in complete subjection to its master. A dense thicket runs
along the wall on all sides within the enclosure, which,
according to local tradition, is alive with rattlesnakes,
bred for some strange purpose known only to himself--perhaps
to make his isolation more secure.

"He is supposed to have resigned the companionship of men
for study and scientific research. He has no children, and
his only servant being a deaf-mute, who is almost an idiot,
there is little chance at present of learning anything of
his life. For more than two years nothing has been seen of
the mysterious master of the house. His disappearance would,
we think, be a legitimate subject of investigation by the
authorities of the town. May he not have been eaten by the
lion, or killed by the rattlesnakes? Who knows?"

My heart was beating fast and my hands shook as if stricken
with palsy before I had finished the paragraph. The strange
old man who had come to me in Liverpool that night was
probably the mute servant to which the article referred. In
an hour I was on the way to Ogdensburg, quite confident that
the issue of my wanderings was at hand. I reached that town
next morning nearly two years, as I have said, after the
beginning of my journey to the New World. Not stopping to
breakfast even, I started out to find the house, which my
busy imagination had already pictured for itself. The first
townsman I saw directed me to the place.

"Follow the turnpike," said he. "'Sa mild or more--straight
ahead. You'll know it when y' git there. 'S' queer place an'