The Corpse-Rider 



THE body was cold as ice; the heart had 

 long ceased to beat: yet there were no 

 other signs of death. Nobody even spoke 

 of burying the woman. She had died of grief 

 and anger at having been divorced. It would 

 have been useless to bury her, because the last 

 undying wish of a dying person for vengeance 

 can burst asunder any tomb and rift the heaviest 

 graveyard stone. People who lived near the 

 house in which she was lying fled from their 

 homes. They knew that she was only waiting 

 for the return of the man who had divorced her. 

 At the time of her death he was on a journey. 

 When he came back and was told what had hap- 

 pened, terror seized him. " If I can find no help 

 before dark," he thought to himself, " she will 

 tear me to pieces." It was yet only the Hour of 

 3 33 



