velvet, which gave to her cheek and
+      brow the colorlessness of marble.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is not as ignorant of his position as we thought,&rdquo; said she. &ldquo;I have
+      been watching him for an hour. He is in anticipation of something. This
+      will make our task easier.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have said nothing,&rdquo; I suggested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no; how could I?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps the detectives I saw there have told him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps; but they cannot know the whole.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, or our words would be unnecessary.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. Abbott,&rdquo; said she, with feverish volubility, &ldquo;do not try to tell him
+      yet; wait for a few minutes till I have gained a little self-possession, a
+      little command over myself; but no&mdash;that may be to risk his life&mdash;do
+      not wait a moment&mdash;go now, go now, only&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; She started,
+      stumbled and fell back into a low seat under a spreading palm. &ldquo;He is
+      coming here. Do not leave me, Mr. Abbott; step back there behind those
+      plants. I cannot trust myself to face him all alone.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I did as she bade me. Mr. S&mdash;&mdash;, with a smile on his face&mdash;the
+      first I had seen there&mdash;came in and walked with a quick step and a
+      resolved air up to Miss Calhoun, who endeavored to rise to meet him. But
+      she was unable, which involuntary sign of confusion seemed to please him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Irene,&rdquo; said he, in a tone that made me start and wish I had not been so
+      amenable to her wishes, &ldquo;I thought I saw you glide in here, and my guests
+      being now all arrived, I have ventured to steal away for a moment, just to
+      satisfy the craving which has been torturing me for the last hour. Irene,
+      you are pale; you tremble like an aspen. Have I frightened you by my words&mdash;too
+      abrupt, perhaps, considering the reserve that has always been between us
+      until now. Didn&rsquo;t you know that I loved you? that for the last month&mdash;ever
+      since I have known you, indeed&mdash;I have had but the one wish, to make
+      you my wife?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good God!&rdquo; I saw the words on her lips rather than heard them. She seemed
+      to be illumined and overwhelmed at once. &ldquo;Mr. S&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;,&rdquo;
+       said she, trying to be brave, trying to address him with some sort of
+      self-possession,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not expect&mdash;I had no right to expect this honor from you. I am
+      not worthy&mdash;I have no right to hear such words from your lips.
+      Besides&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; She could go no further; perhaps he did not let
+      her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not worthy&mdash;you!&rdquo; There was infinite sadness in his tone. &ldquo;What do
+      you think I am, then? It is because you are so worthy, so much better than
+      I am or can ever be, that I want you for my wife. I long for the
+      companionship of a pure mind, a pure hand&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mr. S&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; (she had risen, and the resolve in her face
+      made her beauty shine out transcendently), &ldquo;I have not the pure mind, the
+      pure hand you ascribe to me. I have meddled with matters few women could
+      even conceive of. I am a member&mdash;a repentant member, to be sure&mdash;of
+      an organization which slights the decrees of God and places the aims of a
+      few selfish souls above the rights of man, and&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He had stooped and was kissing her hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You need not go on,&rdquo; he whispered; &ldquo;I quite understand. But you will be
+      my wife?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Aghast, white as the driven snow, she watched him with dilating eyes that
+      slowly filled with a great horror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Understand!&mdash;<i>you understand!</i> Oh, what does that mean? <i>Why</i>
+      should you understand?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because&rdquo;&mdash;his voice sunk to a whisper, but I heard it, as I would
+      have recognized his thought had he not spoken at that moment&mdash;&ldquo;because
+      I am the chief of the organization you mention. Irene, now you have <i>my</i>
+      secret.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I do not think she uttered a sound, but I heard the dying cry of her soul
+      in her very silence. He may have heard it, too, for his look showed sudden
+      and unfathomable pity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is a blow to you,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I do not wonder; there <i>is</i>
+      something hateful in the fact; latterly I have begun to realize it. That
+      is why I have allowed myself to love. I wanted some relief from my
+      thoughts. Alas! I did not know that a full knowledge of your noble soul
+      would only emphasize them. But this is no talk for a ballroom. Cheer up,
+      darling, and&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wait!&rdquo; She had found strength to lay her hand on his arm. &ldquo;Did you know
+      that a man was condemned to-day?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His face took on a shade of gloom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; he bowed, casting an anxious look towards the room from which came
+      the mingled sounds of dance and merriment. &ldquo;The bell which announces the
+      fact rang during my absence. I did not know there was a name before the
+      society.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She crouched, covering her face with her hands. I think she was afraid her
+      emotion would escape her in a cry. But in an instant they had dropped
+      again, and she was panting in his ear:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are the chief and are not acquainted with these matters of life and
+      death? Traitors are these men and women to you&mdash;traitors! jealous of
+      your influence and your power!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked amazed; he measured the distance between himself and the door
+      and turned to ask her what she meant, but she did not give him the
+      opportunity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know,&rdquo; she asked, &ldquo;the name of the person for whom the bell rang
+      to-day?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He shook his head. &ldquo;I am expecting a messenger with it any moment,&rdquo; said
+      he, looking towards the rear of the conservatory. &ldquo;Is it any one who is
+      here to-night?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The gasp she gave might have been heard in the other room. Language and
+      motion seemed both to fail her, and I thought I should have to go to her
+      rescue. But before I could move, I heard the click of a latch at the rear
+      of the conservatory, and saw, peering through the flowers and plants, the
+      wicked face of the man with the receding forehead whom I had seen at
+      madame&rsquo;s, and in his arms he held THE BOX.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a shock which sent me further into concealment. Mr. S&mdash;&mdash;,
+      on the contrary, looked relieved. Exclaiming, &ldquo;Ah, he has come!&rdquo; he went
+      to the door leading into the drawing-room, locked it, took out the key and
+      returned to meet the stealthy, advancing figure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The latter presented a picture of malignant joy, horrible to contemplate.
+      The lips of his large mouth were compressed and bloodless. He came on with
+      the quiet certainty and deadly ease of a slimy thing sure of its prey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As I noted him I felt that not only Mr. S&mdash;&mdash;&lsquo;s life but my own
+      was not worth a moment&rsquo;s purchase. But I uttered no cry and scarcely
+      breathed. Miss Calhoun, on the contrary, gave vent to a long, shivering
+      sigh. The man bowed as he heard it, but with looks directed solely to Mr.
+      S&mdash;&mdash;.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was told,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;to deliver this box to you wherever and with
+      whomsoever I should find you. In it you will find <i>the name.</i>&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. S&mdash;&mdash; gazed in haughty astonishment, first at the box and
+      then at the man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is irregular,&rdquo; said he. &ldquo;Why was I not made acquainted with the fact
+      that a name was up for consideration, and why have you removed the box
+      from its place and broken the connection which was made with so much
+      difficulty?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As he said this he looked up through the glass of the conservatory to a
+      high building I could see towering at the end of the garden. It was the
+      building in which I had first seen that box, and I now understood how this
+      connection had been made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. S&mdash;&mdash;&lsquo;s movement had been involuntary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dropping his eyes, he finished by saying, with an almost imperceptible
+      bow, &ldquo;You may speak before this lady; she is the holder of a key.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The connection was broken because suspicion was aroused; to your other
+      question you will find an answer in the box. Shall I open it for you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. S&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;, with a stern frown, shook his head, and
+      produced a key from his pocket. &ldquo;Do you understand all this?&rdquo; he suddenly
+      asked Miss Calhoun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For reply, she pointed to the box.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Open!&rdquo; her beseeching looks seemed to say.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. S&mdash;&mdash; turned the key and threw up the lid. &ldquo;Look under the
+      hand,&rdquo; suggested the man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. S&mdash;&mdash; leaned over the box, which had been laid on a small
+      table, discovered a paper somewhere in its depth, and drew it out. It was
+      no whiter than his face when he did so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How many have subscribed to this?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will observe that there are five rings on the hand,&rdquo; responded the
+      man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Calhoun started, opened her lips, but paused as she saw Mr. S&mdash;&mdash;
+      unfold the paper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The name of the latest traitor,&rdquo; murmured the man, with a look of
+      ferocity the like of which I had never seen on any human face before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not observed by either of the actors in the tragedy before me. Mr.
+      S&mdash;&mdash; was gazing with a wild incredulity at the note he had
+      unfolded; she was gazing at him. From the room beyond rose and swelled the
+      sweet strains of the waltz.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly a low, crackling sound was heard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It came from the paper which Mr. S&mdash;&mdash; had crumpled in his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So the society has decreed my death,&rdquo; he said, meeting the man&rsquo;s
+      steel-cold eye for the first time. &ldquo;Now I know how the men whose doom
+      preceded mine have felt in a presence that leaves no hope to mortal man.
+      But <i>you</i> shall not be <i>my</i> executioner. I will meet my fate at
+      less noxious hands than yours.&rdquo; And, leaning forward, he whispered a few
+      seemingly significant words into the messenger&rsquo;s ear. The man, grievously
+      disappointed, hung his head, and with a sidelong look, the venom of which
+      made us all shudder, he hesitated to go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To-night?&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To-night,&rdquo; Mr. S&mdash;&mdash; repeated, and pointed towards the door by
+      which he had entered. Then, as the man still hesitated, he took him by the
+      arm and resolutely led him through the conservatory, crying in his ear,
+      &ldquo;Go. I am still the chief.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The man bowed, and slipped slowly out into the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A burst of music, laughter, voices, joy, rose in the drawing-room. Mr. S&mdash;&mdash;
+      and Irene Calhoun stood looking at each other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must go home,&rdquo; were the first words he uttered. Then, in a
+      half-reproachful, half-pitiful tone, as if on the verge of tears, he
+      added: &ldquo;Was I so bad a chief that even you thought me a hindrance to the
+      advancement of the society and the cause to which we are pledged?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the one thing he could say capable of rousing her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; she cried, &ldquo;it is all a mistake, all a cheat. Did you not get the
+      letter I sent to my chief this morning, written in the usual style and
+      directed in the usual way?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; he answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then there is worse treason than yours among the five. I wrote to say
+      that my ring had been stolen; that I did not subscribe to the condemnation
+      of the man under suspicion, and that, if it was made, it would be through
+      fraud. That was before I knew that the suspected one and the man I
+      addressed were one and the same. Now&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have but to accuse the woman called Madame. The man you have just
+      sent away would forgive you his disappointment if you gave him the supreme
+      satisfaction of carrying doom to the still more formidable being who
+      prophesies death to those for whom she has already prepared a violent
+      end.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Irene!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But her passion had found vent and she was not to be stilled. Telling him
+      the whole story of the last twenty-four hours, she waited for the look of
+      comfort she evidently expected. But it did not come. His first words
+      showed why.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Madame is inexorable,&rdquo; said he; &ldquo;but Madame is but one of five. There are
+      three others&mdash;true men, sound men, thinking men. If they deem me
+      unworthy&mdash;and I have shown signs of faltering of late&mdash;Madame&rsquo;s
+      animosity or your loving weakness must not stand in the way of their
+      decree. It shall never be said I sanctioned the doom of other men and
+      shrank from my own. I would be unworthy of your love if I did, and your
+      love is everything to me now.&rdquo; She had not expected this; she had not at
+      all reckoned upon the stern quality in this man, forgetting that without
+      it he could never have held his pitiless position.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But it is not regular; it is not according to precedent. Five rings are
+      required, and only four were fairly placed. As an honest man, you ought to
+      hesitate at injustice, and injustice you will show if you allow them to
+      triumph through their own deceit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But even this failed to move him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see five rings,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;and I see another thing. Never will I be
+      permitted to live even if I am coward enough to take advantage of the
+      loophole of escape you offer me. A man who is once seen to tremble loses
+      the confidence of such men as call me <i>chief</i>. I would die suddenly,
+      horribly and perhaps when less prepared for it than now. And you, my
+      darling, my imperial one! you would not escape. Besides, you have
+      forgotten the young man who, with such unselfishness, has lent himself to
+      your schemes in my favor. What could save him if I disappointed the
+      malignancy of Madame. No; I have destroyed others, and must submit to the
+      penalty incurred by murder. Kiss me, Irene, and go. I command it as your
+      chief.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With a low moan she gave up the struggle. Lifting her forehead to his
+      embrace, she bestowed upon him a look of indescribable despair, then
+      tottered to the door leading into the garden. As it closed upon her
+      departing figure, he uttered a deep sigh, in which he seemed to give up
+      life and the world. Then he raised his head, and in an instant was in the
+      midst of a throng of beautiful women and dashing men, with a smile on his
+      lips and a jest on his tongue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I made my escape unnoticed. The next morning I was in Philadelphia. There
+      I read the following lines in the leading daily:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Baltimore, Md.&mdash;An unexpected tragedy occurred here last evening.
