But all in a moment Captain Ernscliffe remembered himself, and drew back before he had struck the fatal blow he had meditated. He would not harm a defenseless man. "I will not kill you," he said, hoarsely, "but finish your story quickly. I can scarcely bear your presence." "It was the first murder I had ever attempted," said the prisoner, after a long-drawn breath. "Naturally enough, I felt nervous over it. "I walked up and down the river-bank for hours in the rain, trying to excuse myself to myself. "Then all of a sudden she came up behind me, and pushed me in, and ran away. "It was then that she went home to her parents. They took her back, kept her terrible secret, and married her to you. "If I had let her alone then, all might have gone well," pursued the prisoner, "but I hated her for her maddened blow that dark, rainy night. "I swore revenge. It was I who sent her the bouquet of flowers that caused her seeming death at the altar that night. "I resurrected her, and made her a prisoner. She escaped the day that Farmer Thorn shot me. "She thought I was dead, but as soon as I recovered from my wound I started out upon her trail again, still pursuing my hellish scheme of vengeance. "But she escaped me for years, and I never met her again, until the night that I murdered her sister. "I had just reached London that night, and went into the theater, full of idle curiosity to see La Reine Blanche, the beautiful idol of the hour. "The moment she came upon the stage I recognized in the great actress the lovely girl I had treated so inhumanly. "In an instant I conceived my diabolical plan of revenge. I hurried out of the theater, sent that note to her dressing-room, and waited at the western door. "The woman who came had the voice, the form, the step of Queenie, and I plunged my dagger in her heart. I killed Sydney, but the blow was meant for Queenie." He stopped, and there was silence in the gloomy prison-cell, while the criminal waited for Ernscliffe to speak. "You are telling me the truth?" he demanded, hoarsely. "As God is my judge, and on the word of a dying man. Let Queenie tell you her story and she will corroborate my words. I have pursued her pitilessly, remorselessly. I have wronged her beyond all reparation, yet she is as pure, and true, and innocent to-day as she was that fatal hour when I first met her, a happy, thoughtless girl, selling her painted fan to buy her simple ball-dress. My terrible sin against her is enough of itself to drag my soul down to the lowest depths of perdition!" added the prisoner, with a hollow groan. "You have indeed sinned fearfully, and God will punish you," said Captain Ernscliffe, turning to go. "A moment longer," pleaded the unhappy wretch. "Say that you forgive me before you go." "Never in this world or in the next!" cried Captain Ernscliffe, furiously. The grated door unclosing, let in the priest who was to spend the night with the condemned man. He caught their parting words.