Taking a lamp from the table, he beckoned me to follow him. Silently we proceeded through a narrow hallway and up one flight of stairs to a spacious bedroom which had seemingly been prepared for my use. A candle was burning dimly on a large dressing-case, and by its flickering light, as soon as my uncle had gone, I looked about me and tried to think with calmness on the experience I had passed through. Bolting the door securely, I threw open one of the window blinds. To my surprise the first light of dawn was visible in the sky. My room was in the rear of the house. Between me and the high wall was a dense tangle of underbrush, barely visible in the dim light. Hastily undressing, I went to bed without further delay, and was soon in deep sleep. When I awoke it was near midday. Dressing as quickly as possible, I proceeded at once to the library, where my uncle sat waiting for me. He conducted me to the breakfast room--a well-lighted and cheerful apartment--where he served me with his own hands. “You shall stay, sir--you shall stay,” said he, laying his hand on my shoulder as he sat down beside me, with a smiling face. “Rayel loves you. He hopes you will stay. He thinks God sent you to us.” “I am glad, for I wish to stay,” I said. “Good!” he exclaimed, in a long whisper. “You have brought the world to him. Already he has seen it in your eyes. But it is good!” While I ate he asked me questions touching the changes in our family since he left England. I told him of my life at home after my father's death; of my hard lot in Liverpool, and of the midnight interviews with his messenger and with Mr. Earl. He listened to me with grave and attentive interest, but stopped me before I had finished, with an impatient gesture. “Speak out! they meant--they meant to kill you, didn't they?” I stared at him in amazement, while ideas that were new to me flocked into the empyrean of thought like black birds of prey. Oh, no; I had never suspected that! I would never before have permitted such a hideous suspicion to enter my mind. Was it possible that Mr. Earl had sent me away from England in order to save my life? My hands began to tremble, and I felt my face turning red and pale under the searching eyes of my uncle. “My boy,” said he, “if all the murders were done that men conceive, the devil would live alone on earth. We shall know some time--I tell you we shall know! Let us go to Rayel,” he said, rising and leading the way. The interview had greatly excited him, and his speech seemed even more halting and labored than before. Many of his words were mispronounced and separated by long pauses; but his manner was marvelously expressive, and often a peculiar turn of the eye or movement of the hand made his meaning clear when I was in doubt about his words.