+      Mr. S&mdash;&mdash;, the well-known financier and politician, died at his
+      supper-table, while drinking the health of a hundred assembled guests. He
+      is considered to be a great loss to the Southern cause. The city is filled
+      with mourning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And further down, in an obscure corner, this short line:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Baltimore, Md.&mdash;A beautiful young woman, known by the name of Irene
+      Calhoun, was found dead in her bed this morning, from the effects of
+      poison administered by herself. No cause is ascribed for the act.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bronze Hand, by
+Anna Katharine Green (Mrs. Charles Rohlfs)
+
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+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>
diff --git a/22806.txt b/22806.txt
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/22806.txt
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bronze Hand, by
+Anna Katharine Green (Mrs. Charles Rohlfs)
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Bronze Hand
+       1897
+
+Author: Anna Katharine Green (Mrs. Charles Rohlfs)
+
+Release Date: September 29, 2007 [EBook #22806]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BRONZE HAND ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+THE BRONZE HAND
+
+By Anna Katharine Green (Mrs. Charles Rohlfs)
+
+Copyright, 1897, by Anna Katharine Green
+
+
+
+
+I. THE FASCINATING UNKNOWN.
+
+HER room was on the ground floor of the house we mutually inhabited,
+and mine directly above it, so that my opportunities for seeing her were
+limited to short glimpses of her auburn head as she leaned out of the
+window to close her shutters at night or open them in the morning. Yet
+our chance encounter in the hall or on the walk in front, had made so
+deep an impression upon my sensibilities that I was never without the
+vision of her pale face set off by the aureole of reddish brown hair,
+which, since my first meeting with her, had become for me the symbol of
+everything beautiful, incomprehensible and strange.
+
+For my fellow-lodger was a mystery.
+
+I am a busy man now, but just at the time of which I speak, I had
+leisure in abundance.
+
+I was sharing with many others the unrest of the perilous days
+subsequent to the raid of John Brown at Harper's Ferry. Abraham Lincoln
+had been elected President. Baltimore, where the incidents I am relating
+transpired, had become the headquarters of men who secretly leagued
+themselves in antagonism to the North. Men and women who felt that their
+Northern brethren had grievously wronged them planned to undermine the
+stability of the government. The schemes at this time were gigantic
+in their conception and far-reaching in their scope and endless
+ramifications.
+
+Naturally under these conditions, a consciousness of ever-present danger
+haunted every thinking mind. The candor of the outspoken was regarded
+with doubt, and the reticence of the more cautious, with distrust. It
+was a trying time for sensitive, impressionable natures with nothing to
+do. Perhaps all this may account for the persistency with which I sat
+in my open window. I was thus sitting one night--a memorable one to
+me--when I heard a sharp exclamation from below, in a voice I had long
+listened for.
+
+Any utterance from those lips would have attracted my attention; but,
+filled as this was with marked, if not extraordinary, emotion, I
+could not fail to be roused to a corresponding degree of curiosity and
+interest.
+
+Thrusting out my head, I cast a rapid glance downward. A shutter
+swinging in the wind, and the escaping figure of a man hurrying round
+the corner of the street, were all that rewarded my scrutiny; though,
+from the stream of light issuing from the casement beneath, I perceived
+that her window, like my own, was wide open.
+
+As I continued to watch this light, I saw her thrust out her head with
+an eagerness indicative of great excitement. Peering to right and left,
+she murmured some suppressed words mixed with gasps of such strong
+feeling that I involuntarily called out:
+
+"Excuse me, madam, have you been frightened in any way by the man I saw
+running away from here a moment ago?"
+
+She gave a great start and glanced up. I see her face yet--beautiful,
+wonderful; so beautiful and so wonderful I have never been able to
+forget it. Meeting my eye, she faltered out:
+
+"Did you see a man running away from here? Oh, sir, if I might have a
+word with you!"
+
+I came near leaping directly to the pavement in my ardor and anxiety to
+oblige her, but, remembering before it was too late that she was neither
+a Juliet nor I a Romeo, I merely answered that I would be with her in a
+moment and betook myself below by the less direct but safer means of the
+staircase.
+
+It was a short one and I was but a moment in descending, but that moment
+was long enough for my heart to acquire a most uncomfortable throb,
+and it was with anything but an air of quiet self-possession that I
+approached the threshold I had never before dared to cross even in
+fancy.
+
+The door was open and I caught one glimpse of her figure before she was
+aware of my presence. She was contemplating her right hand with a look
+of terror, which, added to her striking personality, made her seem at
+the instant a creature of alarming characteristics fully as capable of
+awakening awe as devotion.
+
+I may have given some token of the agitation her appearance awakened,
+for she turned towards me with sudden vehemence.
+
+"Oh!" she cried, with a welcoming gesture; "you are the gentleman from
+up-stairs who saw a man running away from here a moment ago. Would you
+know that man if you saw him again?"
+
+"I am afraid not," I replied. "He was only a flying figure in my eyes."
+
+"Oh!" she moaned, bringing her hands together in dismay. But,
+immediately straightening herself, she met my regard with one as
+direct as my own. "I need a friend," she said, "and I am surrounded by
+strangers."
+
+I made a move towards her; I did not feel myself a stranger. But how was
+I to make her realize the fact?
+
+"If there is anything I can do," I suggested.
+
+Her steady regard became searching.
+
+"I have noticed you before to-night," she declared, with a directness
+devoid of every vestige of coquetry. "You seem to have qualities that
+may be trusted. But the man capable of helping me needs the strongest
+motives that influence humanity: courage, devotion, discretion, and a
+total forgetfulness of self. Such qualifications cannot be looked for in
+a stranger."
+
+As if with these words she dismissed me from her thoughts, she turned
+her back upon me. Then, as if recollecting the courtesy due even to
+strangers, she cast me an apologetic glance over her shoulder and
+hurriedly added:
+
+"I am bewildered by my loss. Leave me to the torment of my thoughts. You
+can do nothing for me."
+
+Had there been the least evidence of falsity in her tone or the
+slightest striving after effect in her look or bearing, I would have
+taken her at her word and left her then and there. But the candor of
+the woman and the reality of her emotion were not to be questioned, and
+moved by an impulse as irresistible as it was foolhardy, I cried with
+the impetuosity of my twenty-one years:
+
+"I am ready to risk my life for you. Why, I do not know and do not care
+to ask. I only know you could have found no other man so willing to do
+your bidding."
+
+A smile, in which surprise was tempered by a feeling almost tender,
+crossed her lips and immediately vanished. She shook her head as if in
+deprecation of the passion my words evinced, and was about to dismiss
+me, when she suddenly changed her mind and seized upon the aid I had
+offered, with a fervor that roused my sense of chivalry and
+deepened what might have been but a passing fancy into an active and
+all-engrossing passion.
+
+"I can read faces," said she, "and I have read yours. You will do for me
+what I cannot do for myself, but----Have you a mother living?"
+
+I answered no; that I was very nearly without relatives or ties.
+
+"I am glad," she said, half to herself. Then with a last searching look,
+"Have you not even a sweetheart?"
+
+I must have reddened painfully, for she drew back with a hesitating
+and troubled air; but the vigorous protest I hastened to make seemed to
+reassure her, for the next word she uttered was one of confidence.
+
+"I have lost a ring." She spoke in a low but hurried tone. "It was
+snatched from my finger as I reached out my hand to close my shutters.
+Some one must have been lying in wait; some one who knows my habits
+and the hour at which I close my window for the night. The loss I have
+sustained is greater than you can conceive. It means more, much more,
+than appears. To the man who will bring me back that ring direct from
+the hand that stole it, I would devote the gratitude of a lifetime.
+Are you willing to make the endeavor? It is a task I cannot give to the
+police."
+
+This request, so different from any I had expected, checked my
+enthusiasm in proportion as it awoke a senseless jealousy.
+
+"Yet it seems directly in their line," I suggested, seeing nothing
+but humiliation before me if I attempted the recovery of a simple
+love-token.
+
+"I know that it must seem so to you," she admitted, reading my thoughts
+and answering them with skilful indirectness. "But what policeman would
+undertake a difficult and minute search for an article whose intrinsic
+value would not reach five dollars?"
+
+"Then it is only a memento," I stammered, with very evident feeling.
+
+"Only a memento," she repeated; "but not of love. Worthless as it is in
+itself, it would buy everything I possess, and almost my soul to-night.
+I can explain no further. Will you attempt its recovery?"
+
+Restored to myself by her frank admission that it was no lover's
+keepsake I was urged to recapture and return, I allowed the powerful
+individuality of this woman to have its full effect upon me. Taking in
+with one glance her beauty, the impassioned fervor of her nature, and
+the subtle charm of a spirit she now allowed to work its full spell upon
+me, I threw every practical consideration to the winds, and impetuously
+replied:
+
+"I will endeavor to regain this ring for you. Tell me where to go, and
+whom to attack, and if human wit and strength can compass it, you shall
+have the jewel back before morning.
+
+"Oh!" she protested, "I see that you anticipate a task of small
+difficulty. You cannot recover this particular ring so easily as that.
+In the first place, I do not in the least know who took it; I only know
+its destination. Alas! if it is allowed to reach that destination, I am
+bereft of hope."
+
+"No love token," I murmured, "and yet your whole peace depends on its
+recovery."
