his eyes open and without speculation, his face swollen and
blackened, and a thin stream of blood trickling from his nostrils.

Silas uttered a long, tremulous wail, dropped the candle, and fell
on his knees beside the bed.

Silas was awakened from the stupor into which his terrible
discovery had plunged him by a prolonged but discreet tapping at

the door. It took him some seconds to remember his position; and
when he hastened to prevent anyone from entering it was already too

late. Dr. Noel, in a tall night-cap, carrying a lamp which lighted
up his long white countenance, sidling in his gait, and peering and

cocking his head like some sort of bird, pushed the door slowly
open, and advanced into the middle of the room.

"I thought I heard a cry," began the Doctor, "and fearing you might
be unwell I did not hesitate to offer this intrusion."

Silas, with a flushed face and a fearfulbeating heart, kept
between the Doctor and the bed; but he found no voice to answer.

"You are in the dark," pursued the Doctor; "and yet you have not
even begun to prepare for rest. You will not easily persuade me

against my own eyesight; and your face declares most eloquently
that you require either a friend or a physician - which is it to

be? Let me feel your pulse, for that is often a just porter" target="_blank" title="n.报告人；记者；广播员">reporter of
the heart."

He advanced to Silas, who still retreated before him backwards, and
sought to take him by the wrist; but the strain on the young

American's nerves had become too great for endurance. He avoided
the Doctor with a febrile movement, and, throwing himself upon the

floor, burst into a flood of weeping.
As soon as Dr. Noel perceived the dead man in the bed his face

darkened; and hurrying back to the door which he had left ajar, he
hastily closed and double-locked it.

"Up!" he cried, addressing Silas in strident tones; "this is no
time for weeping. What have you done? How came this body in your

room? Speak freely to one who may be helpful. Do you imagine I
would ruin you? Do you think this piece of dead flesh on your

pillow can alter in any degree the sympathy with which you have
inspired me? Credulous youth, the horror with which blind and

unjust law regards an action never attaches to the doer in the eyes
of those who love him; and if I saw the friend of my heart return

to me out of seas of blood he would be in no way changed in my
affection. Raise yourself," he said; "good and ill are a chimera;

there is nought in life except destiny, and however you may be
circumstanced there is one at your side who will help you to the

last."
Thus encouraged, Silas gathered himself together, and in a broken

voice, and helped out by the Doctor's interrogations, contrived at
last to put him in possession of the facts. But the conversation

between the Prince and Geraldine he altogether omitted, as he had
understood little of its purport, and had no idea that it was in

any way related to his own misadventure.
"Alas!" cried Dr. Noel, "I am much abused, or you have fallen

innocently into the most dangerous hands in Europe. Poor boy, what
a pit has been dug for your simplicity! into what a deadly peril

have your unwary feet been conducted! This man," he said, "this
Englishman, whom you twice saw, and whom I suspect to be the soul

of the contrivance, can you describe him? Was he young or old?
tall or short?"

But Silas, who, for all his curiosity, had not a seeing eye in his
head, was able to supply nothing but meagre generalities, which it

was impossible to recognise.
"I would have it a piece of education in all schools!" cried the

Doctor angrily. "Where is the use of eyesight and articulate
speech if a man cannot observe and recollect the features of his

enemy? I, who know all the gangs of Europe, might have identified
him, and gained new weapons for your defence. Cultivate this art

in future, my poor boy; you may find it of momentous service."
"The future!" repeated Silas. "What future is there left for me

except the gallows?"
"Youth is but a cowardly season," returned the Doctor; "and a man's

own troubles look blacker than they are. I am old, and yet I never
despair."

"Can I tell such a story to the police?" demanded Silas.
"Assuredly not," replied the Doctor. "From what I see already of

the machination in which you have been involved, your case is
desperate upon that side; and for the narrow eye of the authorities

you are infallibly the guilty person. And remember that we only
know a portion of the plot; and the same infamous contrivers have

doubtless arranged many other circumstances which would be elicited
by a police inquiry, and help to fix the guilt more certainly upon

your innocence."
"I am then lost, indeed!" cried Silas.

"I have not said so," answered Dr. Noel "for I am a cautious man."
"But look at this!" objected Silas, pointing to the body. "Here is

this object in my bed; not to be explained, not to be disposed of,
not to be regarded without horror."

"Horror?" replied the Doctor. "No. When this sort of clock has
run down, it is no more to me than an ingenious piece of mechanism,

to be investigated with the bistoury. When blood is once cold and
stagnant, it is no longer human blood; when flesh is once dead, it

is no longer that flesh which we desire in our lovers and respect
in our friends. The grace, the attraction, the terror, have all

gone from it with the animating spirit. Accustom yourself to look
upon it with composure; for if my scheme is practicable you will

have to live some days in constant proximity to that which now so
greatly horrifies you."

"Your scheme?" cried Silas. "What is that? Tell me speedily,
Doctor; for I have scarcely courage enough to continue to exist."

Without replying, Doctor Noel turned towards the bed, and proceeded
to examine the corpse.

"Quite dead," he murmured. "Yes, as I had supposed, the pockets
empty. Yes, and the name cut off the shirt. Their work has been

done thoroughly and well. Fortunately, he is of small stature."
Silas followed these words with an extremeanxiety. At last the

Doctor, his autopsy completed, took a chair and addressed the young
American with a smile.

"Since I came into your room," said he, "although my ears and my
tongue have been so busy, I have not suffered my eyes to remain

idle. I noted a little while ago that you have there, in the
corner, one of those monstrous constructions which your fellow-

countrymen carry with them into all quarters of the globe - in a
word, a Saratoga trunk. Until this moment I have never been able

to conceive the utility of these erections; but then I began to
have a glimmer. Whether it was for convenience in the slave trade,

or to obviate the results of too ready an employment of the bowie-
knife, I cannot bring myself to decide. But one thing I see

plainly - the object of such a box is to contain a human body.
"Surely," cried Silas, "surely this is not a time for jesting."

"Although I may express myself with some degree of pleasantry,"
replied the Doctor, "the purport of my words is entirely serious.

And the first thing we have to do, my young friend, is to empty
your coffer of all that it contains."

Silas, obeying the authority of Doctor Noel, put himself at his
disposition. The Saratoga trunk was soon gutted of its contents,

which made a considerablelitter on the floor; and then - Silas
taking the heels and the Doctor supporting the shoulders - the body

of the murdered man was carried from the bed, and, after some
difficulty, doubled up and inserted whole into the empty box. With

an effort on the part of both, the lid was forced down upon this
unusual baggage, and the trunk was locked and corded by the

Doctor's own hand, while Silas disposed of what had been taken out
between the closet and a chest of drawers.

"Now," said the Doctor, "the first step has been taken on the way
to your deliverance. To-morrow, or rather to-day, it must be your

task to allay the suspicions of your porter, paying him all that
you owe; while you may trust me to make the arrangements necessary

to a safe conclusion. Meantime, follow me to my room, where I