“Presently a band of children on their way to school overtook me, and began to whisper to each other as they passed.  I saw that they looked at me with suspicion in their eyes.  ‘They too can see the brand,’ thought I; ‘they are mouthing about it now.’

“Urged to desperation, I plunged into a thicket near by.  Amid a group of trees in its centre, one lifted itself higher and straighter than its companions.  Upon its topmost branch, as I chanced to lift my eyes, I beheld to my terror the woman whom I had sent into eternity, looking down upon me with scoffs and grimaces!

“The ghostly apparition wrought me to frenzy.  In hot haste I climbed the tree.  Its straight, smooth sides, under ordinary circumstances would have proved a barrier to my efforts, but in my excitement they formed no obstacle.  Reaching the top, I endeavored to grasp her.  Stretching out my arms and clasping frantically the air, I fell dead to the ground.

“Thus was I born into the spirit world.  The idea that last possessed me on earth, first possessed me in the spirit life.

“No mortal man can describe the horror I experienced on finding myself in the midst of a boundless space, face to face with mine enemy.  Her narrow intellect and strong animal nature seemed to have expanded, even as I have seen the face of a child expand from pleasing infancy into idiotic youth.  This animal part of her immortality roused my ire—­struck some savage chord in my nature—­and I rose up like a wild beast to attack her; but the creature laughed and jeered at my vain efforts.  She led me thus, in fruitless pursuit, further and further into space; inciting me on by her taunts and ringing laugh, until I found myself in a dark and noisome pit, when she suddenly vanished.

“Ignorant of the peculiarities of spirit condition, I could not grope my way out of this place, which appeared to me a very hell.  I wandered in this gloomy labyrinth, breathing the foul air, and uttering fearful cries which struck my ears with anguish.  Black, threatening shapes appeared to stand in the intricate windings of that gloomy cavern, ready to seize me if I dared to essay my escape.  When my agony had reached its utmost bounds of endurance, I felt myself growing strangely light, and like some thin vapor I ascended to the mouth of the pit and made my exit into the outer air.

“The place I then discovered to be merely a cavern or deserted mine, but to my unhappy condition of mind it had appeared as the home of the damned.

“Out into space again, I saw afar off, as across the continent, the dwelling where I had passed the last days of my eventful life.  A current of air like the shock from an electric wire carried me back to the spot.

“Returned to the scene of my crime, I became possessed with the desire to expose to view the deed I had committed, and to reveal my villany to the community.  For two weary years I have hovered around this place for that purpose; but I have failed hitherto, as you have seen me fail to-night.”