The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-03-03
q know what happens, replied he.

his flute, took 1t to pieces, and care fully bestowed it in the tails of his coat. I put away my pistol in mine.
 "Do you mind shouldering that spade and pickaxe, and following me?" he asked. 1 took them up in si- lence. He drained his glass and put on his hat.
 "Now I think we are ready. Stop moment"
 He reached across for the glass which I had emptied, took it up gin- gerly between thumb and forefiDger, and tossed it with a crash on to the hearthstone. He then did the same to my pipe, after first snapping the stem into halves. This done, he blew out one candle, and with great gravity led the way down the staircase. I shoul- dered the tools and followed, while my heart hated him with iercer spite than ever.
 We passed down the crazy stairs and through the kitchen. The candles were still burning there. As my companion glanced at the supper table, "H'm," he said, "not bad beginning of a new life. My friend, 1 will allow you ex- actly twelve months in which to get hanged"
 l made no answer, and we stepped out into the night. The moon was now up, and the high-road stretched like ribbon into the gloom. The cold wind bore up few heavy clouds from the northwest, but for the most part we could see easily enough. We trudged side by side along the road in silence, except that 1 could hear my companion every now and then whis- tling softly to himself.
 As we drew near to the Four Holed Cross and the scene of the murder confess to an uneasy feeling and a de- sire to get past the place with all speed. But the lawyer stopped by the very spot where the coach was over- turned, and held up finger as ii to call attention. It was favorite trick of his with the jury.
 "This was where the jeweler lay Some fifteen yards off there was an- other pool of blood. Now the ieweler must have dropped instantly, for he was shot through the heart. Yet no one doubted but that the other pool of blood was his. Fools!"
 With this he turned across the road at right angles, and began to strike rapidly across the moor. At first thought he was trying to escape me, but he allowed me to catch him up readily enough, and then I knew the point for which he was making. followed doggedly. Clouds began to gather over the moons face, and every now and then I stumbled heavily on the uneven ground but he moved along nimbly enongh, and even cried "Shoo!" in sprightly voice when a startled blower flew up before his feet. Presently after we had gone about five hundred yards on the heath, the ground broke away into little hol- low, where rough track led down to the lime kilns and the thinly wooded stream that washed the valley below. We followed this track for ten min utes or so, and presently the masonry of the disused kilns peered out, white in the moonlight, from behind the trees.
 There were three of these kilns close together beside the path; but my companion without hesitation pulled up almost beneath the very arch of the first, peered about, examined the ground narrowly, and then motioned to me.
 "Dig here."
 of we both know what is under heath, what is the use of digging?"
 II very much doubt if we do," said he. "You had better dig"
 l can feel the chill creeping down my back as I write of it; but at the time, though I we'll knew the grisly sight which I was to discover, I dug away, steadily enough. The man who had surprised my secret set himself down on dark bank of ferns at about ten paces' distance, ald 1 began to whistle softly, though I could sec his fingers fumbling with his coat-tails as though they itched to be at the flute again.
 The moons rays shone fitfully upon the white face of the kiln, and lit up my work. The little stream rushed noisily below. And so, with this hateful man as solitary watcher, barred to the light of heaven the re- mains of the comrade whom, five months before, had murdered and buried there. How 1 had then cursed my luck because forced to hide his corpse away before I could return and search for the diamond I had failed to find upon his body! But as I tossed the earth and lime aside, and discovered my handiwork, the moons rays were suddenly caught and re- flected from within the pit, and I fell forward with short gasp of delight.