"Vy you keel ze man?" inquired his interlocutor.

"Indeed," cried Jonathan, finding a voice at last, but one so
hoarse that he could hardly recognize it for his own, "I know not
what to make of the affair! But, indeed, I do assure thee,
friend, that I am entirely innocent of what thou seest."

The stranger still kept his piercing gaze fixed upon our hero's
countenance, and Jonathan, feeling that something further was
demanded of him, continued: "I am, indeed, a victim of a most
extravagant and extraordinary adventure. This evening, coming an
entire stranger to this country, I was introduced into the house
of a beautiful female, who bestowed upon me a charge that
appeared to me to be at once insignificant and absurd. Behold
this little ivory ball," said he, drawing the globe from his
pocket, and displaying it between his thumb and finger. "It is
this that appears to have brought all this disaster upon me; for,
coming from the house of the young woman, the man whom thou now
beholdest lying dead upon the floor induced me to come to this
place. Having inveigled me hither, he demanded of me to give him
at once this insignificant trifle. Upon my refusing to do so, he
assaulted me with every appearance of a mad and furious
inclination to deprive me of my life!"

At the sight of the ivory ball the stranger quickly arose from
his kneeling posture and fixed upon our hero a gaze the most
extraordinary that he had ever encountered. His eyes dilated like
those of a cat, the breath expelled itself from his bosom in so
deep and profound an expiration that it appeared as though it