It is coming this way.
Hark, how near it is! One can count the footfalls--one--two--three.
There--it is just outside.

Now is the time! Shout, man, shout!--it is the one sole chance between you and eternity! Ah, you see you have delayed too long--it is gone by.

There--it is dying out.

It is gone! Think of it--reflect upon it--you have heard a human footstep for the last time.

How curious it must be, to listen to so common a sound as that, and know that one will never hear the fellow to it again.' Oh, my friend, the agony in that shrouded face was ecstasy to see! I thought of a new torture, and applied it--assisting myself with a trifle of lying invention-- 'That poor Kruger tried to save my wife and child, and I did him a grateful good turn for it when the time came.