+
+"More than my peace," she answered; and with a quick movement she closed
+the door which I had left open behind me. As its sharp bang rang
+through the room, I realized into what a pitfall I had stumbled. Only a
+political intrigue of the most desperate character could account for the
+words I had heard and the actions to which I had been a witness. But I
+was in no mood to recoil even from such dangers as these, and so my look
+showed her as she leaned toward me with the words:
+
+"Listen! I am burdened with a secret. I am in this house, in this city,
+for a purpose. The secret is not my own and I cannot part with it;
+neither is my purpose communicable. You therefore will be obliged to
+deal with the greatest dangers blindfold. One encouragement only I can
+give you. You will work for good ends. You are pitted against wrong, not
+right, and if you succumb, it will be in a cause you yourself would call
+noble. Do I make myself understood, Mr.--Mr. ------"
+
+"Abbott," I put in, with a bow.
+
+She took the bow for an affirmative, as indeed I meant she should. "You
+do not recoil," she murmured, "not even when I say that you must take
+no third party into your confidence, no matter to what extremity you are
+brought."
+
+"I would not be the man I think I am, if I recoiled," I said, smiling.
+
+She waved her hand with almost a stern air.
+
+"Swear!" she commanded; "swear that, from the moment you leave this
+door till you return to it, you will breathe no word concerning me, your
+errand, or even the oath I am now exacting from you."
+
+"Ah!" thought I to myself, "this is serious." But I took the oath under
+the spell of the most forceful personality I had ever met, and did not
+regret it--_then_.
+
+"Now let us waste no more time," said she.
+
+"In the large building on ------ Street there is an office with the name
+of Dr. Merriam on the door. See! I have written it on this card, so that
+there may be no mistake about it. That office is open to patients from
+ten in the morning until twelve at noon. During these hours any one can
+enter there; but to awaken no distrust, he should have some ailment.
+Have you not some slight disorder concerning which you might consult a
+physician?"
+
+"I doubt it," said I; "but I might manufacture one."
+
+"That would not do with Dr. Merriam. He is a skilful man; he would see
+through any imposture."
+
+"I have a sick friend," I ruminated. "And by the way, his case is
+obscure and curious. I could interest any doctor in it in five minutes."
+
+"That is good; consult him in regard to your friend; meantime--while you
+are waiting for the interview, I mean--take notice of a large box you
+will find placed on a side-table. Do not seem to fix your attention on
+it, but never let it be really out of your sight from the moment the
+door is unlocked at ten till you are forced by the doctor's importunity
+to leave the room at twelve. If you are alone there for one minute
+(and you will be allowed to remain there alone if you show no haste to
+consult the doctor) unlock that box--here is the key--and look carefully
+inside. No one will interfere and no one will criticize you; there is
+more than one person who has access to that box."
+
+"But--" I put in.
+
+"You will discover there," she whispered, "a hand of bronze lying on
+an enamelled cushion. On the fingers of this hand there should be, and
+doubtless are, rings of forged steel of peculiar workmanship. _If there
+is one on the middle finger_, my cause is lost, and I can only await the
+end." Her cheek paled. "_But if there is not_, you may be sure that an
+attempt will be made by some one to-morrow--I do not know whom--to put
+one there before the office closes at noon. The ring will be mine--the
+one stolen from my hand just now--and it will be your business to
+prevent the box being opened for this purpose, by any means short of
+public interference involving arrest and investigation; for this, too,
+would be fatal. The delay of a day may be of incalculable service to me.
+It would give me time to think, if not to act. Does the undertaking seem
+a hopeless one? Am I asking too much of your inexperience?"
+
+"It does not seem a hopeful one," I admitted; "but I am willing to
+undertake the adventure. What are its dangers? And why, if I see the
+ring on the finger you speak of, cannot I take it off and bring it back
+to you?"
+
+"Because," said she, answering the last question first, "the ring
+becomes a part of the mechanism the moment it is thrust over the last
+joint. You could not draw it off. As for the dangers I allude to, they
+are of a hidden character, and part of the secret I mentioned. If,
+however, you exercise your wit, your courage, and a proper amount of
+strategy, you may escape. Interference must be _proved_ against you.
+That rule, at least, has been held inviolate."
+
+Aghast at the mysterious perils she thus indicated in the path toward
+which she was urging me, I for one instant felt an impulse to retreat.
+But adventure of any kind has its allurements for an unoccupied youth
+of twenty-one, and when seasoned, as this was, by a romantic, if
+unreasonable, passion, proved altogether too irresistible for me to give
+it up. Laughing outright in my endeavor to throw off the surplus of my
+excitement, I drew myself up and uttered some fiery phrase of courage,
+which I doubt if she even heard. Then I said some word about the doctor,
+which she at once caught up.
+
+"The doctor," said she, "may know, and may not know, the mysteries of
+that box. I would advise you to treat him solely as a doctor. He who
+uses the key you now hold in your hand cannot be too wary; by which I
+mean too careful or too silent. Oh, that I dared to go there myself! But
+my agitation would betray me. Besides, my person is known, or this ring
+would never have been taken from me.
+
+"I will be your deputy," I assured her. "Have you any further
+instructions?"
+
+"No," said she; "instructions are useless in an affair of this kind.
+Your actions must be determined by the exigencies of the moment.
+Meantime, my every thought will be yours. Good-night, sir; pray God, it
+may not be good-by."
+
+"One moment," I said, as I arose to go. "Have you any objection to
+telling me your name?"
+
+"I am Miss Calhoun," she said, with a graceful bow.
+
+This was the beginning of my formidable adventure with the bronze hand.
+
+
+
+
+II. THE QUAKER-LIKE GIRL, THE PALE GIRL, AND THE MAN WITH A BRISTLING MUSTACHE.
+
+THE building mentioned by my new-found friend was well known to me. It
+was one of the kind in which every other office is unoccupied the year
+round. Such tenants as gave it the little air of usefulness it possessed
+were of the bad-pay kind. They gave little concern to their own affairs
+and less to those of their neighbors. The public avoided the building,
+and the tenants did nothing to encourage a change. In a populous city,
+on the corner made by frequented streets, it stood as much alone and
+neglected as if it were a ruin. Old or young eyes may have looked
+through its begrimed windows into the busy thoroughfare beneath, but
+none in the street ever honored the old place with a glance or thought.
+No one even wasted contempt upon its smoky walls, and few disturbed the
+accumulated dust upon the stairs or in the dimly-lighted hallways.
+
+Had a place been sought for wherein the utmost secrecy might be
+observed, surely this was that place. As I neared the door upon which I
+read the doctor's name, I found myself treading on tip-toe, so impressed
+had I become by a sense of caution, if not of dread.
+
+I had made every effort to be on hand at precisely ten o'clock, and felt
+so sure that I had been the first to arrive that I reached out to the
+door-knob with every expectation of entering, unseen by any one, and
+possibly unheard. To my dismay, the first twist I gave it resulted in a
+rusty shriek that set my teeth on edge, and echoed down the gloomy hall.
+With my flesh creeping, I opened the door and passed into the doctor's
+outer room.
+
+It was far from being empty. Seated in chairs ranged along two sides of
+the room, I saw a dozen or more persons, male and female. All wore the
+preoccupied air that patients are apt to assume while awaiting their
+turn to be called by the doctor. One amongst the number made an effort
+at indifference by drawing out and pushing back a nail in the flooring
+with the sole of her pretty shoe. It may have been intended for
+coquetry, and at another time might have bewitched me; now it seemed
+strangely out of place. The man who was to all appearance counting the
+flies in the web of an industrious spider was more in keeping with the
+place, my feelings, and the atmosphere of despondency that the room gave
+out.
+
+As I had no doubt that the ring I was seeking was in the possession of
+some one of these persons, I gave each as minute an examination as was
+possible under the circumstances. Only two amongst them appeared open to
+suspicion. Of these, one was a young man whose naturally fine features
+would have prepossessed him in my favor had it not been for the peculiar
+alertness of his bright blue eye, which flashed incessantly in every
+direction till each and all of us seemed to partake of his restlessness
+and anxiety. Why was he not depressed? The other was the girl, or,
+rather, the young lady to whose pretty foot I have referred. If she was
+at all conspicuous, it was owing to the contrast between her beautiful
+face and the Quaker-like simplicity of her dress. She was restless also;
+her foot had ceased its action, but her hand moved constantly. Now
+it clutched its fellow in her lap, and now it ran in an oft-repeated
+action, seemingly beyond her control, up and down and round and round a
+plain but expensive leather bag she wore at her side. "She carries the
+ring," thought I, sitting down in the chair next her.
+
+Meantime, I had not been oblivious of _the box_. It stood upon a plain
+oak table directly opposite the door by which I had come in. It
+was about a foot square, and was the only object in the room at all
+ornamental. Indeed, there was but little else for the eye to rest on,
+consequently most of us looked that way, though I noticed that but few
+seemed to take any real interest in that or anything else within sight.
+This was encouraging, and I was on the point of transferring my entire
+attention to the two persons I have named, when one of them, the
+nearest, rose hurriedly and went out.
+
+This was an unexpected move on her part, and I did not know what to make
+of it. Had I annoyed her by my scrutiny, or had she divined my errand?
+In my doubt, I consulted the face of the man I secretly thought to be
+her accomplice. It was non-committal, and, in my doubt as to the meaning
+of all this, I allowed myself to become interested in a pale young woman
+who had been sitting on the other side of the lady who had just left.
+She was evidently a patient who stood in great need of assistance. Her
+head hung feebly forward, and her whole figure looked ready to drop. Yet
+when a minute later the door of the inner office opened, and the doctor
+appeared on the sill in an expectant attitude, she made no attempt to
+rise, but pushed forward another woman who seemed less indisposed than
+herself. I had to compel myself to think of all I saw as being real and
+within my experience.
+
+Surprised by this action on the part of one so ill, I watched the pale
+girl for an instant, and almost forgot my mission in the compassion
+aroused by her sickly appearance. But soon that mission and my motive
+for being in this place were somewhat vividly recalled to me by an
+unexpected action on this very young woman's part. With the sudden
+movement of an acutely suffering person, she bounded from her seat and
+crossed the floor to where the box stood, gasping for breath, and almost
+falling against the table when she reached it.
+
+A grunt from the good-looking young man followed; but neither he nor
+the middle-aged female with a pitiful skin disease, who had been sitting
+near her, offered to go to her assistance, though the latter looked as
+if she would like to. I was the only one to rise. The truth is, I
+could see no one touch _the box_ without having something more than my
+curiosity awakened. Approaching her respectfully, and with as complete a
+dissimulation of my real feelings as possible, I ventured to say:
+
+"You are very ill, miss. Shall I summon the doctor?"
+
+She was clutching the side of the table for support, and her head,
+drooping helplessly over the box, was swaying from side to side as she
+rocked to and fro in her pain.
+
+"Thank you!" she gasped, without turning, "I will wait. I would rather
+wait."
+
+At that moment the doctor's door opened again.
+
+"There he is now," said I.
+
+"I will wait," she insisted. "Let the others take their turn."
+
+Satisfied now that something besides pain caused her interest in the
+box, I drew back, asking myself whether she had been in possession of
+the ring from the beginning, or whether it had been passed to her by her
+restless neighbor. Meanwhile, another patient had disappeared into the
+adjoining room.
+
+A few minutes passed. The man with the restless eye began to fidget.
