me!"

He gasped, grew purple in the face and clutched at his collar as if
about to strangle. After a little the paroxysm passed away, and Mantel
determined once more to try and assuage this implacable hatred.

To his own unbounded astonishment this young man who had long ago
abandoned his faith in Christianity, began to plead like an apostle for
the practice of its central and fundamental virtue.

"My friend," he said, with a new solemnity in his manner, "you are on
the threshold of another world; how dare you present yourself to the
Judge of all the earth with a passion like this in your heart?"

In the momentary rest the beggar had recovered strength enough to reply:
"It is t-t-true. I am on the threshold of another world! I didn't use to
b-b-believe there was one, but I do now. There must be! Would it b-b-be
right for such d-d-devils as the one that wrecked my life to g-g-go
unpunished? Not if I know anything! They get away from us here, but if
eternity is as long as they s-s-say it is, I'll find D-D-Dave Corson if
it t-t-takes the whole of it, and when I f-f-find him--" he paused
again, gasping and strangling.

Mantel's pity was deeply stirred, and he would gladly have spared him
had he dared; but he did not, and permitting him to regain his breath,
he said:

"And so you really mean to die without bestowing your pardon upon those
who have wronged you?"