of James who executed Mr. Gilchrist’s commission.  But I was thinking of no deception then.  I proceeded quite innocently on my errand, and when the feeble voice of the invalid bade me enter, I experienced nothing but a feeling of compassion for a man dying in this desolate way, alone.  Of course Mr. Orr was surprised to see a stranger, but after reading Mr. Gilchrist’s letter which I handed him, he seemed quite satisfied and himself drew out the wallet at the head of his bed and handed it over.  ‘You will find,’ said he, ’a memorandum inside of the full amount, $7758.67.  I should like to have returned Mr. Gilchrist the full ten thousand which I owe him, but this is all I possess, barring a hundred dollars which I have kept for my final expenses.’  ‘Mr. Gilchrist will be satisfied,’ I assured him.  ‘Shall I make you out a receipt?’ He shook his head with a sad smile.  ’I shall be dead in twenty-four hours.  What good will a receipt do me?’ But it seemed unbusinesslike not to give it, so I went over to the table, where I saw a pen and paper, and recognising the necessity of counting the money before writing a receipt, I ran my eye over the bills, which were large, and found the wallet contained just the amount he had named.  Then I glanced at the memorandum.  It had evidently been made out by him at some previous time, for the body of the writing was in firm characters and the ink blue, while the figures were faintly inscribed in muddy black.  The 7 especially was little more than a straight line, and as I looked at it the devil that is in every man’s nature whispered at first carelessly, then with deeper and deeper insistence:  ’How easy it would be to change that 7 to a 2!  Only a little mark at the top and the least additional stroke at the bottom and these figures would stand for five thousand less.  It might be a temptation to some men.’  It presently became a temptation to me; for, glancing furtively up, I discovered that Mr. Orr had fallen either into a sleep or into a condition of insensibility which made him oblivious to my movements.  Five thousand dollars! just the sum of the ten five-hundred-dollar bills that made the bulk of the amount I had counted.  In this village and at my age this sum would raise me at once to comparative independence.  The temptation was too strong for resistance.  I succumbed to it, and seizing the pen before me, I made the fatal marks.  When I went back to James the wallet was in my hand, and the ten five-hundred-dollar bills in my breast pocket.”

Agatha had begun to shudder.  She shook so she rattled the door against which I leaned.

“And when you found that Providence was not so much upon your side as you thought, when you saw that the fraud was known and that your brother was suspected of it—­”

“Don’t!” I pleaded, “don’t make me recall that hour!”

But she was inexorable.  “Recall that and every hour,” she commanded.  “Tell me why he sacrificed himself, why he sacrificed me, to a cur—­”