+Could it be that she was simply guarding the box, and that he was the
+one who wished to open it? As the doubt struck me, I surveyed her
+more attentively. She was certainly doing something besides supporting
+herself with that sly right hand of hers. Yes, that was a click I heard.
+She was fitting a key into the lock. Startled, but determined not
+to betray myself, I assumed an air of great patience, and, taking a
+memorandum book from my pocket, began to write in it. Meantime, the
+doctor had disposed of his second patient and had beckoned to a third.
+To my astonishment, my friend with the nervous manner responded, thus
+acquitting himself in my eyes from any interest in the box.
+
+The interview he had with the doctor lasted some time; meantime, the
+young woman in the window remained more or less motionless. When the
+fourth person left the room, she turned and cast a quick glance at
+myself and the other person present.
+
+I knew what it meant. She was anxious to be left alone in order to lift
+that mysterious lid. She was no more ill than I was.
+
+There was even a dash of color in her cheeks, and the trembling she
+indulged in was caused by great excitement and suspense, and not by
+pain.
+
+Compassion at once gave way to anger, and I inwardly resolved not to
+spare her if we came into conflict over the box.
+
+My companion was an old and non-observant man, who had come in after the
+rest of us. When the doctor again appeared, I motioned to this old man
+to follow him, which he very gladly did, leaving me alone with the pale
+girl. At once I got up, showing my fatigue and slightly yawning.
+
+"This is very tedious," I muttered aloud, and stepped idly towards the
+door leading into the hall.
+
+The girl at the box could not restrain her impatience. She cast me
+another short glance. I affected not to see it; took out my watch,
+consulted it, put it back quickly and slipped out into the hall. As I
+closed the door behind me, I heard a slight creak. Instantly I was back
+again, and with so sudden a movement that I surprised her, with her face
+bent over the open box.
+
+"Oh, my poor young lady," I exclaimed, springing towards her with every
+appearance of great concern. "You do not look able to stand. Lean on me
+if you feel faint, and I will help you to a seat."
+
+She turned upon me in a fury, but, meeting my eye, assumed an air of
+composure, which did not impose upon me in the least, or prevent me from
+pressing close to her side and taking one look into the box, which she
+had evidently not had sufficient self-possession to close.
+
+The sight which met my eye was not unexpected, yet was no less
+interesting on that account. A hand--_the_ hand--curiously made of
+bronze, and of exquisite proportions, lay on its enamelled cushion, with
+rings on all of its fingers save one. That one I was delighted to see
+was the middle one, proof positive that the mischief contemplated by
+Miss Calhoun had not yet been accomplished.
+
+Restored to complete self-possession by this discovery, I examined the
+box and its contents with an air of polite curiosity. I surprised myself
+by my self-possession and _bonhomie_.
+
+"What an odd thing to find in a physician's office!" I exclaimed.
+"Beautiful, is it not? An unusual work of art; but there is nothing in
+it to alarm you. You shouldn't allow yourself to be frightened at such
+a thing as that." And with a quick action, she was wholly powerless to
+prevent, I shut down the lid, which closed with a snap.
+
+Startled and greatly discomposed, she drew back, hastily thrusting her
+hand behind her.
+
+"You are very officious," she began, but, seeing nothing but good nature
+in the smile with which I regarded her, she faltered irresolutely, and
+finally took refuge again in her former trick of invalidism. Breaking
+out into low moanings, she fell back upon the nearest chair, from which
+she immediately started again with the quick cry, "Oh, how I suffer! I
+am not well enough to be out alone." And turning with a celerity that
+belied her words, she fled into the hall, shutting the door violently
+behind her.
+
+Astonished at the completeness of my victory, I spent the first moments
+of triumph in trying to lift the lid of the box. But it was securely
+locked. I was just debating whether I could now venture to return to my
+seat, when the hall door reopened and a gentleman entered.
+
+He was short, sturdy and had a bristling black mustache. I needed to
+look at him but once to be certain he was interested both in the box and
+me, and, while I gave no evidence of my discovery, I prepared myself
+for an adventure of a much more serious nature than that which had just
+occupied me.
+
+Modeling my behavior upon that of the young girl whose place I had
+usurped, I placed my elbow on the box and looked out of the window. As
+I did so I heard a shuffling in the adjoining room, and knew that in
+another moment the doctor would again appear at the door to announce
+that he was ready for another patient. How could I evade the summons?
+The man behind me was a determined one. He was there for the purpose
+of opening the box, and would not be likely to leave the room while I
+remained in it. How, then, could I comply with the requirements of the
+situation and yet prevent this new-comer from lifting the lid in my
+absence? I knew of but one way--a way which had suggested itself to
+me during the long watches of the previous night, and which I had come
+prepared to carry out.
+
+Taking advantage of my proximity to the box, I inserted in the keyhole a
+small morsel of wax which for some minutes past I had been warming in
+my hand. This done, I laid my hat down on the lid, noting with great
+exactness as I did so just where its rim lay in reference to the various
+squares and scrolls with which the top was ornamented. By this means I
+felt that I might know if the hat were moved in my absence. The doctor
+having showed himself by this time, I followed him into his office with
+a calmness born of the most complete confidence in the strategy I had
+employed.
+
+Dr. Merriam, whom I have purposely refrained from describing until now,
+was a tall, well-made man, with a bald head and a pleasant eye, but
+careless in his attire and bearing. As I met that eye and responded to
+his good-natured greeting, I inwardly decided that his interest in the
+box was much less than his guardianship of it would seem to betoken.
+And when I addressed him and entered upon the subject of my friend's
+complaint, I soon saw by the depth of his professional interest that
+whatever connection he might have with the box, neither that nor any
+other topic whatever could for a moment vie with his delight in a new
+and strange case like that of my poor friend. I consequently entered
+into the medical details demanded of me with a free mind and succeeded
+in getting some very valuable advice, for which I was of course truly
+grateful.
+
+As soon as this was accomplished I took my leave, but not by the usual
+door of egress. Saying that I had left my hat in the ante-room, I bowed
+my acknowledgments to the doctor and returned the way I came. But not
+without meeting with a surprise. There was still but one person in the
+room with the box, but that person was not the man with the bristling
+mustache and determined eye whom I had expected to find there. It was
+the pretty, Quaker-like girl who had formerly aroused my suspicions; and
+though she sat far from the box, a moment's glance at her flushed face
+and trembling hands assured me she had but that moment left it.
+
+Going at once to the box, I saw that my hat had been moved. But more
+significant still was the hairpin lying on the floor at my feet, with
+a morsel of wax sticking to one of its points. This was conclusive. The
+man had discovered why his key would not work, and had called to his aid
+the young lady, who had evidently been waiting in the hall outside.
+
+She had tried to pick out the wax--a task in which I had happily
+interrupted her.
+
+Proud of the success of my device, and satisfied that the danger was
+over for that day (it being well on to twelve o'clock), I said a few
+words more to the doctor, who had followed me into the room, and then
+prepared to take my departure. But the young lady was more agile than I.
+Saying something about a very pressing engagement which would not allow
+her to consult the doctor that day, she hurried ahead of me and ran
+quickly down the long hall. The doctor looked astonished, but dismissed
+the matter with a shrug; while, with the greatest desire to follow her,
+I stood hesitating on the threshold, when my eye fell on a small object
+lying under the chair on which she had been sitting. It was the little
+leathern bag I had seen hanging at her side.
+
+Catching it up, I explained that I would run after the young lady and
+restore it; and glad of an excuse which would enable me to follow her
+through the streets without risking the suspicion of impropriety, I
+hastened down the stairs and happily succeeded in reaching the pavement
+before her skirts whisked round the corner. I was therefore but a few
+paces behind her, which distance I took good care to preserve.
+
+
+
+
+III. MADAME.
+
+My motive in following this young girl was not so much to restore
+her property, as to see where her engagement was taking her. I felt
+confident that none of the three persons who had shown interest in the
+box was the prime mover in an affair so important; and it was necessary
+above all things to find out who the prime mover was. So I followed the
+girl.
+
+She led me into a doubtful quarter of the town. As the crowd between us
+diminished and we reached a point where we were the only pedestrians on
+the block we were then traversing, I grew anxious lest she should turn
+and see me before arriving at her destination. But she evidently was
+without suspicion, for she passed without any hesitation up a certain
+stoop in the middle of this long block and entered an open door on which
+a brass plate was to be seen, inscribed with this one word in large
+black letters:
+
+"MADAME."
+
+This was odd; and as I had no inclination to encounter any "madame"
+without some hint as to her character and business, I looked about me
+for some one able and willing to give me the necessary information.
+An upholsterer's shop in an opposite basement seemed to offer me the
+opportunity I wanted. Crossing the street, I saluted the honest-looking
+man I met in the doorway, and pointing out madame's house, asked what
+was done over there.
+
+He answered with a smile.
+
+"Go and see," he said; "the door's open. Oh, they don't charge
+anything," he made haste to protest, misunderstanding, no doubt, my air
+of hesitation. "I was in there once myself. They all sit round and she
+talks; that is, if she feels like it. It is all nonsense, you know, sir;
+no good in it."
+
+"But is there any harm?" I asked. "Is the place reputable and safe?"
+
+"Oh, safe enough; I never heard of anything going wrong there. Why,
+ladies go there; real ladies; veiled, of course. I have seen two
+carriages at a time standing in front of that door. Fools, to be sure,
+sir; but honest enough, I suppose."
+
+I needed no further encouragement. Recrossing the street, I entered
+the house which stood so invitingly open, and found myself almost
+immediately in a large hall, from which I was ushered by a silent
+negress into a long room with so dim and mysterious an interior that
+I felt like a man suddenly transported from the bustle of the out-door
+world into the mystic recesses of some Eastern temple.
+
+The causes of this effect were simple, A dim light suggesting worship;
+the faint scent of slowly burning incense; women and men sitting on low
+benches about the walls. In the center, on a kind of raised dais, backed
+by a drapery of black velvet, a woman was seated, in the semblance of
+a Hindoo god, so nearly did her heavy, compactly crouched figure, wound
+about with Eastern stuffs and glistening with gold, recall the images we
+are accustomed to associate with the worship of Vishnu. Her face, too,
+so far as it was visible in the subdued light, had the unresponsiveness
+of carven wood, and if not exactly hideous of feature, had in it a
+strange and haunting quality calculated to impress a sensitive mind
+with a sense of implacable fate. Cruel, hard, passionless, and yet
+threatening to a degree, must this countenance have seemed to those who
+willingly subjected themselves to its baneful influence.
+
+I was determined not to be one of these, and yet I had not regarded her
+for two minutes before I found myself forgetting the real purpose of my
+visit, and taking a seat with the rest, in anticipation of something for
+which as yet I had no name, even in my own mind.
+
+How long I sat there motionless I do not know. A spell was on me--a
+spell from which I suddenly roused with a start. Why or through what
+means I do not know. Nobody else had moved. Fearing a relapse into
+this trance-like state, I made a persistent effort to be freed from its
+dangers. Happily the full signification of my errand there burst upon
+me. Finding myself really awake, I ventured to peer about, expecting to
+see the more willing devotees affected as I had been. I encountered a
+flash from the eyes of the young lady whose bag I held in my hand. She
+was under no spell. She had not only seen but recognized me.
