The wounded man's eyes, which after the cooling drink, were closing again in slumbrous weariness, opened widely, and gazed upon the candidate with astonishment and fear. He was accustomed to be spoken to by looks, by signs, by single words whispered low, and his wearied nerves shuddered at this unusual mode of speech. Then, too, the loving care that had watched him in sickness and encouraged with fostering hand the seed of convalescence, had surrounded him with pictures of hope, with assurances of a new life blooming in the future, so that the sharp and sudden mention of death, with his threatening hand still stretched over him, affected him as if on a sunny, flower-scented day he had suddenly felt the ice-cold breath of a newly-opened vault. A slight shudder ran through his frame, and he feebly shook his head, as if to free himself from the gloomy picture so suddenly called up. "Have you thought," continued the candidate, suddenly raising his voice and speaking sharply and impressively, "how you will pass through those black, dreadful hours, those hours now perhaps very near you, when your soul, with convulsive shudders, will tear itself free from the cold body--when your heart must leave every earthly joy, every earthly hope, and lay them in the dark depths of the grave, where the body, born of dust, must return to the dust of which it is formed?" The eyes of the wounded man grew larger, a feverish glow burned on his cheeks, and there was an imploring expression in the look he turned upon the candidate. He fixed his eyes upon the young officer with the electric fascinating gaze with which the rattlesnake turns its prey to stone. "Have you thought," continued the candidate, and his sharp voice seemed to cut deep down into the sick man's soul, as his looks glared into his horror-stricken eyes, "have you thought, that then, at the trumpet blast of eternity, you must stand before the throne of a righteous and severe Judge and give an account of your life? Your last act was murder; the shedding of a brother's blood in a struggle justified by earthly laws; but must it not appear a deadly sin in the eyes of Eternal Justice?" The features of the wounded man quivered, the feverish flush increased, and his eyelids sank and rose with a quick involuntary movement. "Heaven has shown you great mercy," said the candidate, "you have been granted time for preparation here on a bed of sickness, for eternity, whilst many were called away in the midst of mortal sin. Have you worthily used the time so graciously granted you? Have you turned your thoughts and desires away from all worldly things, and fixed them on things eternal? Have you banished from your heart every earthly wish, every earthly hope? Does it not still cling to earth? Judge yourself, and let not the short time of grace be in vain!"