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278 dressing-gown and slippered feet, chuckling insanely to himself as he tottered through the empty halls and corridors, finding an almost supernatural strength to sustain him till he found himself face to face with his chosen enemy and victim.

The first that blocked his way into the chapel, a bell-boy of the hotel, looked round at the touch of the clawlike hand upon his shoulder, and shrank back with a cry of terror—a cry that was echoed from half a dozen throats within another instant.

As if from the path of some grisly visitant from the world beyond the grave, the throng pressed back and cleared a way for Seneca Trine, father of the bride.

And as the way opened and he looked toward the altar and saw Alan standing hand in hand with Rose while the minister invoked a blessing upon the union that had been but that instant consummated, added strength, the strength of the insane, was given to Seneca Trine.

When Alan, annoyed by the disturbance in the body of the chapel, looked round, it was to see the aged maniac standing within a dozen feet of him; and as he cried out in wonder, Trine whipped a revolver from the pocket of his dressing-gown and swung it steadily to bear upon Alan's head.

At that instant the storm broke with infernal fury upon the land.

A crash of thunder so heavy and prolonged that it