+
+I held the bag towards her. She gave a furtive glance in the direction
+of Madame--a glance not free from fear--then clutched the bag. Before
+releasing my hold upon it I ventured upon a word of explanation. I got
+no further, for at this moment a voice was heard.
+
+By the effect it had upon the expectant ones, I knew it could have
+emanated only from the idol-like being who had filled the place with her
+awesome personality.
+
+At first the voice sounded like a distant call, musically sweet and low;
+the kind of note that we can imagine the Indian snake-charmers to
+use when the cobra raises its winged head in obedience to the pipe's
+resistless charm. Every ear was strained to hear; mine with the rest. So
+much preparation, so much faith must result in something. What was it to
+be? The incoherent sounds became more and more distinct, and, finally,
+took on the articulate form of words. The quiet was deathly. Every one
+was prepared to interpret her utterances into personal significance.
+The dread and trouble of the times filling all minds, men wished to be
+forehanded with the decrees of Providence. Into this brooding silence
+the low, vibrating tones of this mysterious voice entered, and this is
+what we heard:
+
+"_Doom! doom! For him--the one--the betrayer--the passing bell is
+tolling. Hear it, ye weak ones and grow strong. Hear it, ye mighty and
+tremble. Not alone for him will it ring. For ye! for ye! if the decree
+of the linked rings goes forth---_"
+
+Here there was a perceptible quiver of the drapery back of the dais.
+Others may not have noted it; I did. When, therefore, a very white hand
+came slowly from between its folds and placed its fingers upon the right
+temple of Madame, I was not much startled. What did startle me was
+the fact let out before that admonishing hand touched her, that this
+being--I can hardly call her woman--seemingly so far removed from the
+political agitations of the day, was, in very deed, either consciously
+or unconsciously--I could not decide which--intimately connected
+with the conspiracy I was at that very moment striving to defeat.
+How intimately? Was she the prime mover I was seeking, or simply an
+instrument under the control of another, and yet stronger, personality
+imaged in the owner of that white hand?
+
+There was no means of determining at that moment. Meanwhile, the fingers
+had left the temple of Madame. The hand was slowly withdrawn. Sleep
+apparently fell again upon the dreamer, but only long enough for her to
+bring forth the words:
+
+"I have said."
+
+The silence that followed, gave me time to think. It was necessary.
+She had bidden the mighty tremble and had pronounced death to one--the
+betrayer. Was this senseless drivel, prophetic sight, or threatened
+murder? I inclined to consider it the last, and this was why: For some
+weeks now, murder, or, at least, sudden death, had been rampant in
+the country. My flesh crept as I remembered the many mysterious deaths
+reported within the month from St. Louis, Boston, New Orleans, New York
+and even here in Baltimore. Like a flash it came across me that every
+name was identified, more or less closely, with the political affairs of
+the time. Coupling my knowledge with what I conjectured, was it strange
+I saw a confirmation of the worst fears expressed by Miss Calhoun in the
+half-completed sentences of this seeming clairvoyant?
+
+So occupied had I been with my own thoughts that I feared I might have
+done something to call an undesirable attention to myself. Glancing
+furtively to one side, I heard, in the opposite direction, these words:
+
+"She has never failed. What she has said will come to pass. Some one of
+note will die."
+
+These gloomy words were the first to break the ominous silence.
+Turning to face the speaker, I encountered the cold eye of a man with a
+retreating chin, a receding forehead, and a mouth large and cruel enough
+to stamp him as one of those perverted natures who, to the unscrupulous,
+are usefully insane.
+
+Here, then, was a being who not only knew the meaning of the fateful
+words we had heard, but, to my mind, could be relied upon to make them a
+verity.
+
+It was a relief to me to turn my gaze from his repellant features to the
+fixed countenance of Madame. She had not stirred; but either the room
+had grown lighter or my eyes had become more accustomed to the darkness,
+for I certainly saw a change in her look. Her eyelids were now raised,
+and her eyes were bent directly upon me. This was uncomfortable,
+especially as there was malevolence in her glance, or so I thought,
+and, far from being pleased with my position, I began to wish that I
+had never allowed myself to enter the place. Under the influence of this
+feeling I let my eyes drop from the woman's countenance to her hands,
+which were folded, as I have said, in a fixed position across her
+breast. The result was an increase of my mental disturbance. They were
+brown, shining hands, laden with rings, and, in the added light, under
+which I saw them, bore a strange resemblance to the bronze hand I had
+just left in Dr. Merriam's office.
+
+I had never considered myself a weak man, but, from that instant, I
+began to have a crawling fear of this woman--a fear that was in nowise
+lessened by the very evident agitation visible in the girl, who had been
+for me the connecting link between that object of mystery and this.
+
+Unendurable quiet was upon us all again. It was aggravated by awe--an
+awe to which I was determined not to succumb, notwithstanding the secret
+uneasiness under which I was laboring. So I let my eyes continue to
+roam, till they fell upon the one thing moving in the room. This was a
+man's foot, which I now saw projecting from behind the drapery through
+which I had seen the white hand glide. It was swinging up and down in an
+impatient way, so out of keeping with the emotions perceptible on this
+side of the drapery that I felt forced to ask myself what sort of person
+this could be who thus kept watch and ward with such very commonplace
+impatience over a creature who was able to hold every other person in
+her presence under a spell. The drapery did not give up its secrets, and
+again I yielded to the fascinations of Madame's face.
+
+There was a change in it; the eyes no longer looked my way, but into
+space, which seemed to hold for them some terrible and heart-rending
+vision. The lips, which had been closed, were now parted, and from them
+issued a breath which soon formed itself into words.
+
+"'Vengeance is mine! I will repay,' saith the Lord." What passionate
+utterance was this? The voice that had been musical now rang with
+jangling discord. The swinging of the foot behind the drapery ceased.
+Madame spoke on:
+
+"Through pain, sorrow, blood and death shall victory come. Life for
+life, pang for pang, scorn for scorn!"
+
+The swinging foot disappeared, and the small white hand passed quickly
+through the curtain and rested again upon the forehead of Madame. But
+without a calming effect this time. On the contrary, it seemed to urge
+and incite her, for she broke into a new strain, speaking rapidly,
+wildly, as if she lived in what she saw, or, what was doubtless truer,
+had lived in it and was but recalling her own past in one of those
+terrible hours of memory that recur on the border-land of dreams.
+
+"I see a child, a girl. She is young; she is beautiful. Men love her,
+many men, but she loves only one. He is of the North; she is of the
+South. He is icy like his clime; she is fiery like her skies. The fire
+cannot warm the ice. It is the ice puts out the fire! Woe! woe!"
+
+The left hand came from the drapery; found its way to the left temple
+of the woman. But it, too, was ineffectual. Hurriedly, madly, the words
+went on, tripping each other up in their haste and passion. The voice
+now became hoarse with rage.
+
+"The girl is now a woman. A child is given her. The man demands the
+child. She will not give it up. He curses it; he curses her, but she is
+firm and holds it to her breast till her arms are blackened by the blows
+he deals her. Then he curses her _country_, the land that gave her a
+_heart_; and, hearing this, she rises up and curses him and his with an
+oath the Lord will hear and answer from His judgment throne. _For the
+child was slain between them_ and its pitiful, small body blocks the
+passage of Mercy between his and hers forever. Woe! woe!"
+
+As suddenly as the vehement change had come upon her, she had become
+calm again. The eyes retained their stony stare, but a cold and cruel
+smile formed about her lips, as if, with the utterance of that last
+word, she saw a futurity of blood and carnage satisfying her ferocious
+soul.
+
+It was revolting, horrible; but no one else seemed to feel it as I did.
+To most it was a short glimpse into a suffering soul. To me it was the
+revelation of causes which had led, and would lead yet, to miseries for
+which she had no pity, and which I felt myself too weak to avert.
+
+That it was not intended that the devotees of Madame should have heard
+these ravings was evident; for at this juncture the owner of the two
+white hands that had failed to control the spirit of Madame came out
+from behind the drapery of the dais. He proved to be none other than
+the man with the bristling mustache whose plans I had disarranged at the
+doctor's office by plugging the keyhole of the box with wax.
+
+This was enough. "Chicanery!" was my inmost thought as I noted his cool
+and calculating eye. "But very dangerous chicanery," I added. Was the
+ring upon whose immediate capture I now saw that a life, if not lives,
+depended, in his possession, or in that of Madame, or in that of the
+Quaker-like girl sitting a few seats from me? How impossible to tell,
+and yet how imperative to know! As I was debating how this could be
+brought about, I watched the man.
+
+Self-control was a habit with him, but I saw the nervous clutch of his
+delicate hand. This did not indicate complete mastery of himself at
+that moment. He spoke with care, but as if he were in haste to deliver
+himself of the few necessary words of dismissal, without betraying his
+lack of composure.
+
+"Madame will awake presently; she will be heard no more to-day. Those
+who wish to kiss her robes may pass in front of her; but she is still
+too far away from earth to hear your voices or to answer any questions.
+You will therefore preserve silence."
+
+So! so! more chicanery. Or was it strategy, pure and simple? Was there
+at the bottom of his words the wish to see me nearer or was he just
+playing with the credulity of such believers as the man next me, for
+instance? I did not stop to determine. My anxiety to see Madame, without
+the illusion of even the short distance between us, induced me to join
+the file of the faithful who were slowly approaching the seated woman.
+I would not kiss her robes, but I would look into her eyes and make sure
+that she was as far away from us all as she was said to be.
+
+But as I drew nearer to her I forgot all about her eyes in the interest
+awakened by her hands. And when it came my turn to pause before her,
+it was upon the middle finger of her right hand my eyes were fixed. For
+there I saw THE RING; the veritable ring of my fair neighbor, if the
+description given by her was correct.
+
+To see it there was to have it; or so I vowed in my surprise and
+self-confidence. Putting on an air of great dignity, I bowed to the
+woman and passed on, resolving upon the course I would pursue, which
+must necessarily be daring in order to succeed. At the door I paused
+till all who followed me had passed out; then I turned back, and once
+again faced Madame.
+
+She was alone. Her watchful guardian had left her side, and to all
+appearances the room. The opportunity surpassed my expectations, and
+with a step full of nerve I pushed forward and took my stand again
+directly in front of her. She gave no token of seeing me; but I did not
+hesitate on that account. Exerting all my will power, I first subjected
+her to a long and masterful look, and then I spoke, directly and to the
+point, like one who felt himself her superior,
+
+"Madame," said I, "the man you wish for is here. Give me the ring, and
+trust no more to weak or false emissaries."
+
+The start with which she came to life, or to the evidence of life,
+was surprising. Lifting her great lids, she returned my gaze with one
+equally searching and powerful, and seeing with what disdain I sustained
+it, allowed an almost imperceptible tremor to pass across her face,
+which up to now had not displayed the shadow even of an emotion.
+
+"You!" she murmured, in a dove-like tone of voice; "who are you that I
+should trust you more than the others?"
+
+"I am he you expect," said I, venturing more as I felt her impassibility
+giving way before me. "Have you had no premonition of my coming? Did you
+not know that he who controls would be in your presence to-day?"
