for her as a woman, kept you silent, butdid not keep the worm from preying upon your heart.
"Am I not correct in my surmises, Dr. Zabriskie, and is not this thetrue explanation of your crime?"
With a strange look, he lifted up his face.
"Hush!" said he; "you will awaken her. See how peacefully she sleeps! Ishould not like to have her awakened now, she is so tired, and I--I havenot watched over her as I should."
Appalled at his gesture, his look, his tone, I drew back, and for a fewminutes no sound was to be heard but the steady dip-dip of the oars andthe lap-lap of the waters against the boat. Then there came a quickuprising, the swaying before me of something dark and tall andthreatening, and before I could speak or move, or even stretch forth myhands to stay him, the seat before me was empty and darkness had filledthe place where but an instant previous he had sat, a fearsome figure,erect and rigid as a sphinx.
What little moonlight there was only served to show us a few risingbubbles, marking the spot where the unfortunate man had sunk with hismuch-loved burden. We could not save him. As the widening circles fledfarther and farther out, the tide drifted us away, and we lost the spotwhich had seen the termination of one of earth's saddest tragedies.
* * * * *
The bodies were never recovered. The police reserved to themselves theright of withholding from the public the real facts which made thiscatastrophe an awful remembrance to those who witnessed it. A verdict ofaccidental death by drowning answered all purposes, and saved the memoryof the unfortunate pair from such calumny as might have otherwiseassailed it. It was the least we could do for two beings whomcircumstances had so greatly afflicted.
THE END.
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