The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-07-14
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 Then he returned to the windows, and lifting aside one of the blinds star ed out across a thick bank of shrubs at the moonlit sea. As he did so, ne fancied he heard a noise, but he could see nothing, and he turned away anu struck a match. He looked round the room fin vain for a candle; they had all burnt down to their sockets, and he allowed the match to go out.
 He resolved to grope his way up- stairs in the dahk. if 10 could not find candle in the hall. He took nnal look round the room. and then his eyes were arrested by a sight which held him motionless.
 Another ray of light had pierced the darkness, and the box once more stood out clear and distinct, as though illum- mated by a searchlight.
 He stood there for a moment par aiyzed with fear. The ray might ai- most have been the accusing finger of God. As a matter of fact. nothing supernatural had happened. When he had looked out of the window. he had left chink between the blind and the wall. and ot course. he had not noticed the ray of light in the yellow flare of the match. It was a meEe chance that the light fell on the place to which he had moved the box.
 But to Sir Richar Gaunt. whose nerves were already wrought upon by long months of fear 1t was no chance. He had not the presence of mind to look for the material cause of the sud den and striking effect He also saw in it a manifestation of some unseen power, which was determined to thrust the box under his notice at time when he did not wish to see it.
 For more than three minutes he stood almost as motionless as though he had lost the use of his limbs, and in those three minutes his brain seemed to be more active than he had ever known it, even in the days when it had not been dulled by drink and excess. His whole life seemed to flash up before him in a swift panorama, in which scene followed scene with such incred- ible rapidity that they became a con- fused blur of sound and color. Only two periods stood out with startling vividness. The one in which he had known Violet Hexamer. and the other in which he had known George Craw- shay.
 May the dead rise up against me and destroy me if do not keep my oath :"
 He muttered the words mechanically. like some child learning a phrase by heart.
 And then at last he moved. Ills right hand stole into his pocket, and he pulled out the revolver It felt cold and heavy in his hand.
 .'You must hunt down the man, and when you find him you must hound him to ruin and death"
 He did not speak the words himself but he heard them as plainly as though they had been spoken in the room. He could distinguish the curl ous information of George Crawshay's voice. He answered them, not in his mind, but Tn actual spoken words. as though there were some one there to fisen to him.
 T will hound the man to ruin and death. I will keep my oath"
 And as he spoke the words, he saw the thing that he must do. He must plunge once more into the old life of pleasure, and wreck both his body and mind. And then-he would die, by his own hand. It would not be hard to die when he had exhausted all that made life worth living. He would have his fling first. and then slip quietly out of the world.
 "Good. Crawshay. good" he cried. T will keep my oath to you. I will ruin the man. and will kill him. But the