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At length, his faculties wound up to a great effort, excitement wild within him, the young civilian gained the wooden tomb. He felt about for a convenient place to drive in the nail. It was a large nail, and the wood was soft. The hammer was raised, and the iron was easily driven into the half-rotten timber. His task was accomplished-but the tombs had been dancing before his eyes in an unearthly reel all the time, and he doubtless fancied a thousand spirits were shrieking at his unhallowed task, as the wind groaned amongst the tombstones, and whistled round the church-porch, and grated through the wire-protected windows. Twelve o'clock was booming forth from the tower.

His task was accomplished. He had driven in the large nail nearly to the head. With the hammer still in his hand, he turned to leave the gloomy burial-ground-turned quicklywas seized by the neck—was checked suddenly from behind—and fell, in a fit or faint, insensible to the ground.

Within the Writers' Buildings the revelry continued.

"The wager will be won," said one; "he

will return forthwith-a hundred rupees easily earned."

"I would not do it for a thousand," said another.

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That was he, as he shut the door behind him, that leads into the corridor," suggested the first.

No, it was but the wind.

"A glass to the ghost of the wooden tomb!" and, in heedless mirth, a bumper was quaffed all round, with much laughter.

"He delays long," is whispered round the table, as one after another peeps at his watch, and discovers that it is past twelve—he had been half-an-hour gone, and more. They drank, laughed, told tales again; half-an-hour more glided by. He had been more than an hour away! and the wind still blew and the rain still fell, sheet-like, as before. Faces that had been joyous grew more and more grave; flushed cheeks became pale; the mirth had given place to anxiety and alarm.

A few minutes more, and they issued forth in a body, with servants and lights, to see what had become of their friend.

They entered the church-yard. They ad

vanced near to the wooden tomb, and there, upon the frowzy grass, lay their late boon companion, half shrouded in his boat-cloak,insensible.

They examined his cloak. It was nailed to the tomb. In his hurry and agitation, he had driven the nail through the fold of his cloak, as he struck it home with hard, quick blows into the timber. He had turned, alarmed, agitated, excited, to depart-the cloak had grasped him by the neck, and, overpowered with sudden emotion, he had fallen sideways upon the ground.

When his companions lifted him from the ground, they found that they bore a corpse in their arms. He had fallen in a fit, from which he never recovered. Excitement and

terror had killed him.

CHAPTER XII.

PER PORRINGER TO ADEN.

Ir is with pleasure that the exile of a few years turns his back upon the scene of his banishment, and commences the journey that is to lead him to the land of his birth and of early associations. Beautiful as may be the country; magnificent the buildings; picturesque the views, he leaves them all behind, without regret and without a sigh. Even the discomforts of a steamer, and the incessant tremor in which the luckless voyager is kept by the vibration of the machinery, are disregarded and made light of. The eye is fixed on a far distant shore, which presents attractions far superior to any other-attractions that the mind feeds upon during the long voyage without fear of satiety.

The Overland Journey from India to England-if one may be allowed to apply that term, as it is usually applied, to a journey of some thousands of miles by sea, and scarcely a hundred by land-is one of considerable variety and interest. It has been described over and over again, and it is not my intention to write much of what has been so fully discussed already. One part of the route, however, and that I think the most interesting-the Red Sea-has been generally dismissed with a few words only, whilst whole chapters have been written about Alexandria and Malta, Gibraltar and Point de Galle.

No one can help being struck with the aspect of Aden, who visits it for the first time. The traveller is approaching Arabia, that land of extraordinary associations and extraordinary history-a history of fitful activity, alternating with long periods of repose: the Red Sea is on his left, as the steamer labours along, and the inhospitable coasts of Africa and Arabia are in his immediate vicinity.

Situated on an iron-bound coast, with bleak rocks and gigantic volcanic cones in its

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