"I staggered back in amazement and he followed me, closing the door and locking it behind him. "'What would you do?' I cried, regarding his act with alarm, for, candidly, I was almost abject with fear. "'Nothing--to you!' he said. 'You have been as far as you could be my friend. The other, your companion of Keswick'--meaning you, of course--'was my enemy.' "I was glad you were not with us, my dear Parton. I should have trembled for your safety. "'How have you managed to escape?' I asked. "'I have not escaped,' returned Barker. 'But I soon shall be free from my accursed double.' "Here he gave an unearthly laugh and pointed to the clock. "'Ha, ha!' he cried. 'Five minutes more--five minutes more and I shall be free.' "'Then the man in the dock was not you?' I asked. "'The man in the dock,' he answered, slowly, 'is even now mounting the gallows, whilst I stand here.' "He trembled a little as he spoke, and lurched forward like a drunken man; but he soon recovered himself, grasping the back of my chair convulsively with his long white fingers. "'In two minutes more,' he whispered, 'the rope will be adjusted about his neck; the black cap is even now being drawn over his cursed features, and--' "Here he shrieked with laughter, and, rushing to the window, thrust his head out and literally sucked the air into his lungs, as a man with a parched throat would have drank water. Then he turned and, tottering back to my side, hoarsely demanded some brandy. "It was fortunately at hand, and precisely as the big bells in Westminster began to sound the hour of noon, he caught up the goblet and held it aloft. "'To him!' he cried. "And then, Parton, standing before me in my lodgings, as truly as I write, he remained fixed and rigid until the twelfth stroke of the bells sounded, when he literally faded from my sight, and the goblet, falling to the floor, was shattered into countless atoms!" THE END