+
+She trembled, and her fingers almost unclasped from her arms.
+
+"I have had dreams," she murmured, "but I have been bidden to beware of
+dreams. If you are the person you claim to be, you will have some token
+which will absolve me from the charge of credulity. What is your token?"
+
+Though doubtful, I dared not hesitate. "This," I said, taking from my
+pocket the key which had been given me by my fair neighbor.
+
+She moved, she touched it with a finger; then she eyed me again.
+
+"Others have keys," said she, "but they fail in the opening. How are you
+better than they?"
+
+"You know," I declared--"you know that I can do what others have failed
+in. Give me the ring."
+
+The force, the assurance with which I uttered this command moved her in
+spite of herself. She trembled, gave me one final, searching look, and
+slowly began to pull the ring from off her finger. It was in her hand,
+and half way to mine, when a third voice came to break the spell.
+
+"Madame, Madame," it said; "be careful. This is the man who clogged the
+lock, and hindered my endeavors in your behalf in the doctor's office."
+
+Her hand which was so near mine drew back; but I was too quick and too
+determined for her. I snatched the ring before she could replace it on
+her own hand, and, holding it firmly, faced the intruder with an air of
+very well-assumed disdain.
+
+"Attempt no argument with me. It was because I saw your weakness
+and vulgar self-confidence that I interfered in a matter only to be
+undertaken by one upon whom all can rely. Now that I have the ring,
+the end is near. Madame, be wiser in the choice of your confidants,
+_To-morrow this ring will be in its proper place_."
+
+Bowing as I had done before, I advanced to the door. They had made no
+effort to regain the ring, and I felt that my rashness had stood me in
+good stead. But as, with a secret elation I was just capable of keeping
+within bounds, I put my foot across the threshold, I heard behind me a
+laugh so triumphant and mocking that I felt struck with consternation;
+and, glancing down into my hand, I saw that I held, not the peculiar
+steel circlet destined for the piece of mechanism in the doctor's
+office, but an ordinary ring of gold.
+
+She had offered me the wrong ring, _and I had taken it_, thus proving
+the falsity of my pretensions.
+
+There was nothing left for me but to acknowledge defeat by an
+ignominious departure.
+
+
+
+
+IV. CHECKMATE.
+
+I HASTENED at once home, and knocked at Miss Calhoun's door. While
+waiting for a response, the mockery of my return without the token I had
+undertaken to restore to her, impressed itself upon me in full force. It
+seemed to me that in that instant my face must have taken on a haggard
+look. I could not summon up the necessary will to make it otherwise.
+Any effort in that direction would have made my failure at cheerfulness
+pitiable.
+
+The door opened. There she stood. Whatever expectancy of success she may
+have had fled at once. Our eyes met and her countenance changed. My face
+must have told the whole story, for she exclaimed:
+
+"You have failed!"
+
+I was obliged to acknowledge it in a whisper, but hastened to assure her
+that the ring had not yet been placed upon the bronze hand, and was not
+likely to be till the lock had been cleaned, out. This interested her,
+and called out a hurried but complete recital of my adventure. She hung
+upon it breathlessly, and when I reached the point where Madame and her
+prophetic voice entered the tale, she showed so much excitement that any
+doubts I may have cherished as to the importance of the communication
+Madame had made us vanished in a cold horror I with difficulty hid from
+my companion. But the end agitated her more than the beginning, and when
+she heard that I had taken upon myself a direct connection with this
+mysterious matter, she grew so pale that I felt forced to inquire if the
+folly I had committed was likely to result badly, at which she shuddered
+and replied:
+
+"You have brought death upon yourself. I see nothing but destruction
+before us both. This woman--this horrible woman--has seen your face,
+and, if she is what you describe, she will never forget it. The man, who
+is her guardian or agent, no doubt, must have tracked you, and finding
+you here with me, from whose hand he himself may have torn the ring
+last night, will record it as treason against a cause which punishes all
+treason with death.
+
+"Pshaw!" I ejaculated, with a jocular effort at indifference, which I
+acknowledge I did not feel. "You seem to forget the law. We live in the
+city of Baltimore. Charlatans such as I have just left behind me do not
+make away with good citizens with impunity. We have only to seek the
+protection of the police."
+
+She met my looks with a slowly increasing intentness, which stilled this
+protest on my lips.
+
+"I am under no oath," she ruminated. "I can tell this man what I will.
+Mr. Abbott, there has been formed in this city an organization against
+which the police are powerless. I am an involuntary member of it, and I
+know its power. It has constrained me and it has constrained others, and
+no one who has opposed it once has lived to do so twice. Yet it has
+no recognized head (though there is a chief to whom we may address
+ourselves), and it has no oaths of secrecy. All is left to the
+discretion of its members, and _to their fears_. The object of this
+society is the breaking of the power of the North, and the means by
+which it works is _death_. I joined it under a stress of feeling I
+called patriotism, and I believed myself right till the sword was
+directed against my own breast. Then I quailed; then I began to ask
+by what right we poor mortals constitute ourselves into instruments of
+destruction to our kind, and having once stopped to question, I saw
+the whole matter in such a different light that I knowingly put a
+stumbling-block in the path of so-called avenging justice, and thus
+courted the doom that at any moment may fall upon my head." And she
+actually looked up, as if expecting to see it fall then and there.
+"This Madame," she went on in breathless haste, "is doubtless one of the
+members. How so grotesque and yet redoubtable an individuality should
+have become identified with a cause demanding the coolest judgment as
+well as the most acute political acumen, I cannot stop to conjecture.
+But that she is a member of our organization, and an important one, too,
+her prophecies, which have so strangely become facts, are sufficient
+proof, even had you not seen my ring on her finger. Perhaps, incredible
+as it may appear, she is the _chief_. If so--But I do not make myself
+intelligible," she continued, meeting my eyes. "I will be more explicit.
+One peculiar feature of this organization is the complete ignorance
+which we all have concerning our fellow-members. We can reveal nothing,
+for we know nothing. I know that I am allied to a cause which has for
+its end the destruction of all who oppose the supremacy of the South,
+but I cannot give you the name of another person attached to this
+organization, though I feel the pressure of their combined power upon
+every act of my life. _You_ may be a member without my knowing it--a
+secret and fearful thought, which forms one of the greatest safeguards
+to the institution, though it has failed in this instance, owing"--here
+her voice fell--"to my devotion to the man I love. What?"--(I had not
+spoken; my heart was dying within me, but I had given no evidence of
+a wish to interrupt her; she, however, feared a check, and rushed
+vehemently on.) "I shall have to tell you more. When, through pamphlets
+and unsigned letters--dangerous communications, which have long since
+become ashes--I was drawn into this society (and only those of the most
+radical and impressionable natures are approached) a ring and a key were
+sent me with this injunction: 'When the man or woman whose name will
+be forwarded to you in an otherwise empty envelope, shall have, in your
+honest judgment, proved himself or herself sufficiently dangerous to
+the cause we love, to merit removal, you are to place this ring on the
+middle finger of the bronze hand locked up in the box openly displayed
+in the office of a Dr. Merriam on ------ Street. With the pressure of
+the whole five rings on the fingers of this piece of mechanism, the
+guardian of our rights will be notified by a bell, that a victim awaits
+justice, and the end to be accomplished will be begun. As there are five
+fingers, and each one of these must feel the pressure of its own ring
+before connection can be made between this hand and the bell mentioned,
+no injustice can be done and no really innocent person destroyed. For,
+when five totally disconnected persons devoted to the cause agree that
+a certain individual is worthy of death, mistake is impossible. You
+are now one of the five. Use the key and the ring according to
+your conscience.' This was well, if I had been allowed to follow my
+conscience; but when, six weeks ago, they sent me the name of a man of
+lofty character and unquestioned loyalty, I recoiled, scarcely believing
+my eyes. Yet, fearing that my own judgment was warped, or that some
+hidden hypocrisy was latent in a man thus given over to our attention,
+I made it my business to learn this man's inner life. I found it so
+beautiful----" She choked, turned away for a moment, controlled herself,
+and went on rapidly and with increased earnestness: "I learned to love
+this man, and as I learned to love him I grew more and more satisfied of
+the dangerous character of the organization I was pledged to. But I had
+one comfort. He could not be doomed without my ring, and that was safe
+on my finger. Safe! You know how safe it was. The monster whom you have
+just seen, and who may have been the person to subject this noble man to
+suspicion, must have discovered my love and the safeguard it offered to
+this man. The ring, as you know, was stolen, and as you have failed to
+recover it, and I to get any reply from the chief to whom I forwarded my
+protest, to-morrow will without doubt see it placed upon the finger of
+the bronze hand. The result you know. Fantastic as this may strike you,
+it is the dreadful truth."
+
+Love, had I ever felt this holy passion for her, had no longer a place
+in my breast; but awe, terror and commiseration for her, for him, and
+also perhaps for myself, were still active passions within me, and at
+this decided statement of the case, I laughed in the excitement of the
+moment, and the relief I felt at knowing just what there was to dread in
+the adventure.
+
+"Absurd!" I cried. "With Madame's address in my mind and the Baltimore
+police at my command, this man is as safe from assault as you or I are.
+Give me five minutes' talk with Chief----"
+
+Her hand on my arm stopped me; the look in her eye made me dumb.
+
+"What could you do without _me?_" she said; "and my evidence you cannot
+have. For what would give it weight can never pass my lips. The lives
+that have fallen with my connivance stand between me and confession. I
+do not wish to subject myself to the law."
+
+This placed her in another light before me, and I started back.
+
+"You have----" I stammered.
+
+"Placed that ring three times on the hand in Dr. Merriam's office."
+
+"And each time?"
+
+"A man somewhere in this nation has died suddenly. I do not know by what
+means or by whose hand, but he died."
+
+This beautiful creature guilty of---- I tried not to show my horror.
+
+"It is, then, a question of choice between you and him?" said I. "Either
+you or he must perish. Both cannot be saved."
+
+She recoiled, turning very pale, and for several minutes stood surveying
+me with a fixed gaze as if overcome by an idea which threw so immense
+a responsibility upon her. As she stood thus, I seemed not only to look
+into her nature, but her life. I saw the fanaticism that that had
+once held every good impulse in check, the mistaken devotion, the
+unreasoning hatred, and, underneath all, a spirit of truth and
+rectitude which brightened and brightened as I watched her, till it
+dominated every evil passion and made her next words come easily, and
+with a natural burst of conviction which showed the innate generosity of
+her soul.
+
+"You have shown me my duty, sir. There can be no question as to where
+the choice should fall, I am not worth one hair of his noble head. Save
+him, sir; I will help you by every means in my power."
+
+Seizing the opportunity she thus gave me, I asked her the name of the
+man who was threatened.
+
+In a low voice she told me.
+
+I was astonished; dumfounded.
+
+"Shameful!" I cried. "What motive, what reason can they have for
+denouncing _him?_"
+
+"He is under suspicion--that is enough."
+
+"Great heaven!" I exclaimed. "Have we reached such a pass as that?"
+
+"Don't," she uttered, hoarsely; "don't reason; don't talk; act."
+
+"I will," I cried, and rushed from the room.
