The convict drew closer to him.
'"Stand off!" shrieked the old man.

Furious with terror, he raised his stick, and struck Edmunds a heavy blow across the face.
'"Father--devil!" murmured the convict between his set teeth.

He rushed wildly forward, and clenched the old man by the throat--but he was his father; and his arm fell powerless by his side.
'The old man uttered a loud yell which rang through the lonely fields like the howl of an evil spirit.

His face turned black, the gore rushed from his mouth and nose, and dyed the grass a deep, dark red, as he staggered and fell.

He had ruptured a blood-vessel, and he was a dead man before his son could raise him.