"Le's see, where's my specs?" said Mrs. Payson, fumbling in her pocket. "Oh, I've got 'em on. So your name's Herod. What made 'em call you that?"

"Well, so 'tis, I declare. You ain't related to Nahum Morton, of Gilead, be you; he that was put into the State's prison for breakin' open the Gilead Bank?"

An amused smile overspread the young man's face.

"I never had any relatives sent to the State's prison," he answered; "though I think it quite possible that some of them may have deserved it."

"Jest so," assented the old lady. "There's a good deal of iniquity that never comes to light. I once know'd a woman that killed her husband with the tongs, and nobody ever surmised it; though everybody thought it strange that he should disappear so suddint. Well, this woman on her death-bed owned up to the tongs in a crazy fit that she had. But the most cur'us part of it," the old lady added rather illogically, "was, that the man was livin' all the while, and it was all his wife's fancy that she'd struck him with the tongs."

By this time the "express" had rumbled into the main street of Rossville, and the old lady had hardly completed her striking illustration of the truth, that murder will out, before they had drawn up in front of the tavern.

"Ain't you a-goin' to carry me to my darter's house?" she inquired with solicitude. "I can't walk noway."

"Yes, ma'am, ' answered Ajax, "directly, just as soon as this gentleman's got out, and they've taken the mail."