that I had not, and as soon as he galloped on, I walked back as rapidly as possible, somewhat frightened at the loneliness of my position.  Already clouds were gathering, and I had been in the waiting-room, I think about an hour, when the storm broke in its fury.  I had seen the telegraph operator sitting in his office, but he seemed asleep, with his head resting on the table; and during the storm I sat on the floor, in one corner of the waiting-room, and laid my head on a chair.  At last, when the tempest ended, I went to sleep.  During that sleep, I dreamed of my old home in Italy, of some of my dead, of my father—­of gathering grapes with one I dearly loved—­and suddenly some noise made me spring to my feet.  I heard voices talking, and in my feverish dreamy state, there seemed a resemblance to one I knew.  Only half awake, I ran out on the pavement.  Whether I dreamed the whole, I cannot tell; but the conversation seemed strangely distinct; and I can never forget the words, be they real, or imaginary:  “’There ain’t no train till daylight, ‘cepting it be the through freight.’

“Then a different voice asked:  ‘When it that due?’”

“’Pretty soon I reckon, it’s mighty nigh time now, but it don’t stop here; it goes on to the water tank, where it blows for the bridge.’”

‘"How far is the bridge?’”

“‘Only a short piece down the track, after you pass the tank.’”

“When I reached the street, I saw no one but the figure of an old man, I think a negro, who was walking away.  He limped and carried a bundle on the end of a stick thrown over his shoulder.  I was so startled and impressed by the fancied sound of a voice once familiar to me, that I walked on down the track, but could see no one.  Soon the ‘freight’ came along; I stood aside until it passed, then returned to the station, and found the agent standing in the door.  When he questioned me about my movements; I deemed him impertinent; but having nothing to conceal, stated the facts I have just recapitulated.  You have been told that I intentionally missed the train; that when seen at 10 P.M. in the pine woods, I was stealing back to my mother’s old home; that I entered at midnight the bedroom where her father slept, stupefied him with chloroform, broke open his vault, robbed it of money, jewels and will; and that when Gen’l Darrington awoke and attempted to rescue his property, I deliberately killed him.  You are asked to believe that I am ’the incarnate fiend’ who planned and committed that horrible crime, and, alas for me! every circumstance seems like a bloodhound to bay me.  My handkerchief was found, tainted with chloroform.  It was my handkerchief; but how it came there, on Gen’l Darrington’s bed, only God witnessed.  I saw among the papers taken from the tin box and laid on the table, a large envelope marked in red ink, ’Last Will and Testament of Robert Luke Darrington’; but I never saw it afterward.  I was never in that room but once; and the last and only time I ever saw General Darrington was when I passed out of the glass door, and left him standing in the middle of the room, with the tin box in his hand.