"I hurriedly dug her a shallow grave, covered her over with the wet earth and leaves, and hastened back to the cottage by the river where we had lived together."
"Fiend!" thundered Captain Ernscliffe, springing furiously upon him.
The prisoner, chained as he was, could offer no resistance to his infuriated assailant. He did not even utter a cry.
But all in a moment Captain Ernscliffe remembered himself, and drew back before he had struck the fatal blow he had meditated. He would not harm a defenseless man.
"I will not kill you," he said, hoarsely, "but finish your story quickly. I can scarcely bear your presence."
"It was the first murder I had ever attempted," said the prisoner, after a long-drawn breath. "Naturally enough, I felt nervous over it.
"I walked up and down the river-bank for hours in the rain, trying to excuse myself to myself.
"Then all of a sudden she came up behind me, and pushed me in, and ran away.
"It was then that she went home to her parents. They took her back, kept her terrible secret, and married her to you.
"If I had let her alone then, all might have gone well," pursued the prisoner, "but I hated her for her maddened blow that dark, rainy night.