which, immediately upon his departure entered this dark maze, and
with feeling hands and cautious step, wound its way from corner to
corner--now stopping abruptly to listen, now shrinking from some
imaginary presence--a shadow among shadows--till it stood again
between the gates from which it had started.

Possibly; even the hardiest of men respond to the unusual, and
prove themselves not ungifted with imagination when brought face
to face with that for which their experience furnishes no
precedent.




VI

ACROSS THE BRIDGE


It was ten o'clock, not later, when the judge reentered his front
door. He was alone,--absolutely alone, as he had never been since
that night of long ago, when with the inner fence completed and
the gates all locked, he turned to the great negro at his side and
quietly said:

"We are done with the world, Bela. Are you satisfied to share this
solitude with me?" And Bela had replied: "Night and day, your
honour. And when you are not here,--when you are at court, to bear
it alone."