+
+She fell back in a chair, almost fainting. I saw her lying quiet, inert
+and helpless as I rushed by her door on my way to the street, but I did
+not stop to aid her. I knew she would not suffer it.
+
+The police are practical, and my tale was an odd one. I found it hard,
+therefore, to impress them with its importance, especially as in trying
+to save Miss Calhoun I was necessarily more or less incoherent. I
+did succeed, however, in awakening interest at last, and, a man being
+assigned me, I led the way to Madame's door. But here a surprise awaited
+me. The doorplate, which had so attracted my attention, was gone, and
+in a few minutes we found that she had departed also, leaving no trace
+behind her.
+
+This looked ominous, and with little delay we hastened to the office of
+Dr. Merriam. Knocking at the usual door brought no response, but when
+we tried the further one, by which his patients usually passed out, we
+found ourselves confronted by the gentleman we sought.
+
+His face was calm and smiling, and though he made haste to tell us that
+we had come out of hours, he politely asked us in and inquired what he
+could do for us.
+
+Not understanding how he could have forgotten me so soon, I looked at
+him inquiringly, at which his face lighted up, and he apologetically
+said:
+
+"I remember you now. You were here this morning consulting me about a
+friend who is afflicted with a peculiar complaint. Have you anything
+further to state or ask in regard to it. I have just five minutes to
+spare."
+
+"Hear this gentleman first," said I, pointing to the officer who
+accompanied me.
+
+The doctor calmly bowed, and waited with the greatest self-possession
+for him to state his case.
+
+The officer did so abruptly.
+
+"There is a box in your ante-room which I feel it my duty to examine. I
+am Detective Hopkins, of the city police."
+
+The doctor, with a gentleness which seemed native rather than assumed,
+quietly replied:
+
+"I am very sorry, but you are an hour too late." And, throwing open the
+door of communication between the two rooms, he pointed to the table.
+
+_The box was gone_!
+
+
+
+
+
+V. DOCTOR MERRIAM.
+
+This second disappointment was more than I could endure. Turning upon
+the doctor with undisguised passion, I hotly asked:
+
+"Who has taken it? Describe the person at once. Tell what you know about
+the box, I did not finish the threat; but my looks must have been very
+fierce, for he edged off a bit, and cast a curious glance at the officer
+before he answered:
+
+"You have, then, no ailing friend? Well, well; I expended some very good
+advice upon you. But you paid me, and so we are even."
+
+"The box!" I urged; "the box! Don't waste words, for a man's life is at
+stake."
+
+His surprise was marvelously assumed or very real.
+
+"You are talking somewhat wildly, are you not?" he ventured, with a
+bland air. "A man's life? I cannot believe that."
+
+"But you don't answer me," I urged.
+
+He smiled; he evidently thought me out of my mind.
+
+"That's true; but there is so little I can tell you. I do not know what
+was in the box about which you express so much concern, and I do not
+know the names of its owners. It was brought here some six months ago
+and placed in the spot where you saw it this morning, upon conditions
+that were satisfactory to me, and not at all troublesome to my patients,
+whose convenience I was bound to consult. It has remained there till
+to-day, when----"
+
+Here the officer interrupted him.
+
+"What were these conditions? The matter calls for frankness."
+
+"The conditions," repeated the doctor, in no wise abashed, "were these:
+That it should occupy the large table in the window as long as they
+saw fit. That, though placed in my room, it should be regarded as the
+property of the society which owned it, and, consequently, free to the
+inspection of its members but to no one else. That I should know these
+members by their ability to open the box, and that so long as these
+persons confined their visits to my usual hours for patients, they were
+to be subject to no one's curiosity, nor allowed to suffer from any
+one's interference. In return for these slight concessions, I was to
+receive five dollars for every day I allowed it to stay here, payment to
+be made by mail."
+
+"Good business! And you cannot tell the names of the persons with whom
+you entered into this contract?"
+
+"No; the one who came to me first and saw to the placing of the box
+and all that, was a short, sturdy fellow, with a common face but very
+brilliant eye; he it was who made the conditions; but the man who came
+to get it, and who paid me twenty dollars for opening my office door
+at an unusual hour, was a more gentlemanly man, with a thick, brown
+mustache and resolute look. He was accompanied----"
+
+"Why do you stop?"
+
+The doctor smiled.
+
+"I was wondering," said he, "if I should say he was accompanied, or that
+he accompanied, a woman, of such enormous size that the doorway hardly
+received her. I thought she was a patient at first, for, large as she
+is, she was brought into my room in a chair, which it took four men to
+carry. But she only came about the box."
+
+"Madame!" I muttered; and being made still more eager by this discovery
+of her direct participation in its carrying off, I asked if she touched
+the box or whether it was taken away unopened.
+
+The doctor's answer put an end to every remaining hope I may have
+cherished.
+
+"She not only touched but opened it. I saw the lid rise and heard a
+whirr. What is the matter, sir?"
+
+"Nothing," I made haste to say--"that is, nothing I can communicate
+just now. This woman must be followed," I signified to the officer, and
+was about to rush from the room when my eye fell on the table where the
+box stood.
+
+"See!" said I, pointing to a fine wire protruding from a small hole
+in the center of its upper surface; "this box had connection with some
+point outside of this room."
+
+The doctor's face flushed, and for the first time he looked a trifle
+foolish.
+
+"So I perceive _now,_" said he, "The workman who put up this box
+evidently took liberties in my absence. For _that_ I was not paid."
+
+"This wire leads where?" asked the officer.
+
+"Rip up the floor and see. I know no other way to find out."
+
+"But that would take time, and we have not a minute to lose," said I,
+and was disappearing for the second time when I again stopped. "Doctor,"
+said I, "when you consented to harbor this box under such peculiar
+conditions and allowed yourself to receive such good pay for a service
+involving so little inconvenience to yourself, you must have had some
+idea of the uses to which so mysterious an article would be put. What
+did you suppose them to be?"
+
+"To tell you the truth, I thought it was some new-fangled lottery
+scheme, and I have still to learn that I was mistaken."
+
+I gave him a look, but did not stop to undeceive him.
+
+
+
+
+VI. THE BOX AGAIN.
+
+But one resource was left: to warn Mr. S------ of his peril. This was
+not so easy a task as might appear. To make my story believed, I should
+be obliged to compromise Miss Calhoun, and Mr. S------'s well-known
+chivalry, as far as women are concerned, would make the communication
+difficult on my part, if not absolutely impossible. I, however,
+determined to attempt it, though I could not but wish I were an older
+man, with public repute to back me.
+
+Though there was but little in Mr. S------'s public life which I did not
+know, I had little or no knowledge of his domestic relations beyond the
+fact that he was a widower with one child. I did not even know where he
+lived. But inquiry at police headquarters soon settled that, and in half
+an hour after leaving the doctor's office I was at his home.
+
+It was a large, old-fashioned dwelling, of comfortable aspect; too
+comfortable, I thought, for the shadow of doom, which, in my eyes,
+overlay its cheerful front, wide-open doors and windows. How should I
+tell my story here! What credence could I expect for a tale so gruesome,
+within walls warmed by so much sunshine and joy. None, possibly; but my
+story must be told for all that.
+
+Ringing the bell hurriedly, I asked for Mr. S------. He was out of town.
+This was my first check. When would he be home? The answer gave me some
+hope, though it seemed to increase my difficulties. He would be in the
+city by eight, as he had invited a large number of guests to his house
+for the evening. Beyond this, I could learn nothing.
+
+Returning immediately to Miss Calhoun, I told her what had occurred,
+and tried to impress upon her the necessity I felt of seeing Mr. S------
+that night. She surveyed me like a woman in a dream. Twice did I have
+to repeat my words before she seemed to take them in; then she turned
+hurriedly, and going to a little desk standing in one corner of the
+room, drew out a missive, which she brought me. It was an invitation to
+this very reception which she had received a week before.
+
+"I will get you one," she whispered. "But don't speak to him, don't tell
+him without giving me some warning. I will not be far from you. I think
+I will have strength for this final hour."
+
+"God grant that your sacrifice may bear fruit," I said, and left her.
+
+To enter, on such an errand as mine, a brilliantly illuminated house
+odoriferous with flowers and palpitating with life and music, would
+be hard for any man. It was hard for me. But in the excitement of the
+occasion, aggravated as it was by a presage of danger not only to myself
+but to the woman I had come so near loving, I experienced a calmness,
+such as is felt in the presence of all mortal conflicts. I made sure
+that this was reflected in my face before leaving the dressing-room, and
+satisfied that I would not draw the attention of others by too much or
+too little color, I descended to the drawing-room and into the presence
+of my admired host.
+
+I had expected to confront a handsome man, but not of the exact type
+that he presented. There was a melancholy in his expression I had not
+foreseen, mingled with an attraction from which I could not escape after
+my first hurried glimpse of his features across the wide room. No other
+man in the room had it to so great a degree, nor was there any other
+who made so determined an effort to throw off care and be simply the
+agreeable companion. Could it be that any other warning had forestalled
+mine, or was this his habitual manner and expression? Finding no
+answer to this question, I limited myself to the duty of the hour, and
+advancing as rapidly as possible through the ever-increasing throng,
+waited for the chance to speak to him for one minute alone. Meantime, I
+satisfied myself that the two detectives sent from police headquarters
+were on hand. I recognized them among a group of people at the door.
+
+Whether intentionally or not, Mr. S ------ had taken up his stand before
+the conservatory, and as in my endeavors to reach him I approached
+within sight of this place, I perceived the face of Miss Calhoun shining
+from amid its greenery, and at once remembered the promise I had
+made her. She was looking for me, and, meeting my eyes, made me an
+imperceptible gesture, to which I felt bound to respond.
+
+Slipping from the group with which I was advancing, I stole around to
+a side door towards which she had pointed, and in another moment found
+myself at her side. She was clothed in velvet, which gave to her cheek
+and brow the colorlessness of marble.
+
+"He is not as ignorant of his position as we thought," said she. "I have
+been watching him for an hour. He is in anticipation of something. This
+will make our task easier."
+
+"You have said nothing," I suggested.
+
+"No, no; how could I?"
+
+"Perhaps the detectives I saw there have told him."
+
+"Perhaps; but they cannot know the whole."
+
+"No, or our words would be unnecessary."
+
+"Mr. Abbott," said she, with feverish volubility, "do not try to
+tell him yet; wait for a few minutes till I have gained a little
+self-possession, a little command over myself; but no--that may be
+to risk his life--do not wait a moment--go now, go now, only----" She
+started, stumbled and fell back into a low seat under a spreading palm.
+"He is coming here. Do not leave me, Mr. Abbott; step back there behind
+those plants. I cannot trust myself to face him all alone."
+
+I did as she bade me. Mr. S----, with a smile on his face--the first I
+had seen there--came in and walked with a quick step and a resolved
+air up to Miss Calhoun, who endeavored to rise to meet him. But she was
+unable, which involuntary sign of confusion seemed to please him.
