The Mark of the Beast

. His brows were cold, straight, unruffled. His smile held the

infully. A smile as cruel as his mouth crept into his eyes as

im. The spot where the three had met was in a lonely pass. At the utterance of the curse he had cut the poor old hag down, with one fierce slash of his heavy riding whip. She had howled for mercy, and for reply he flogged the poor frail old prostrate form until life had fled, then, wit

mile, and remembering the fate of those upon whom he had bent

thwart him in a trifling thing. She hardly, hersel

filled her, with the fear that had her in its shu

on't! Lucien! No one on whom I ever saw you lo

otized her. She wanted to take h

y, like the low scream of a terrified coney, escaped her. H

Lucien, s

the chill of his hellish smile

ested on the corner of the mantel, the fingers of hi

nate, painful entreaty, she lifted her beautiful

n-." Then a s

oved a muscle of his face. The chill of the smile in his eyes dee

e ice of his smile. She shivered with t

. And as he saw her wilt and shiver the

tones. But their meaning had, to her, the sentence o

r need of you! Yo

slowly her limbs relaxed, her body swayed lightly forward,

urious thing. A Bible rested on one of the shelves of the room, he took the volume from its place, opened it at the 13t

he had passed

ge of the Beast, that the image of the Beast should both speak, and cause

the image of the Beast to cause death to those who defied him, how much more

certified heart-disease; there was no inquest. Lucien did not attend the funeral

tural affection," one could not therefore expec