+
+"Irene," said he, in a tone that made me start and wish I had not been
+so amenable to her wishes, "I thought I saw you glide in here, and my
+guests being now all arrived, I have ventured to steal away for a moment,
+just to satisfy the craving which has been torturing me for the last
+hour. Irene, you are pale; you tremble like an aspen. Have I frightened
+you by my words--too abrupt, perhaps, considering the reserve that has
+always been between us until now. Didn't you know that I loved you? that
+for the last month--ever since I have known you, indeed--I have had but
+the one wish, to make you my wife?"
+
+"Good God!" I saw the words on her lips rather than heard them. She
+seemed to be illumined and overwhelmed at once. "Mr. S------," said
+she, trying to be brave, trying to address him with some sort of
+self-possession,
+
+"I did not expect--I had no right to expect this honor from you. I
+am not worthy--I have no right to hear such words from your lips.
+Besides----" She could go no further; perhaps he did not let her.
+
+"Not worthy--you!" There was infinite sadness in his tone. "What do you
+think I am, then? It is because you are so worthy, so much better than
+I am or can ever be, that I want you for my wife. I long for the
+companionship of a pure mind, a pure hand----"
+
+"Mr. S------" (she had risen, and the resolve in her face made her
+beauty shine out transcendently), "I have not the pure mind, the pure
+hand you ascribe to me. I have meddled with matters few women could
+even conceive of. I am a member--a repentant member, to be sure--of an
+organization which slights the decrees of God and places the aims of a
+few selfish souls above the rights of man, and----"
+
+He had stooped and was kissing her hand.
+
+"You need not go on," he whispered; "I quite understand. But you will be
+my wife?"
+
+Aghast, white as the driven snow, she watched him with dilating eyes
+that slowly filled with a great horror.
+
+"Understand!--_you understand!_ Oh, what does that mean? _Why_ should
+you understand?"
+
+"Because"--his voice sunk to a whisper, but I heard it, as I would have
+recognized his thought had he not spoken at that moment--"because I
+am the chief of the organization you mention. Irene, now you have _my_
+secret."
+
+I do not think she uttered a sound, but I heard the dying cry of her
+soul in her very silence. He may have heard it, too, for his look showed
+sudden and unfathomable pity.
+
+"This is a blow to you," he said. "I do not wonder; there _is_ something
+hateful in the fact; latterly I have begun to realize it. That is why
+I have allowed myself to love. I wanted some relief from my thoughts.
+Alas! I did not know that a full knowledge of your noble soul would only
+emphasize them. But this is no talk for a ballroom. Cheer up, darling,
+and----"
+
+"Wait!" She had found strength to lay her hand on his arm. "Did you know
+that a man was condemned to-day?"
+
+His face took on a shade of gloom.
+
+"Yes," he bowed, casting an anxious look towards the room from which
+came the mingled sounds of dance and merriment. "The bell which
+announces the fact rang during my absence. I did not know there was a
+name before the society."
+
+She crouched, covering her face with her hands. I think she was afraid
+her emotion would escape her in a cry. But in an instant they had
+dropped again, and she was panting in his ear:
+
+"You are the chief and are not acquainted with these matters of life
+and death? Traitors are these men and women to you--traitors! jealous of
+your influence and your power!"
+
+He looked amazed; he measured the distance between himself and the
+door and turned to ask her what she meant, but she did not give him the
+opportunity.
+
+"Do you know," she asked, "the name of the person for whom the bell rang
+to-day?"
+
+He shook his head. "I am expecting a messenger with it any moment," said
+he, looking towards the rear of the conservatory. "Is it any one who is
+here to-night?"
+
+The gasp she gave might have been heard in the other room. Language and
+motion seemed both to fail her, and I thought I should have to go to
+her rescue. But before I could move, I heard the click of a latch at
+the rear of the conservatory, and saw, peering through the flowers and
+plants, the wicked face of the man with the receding forehead whom I had
+seen at madame's, and in his arms he held THE BOX.
+
+It was a shock which sent me further into concealment. Mr. S----, on the
+contrary, looked relieved. Exclaiming, "Ah, he has come!" he went to
+the door leading into the drawing-room, locked it, took out the key and
+returned to meet the stealthy, advancing figure.
+
+The latter presented a picture of malignant joy, horrible to
+contemplate. The lips of his large mouth were compressed and bloodless.
+He came on with the quiet certainty and deadly ease of a slimy thing
+sure of its prey.
+
+As I noted him I felt that not only Mr. S----'s life but my own was not
+worth a moment's purchase. But I uttered no cry and scarcely breathed.
+Miss Calhoun, on the contrary, gave vent to a long, shivering sigh. The
+man bowed as he heard it, but with looks directed solely to Mr. S----.
+
+"I was told," said he, "to deliver this box to you wherever and with
+whomsoever I should find you. In it you will find _the name._"
+
+Mr. S---- gazed in haughty astonishment, first at the box and then at
+the man.
+
+"This is irregular," said he. "Why was I not made acquainted with the
+fact that a name was up for consideration, and why have you removed the
+box from its place and broken the connection which was made with so much
+difficulty?"
+
+As he said this he looked up through the glass of the conservatory to a
+high building I could see towering at the end of the garden. It was the
+building in which I had first seen that box, and I now understood how
+this connection had been made.
+
+Mr. S----'s movement had been involuntary.
+
+Dropping his eyes, he finished by saying, with an almost imperceptible
+bow, "You may speak before this lady; she is the holder of a key."
+
+"The connection was broken because suspicion was aroused; to your other
+question you will find an answer in the box. Shall I open it for you?"
+
+Mr. S------, with a stern frown, shook his head, and produced a key
+from his pocket. "Do you understand all this?" he suddenly asked Miss
+Calhoun.
+
+For reply, she pointed to the box.
+
+"Open!" her beseeching looks seemed to say.
+
+Mr. S---- turned the key and threw up the lid. "Look under the hand,"
+suggested the man.
+
+Mr. S---- leaned over the box, which had been laid on a small table,
+discovered a paper somewhere in its depth, and drew it out. It was no
+whiter than his face when he did so.
+
+"How many have subscribed to this?" he asked.
+
+"You will observe that there are five rings on the hand," responded the
+man.
+
+Miss Calhoun started, opened her lips, but paused as she saw Mr. S----
+unfold the paper.
+
+"The name of the latest traitor," murmured the man, with a look of
+ferocity the like of which I had never seen on any human face before.
+
+It was not observed by either of the actors in the tragedy before
+me. Mr. S---- was gazing with a wild incredulity at the note he had
+unfolded; she was gazing at him. From the room beyond rose and swelled
+the sweet strains of the waltz.
+
+Suddenly a low, crackling sound was heard.
+
+It came from the paper which Mr. S---- had crumpled in his hand.
+
+"So the society has decreed my death," he said, meeting the man's
+steel-cold eye for the first time. "Now I know how the men whose doom
+preceded mine have felt in a presence that leaves no hope to mortal man.
+But _you_ shall not be _my_ executioner. I will meet my fate at less
+noxious hands than yours." And, leaning forward, he whispered a
+few seemingly significant words into the messenger's ear. The man,
+grievously disappointed, hung his head, and with a sidelong look, the
+venom of which made us all shudder, he hesitated to go.
+
+"To-night?" he said.
+
+"To-night," Mr. S---- repeated, and pointed towards the door by which
+he had entered. Then, as the man still hesitated, he took him by the arm
+and resolutely led him through the conservatory, crying in his ear, "Go.
+I am still the chief."
+
+The man bowed, and slipped slowly out into the night.
+
+A burst of music, laughter, voices, joy, rose in the drawing-room. Mr.
+S---- and Irene Calhoun stood looking at each other.
+
+"You must go home," were the first words he uttered. Then, in a
+half-reproachful, half-pitiful tone, as if on the verge of tears, he
+added: "Was I so bad a chief that even you thought me a hindrance to the
+advancement of the society and the cause to which we are pledged?"
+
+It was the one thing he could say capable of rousing her.
+
+"Oh!" she cried, "it is all a mistake, all a cheat. Did you not get the
+letter I sent to my chief this morning, written in the usual style and
+directed in the usual way?"
+
+"No," he answered.
+
+"Then there is worse treason than yours among the five. I wrote to
+say that my ring had been stolen; that I did not subscribe to the
+condemnation of the man under suspicion, and that, if it was made, it
+would be through fraud. That was before I knew that the suspected one
+and the man I addressed were one and the same. Now----"
+
+"Well, now?"
+
+"You have but to accuse the woman called Madame. The man you have just
+sent away would forgive you his disappointment if you gave him the
+supreme satisfaction of carrying doom to the still more formidable
+being who prophesies death to those for whom she has already prepared a
+violent end."
+
+"Irene!"
+
+But her passion had found vent and she was not to be stilled. Telling
+him the whole story of the last twenty-four hours, she waited for the
+look of comfort she evidently expected. But it did not come. His first
+words showed why.
+
+"Madame is inexorable," said he; "but Madame is but one of five. There
+are three others--true men, sound men, thinking men. If they deem
+me unworthy--and I have shown signs of faltering of late--Madame's
+animosity or your loving weakness must not stand in the way of their
+decree. It shall never be said I sanctioned the doom of other men and
+shrank from my own. I would be unworthy of your love if I did, and your
+love is everything to me now." She had not expected this; she had not at
+all reckoned upon the stern quality in this man, forgetting that without
+it he could never have held his pitiless position.
+
+"But it is not regular; it is not according to precedent. Five rings are
+required, and only four were fairly placed. As an honest man, you ought
+to hesitate at injustice, and injustice you will show if you allow them
+to triumph through their own deceit."
+
+But even this failed to move him.
+
+"I see five rings," said he, "and I see another thing. Never will I be
+permitted to live even if I am coward enough to take advantage of the
+loophole of escape you offer me. A man who is once seen to tremble loses
+the confidence of such men as call me _chief_. I would die suddenly,
+horribly and perhaps when less prepared for it than now. And you,
+my darling, my imperial one! you would not escape. Besides, you have
+forgotten the young man who, with such unselfishness, has lent himself
+to your schemes in my favor. What could save him if I disappointed the
+malignancy of Madame. No; I have destroyed others, and must submit to
+the penalty incurred by murder. Kiss me, Irene, and go. I command it as
+your chief."
+
+With a low moan she gave up the struggle. Lifting her forehead to his
+embrace, she bestowed upon him a look of indescribable despair, then
+tottered to the door leading into the garden. As it closed upon her
+departing figure, he uttered a deep sigh, in which he seemed to give up
+life and the world. Then he raised his head, and in an instant was in
+the midst of a throng of beautiful women and dashing men, with a smile
+on his lips and a jest on his tongue.
+
+I made my escape unnoticed. The next morning I was in Philadelphia.
+There I read the following lines in the leading daily:
+
+"Baltimore, Md.--An unexpected tragedy occurred here last evening.
+Mr. S----, the well-known financier and politician, died at his
+supper-table, while drinking the health of a hundred assembled guests.
+He is considered to be a great loss to the Southern cause. The city is
+filled with mourning."
+
+And further down, in an obscure corner, this short line:
+
+"Baltimore, Md.--A beautiful young woman, known by the name of Irene
+Calhoun, was found dead in her bed this morning, from the effects of
+poison administered by herself. No cause is ascribed for the act."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bronze Hand, by
+Anna Katharine Green (Mrs. Charles Rohlfs)
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