om the terror he was in--that some ill
had happened, I felt sure; and so would you, had you seen him as I did.
My arresting him increased his agitation; he tried to throw me off, but
I am a strong man, and I suppose he thought it best to temporize. 'Keep
dark upon it, Bethel,' he said, 'I will make it worth your while. The
thing was not premeditated; it was done in the heat of passion. What
business had the fellow to abuse me? I have done no harm to the girl.'
As he thus spoke, he took out a pocket book with the hand that was at
liberty; I held the other--"

"As the prisoner thus spoke, you mean?"

"The prisoner. He took a bank-note from his pocket book, and thrust it
into my hands. It was a note for fifty pounds. 'What's done can't be
undone, Bethel,' he said, 'and your saying that you saw me here can
serve no good turn. Shall it be silence?' I took the note and answered
that it should be silence. I had not the least idea that anybody was
killed."

"What did you suppose had happened, then?"

"I could not suppose; I could not think; it all passed in the haste and
confusion of a moment, and no definite idea occurred to me. Thorn flew
on down the path, and I stood looking after him. The next was I heard
footsteps, and I slipped within the trees. They were those of Richard
Hare, who took the path to the cottage. Presently he returned, little
less agitated than Thorn had been. I had gone into an open space, then,
and he accosted me, asking if I had seen 'that hound' fly from the
cottage? 'What hound?' I asked of him. 'That fine fellow, that Thorn,
who comes after Afy,' he answered, but I stoutly denied that I had seen
any one. Richard Hare continued his way, and I afterward found that
Hallijohn was killed."

"And so you took a bribe to conceal one of the foulest crimes that man
ever committed, Mr. Otway Bethel!"

"I took the money, and I am ashamed to confess it. But it was done
without reflection. I swear that had I known what crime it was intended
to hush up, I never would have touched it. I was hard up for funds, and
the amount tempted me. When I discovered what had really happened, and
that Richard Hare was accused, I was thunderstruck at my own deed; many
a hundred times since have I cursed the money; and the fate of Richard
has been as a heavy weight upon my conscience."

"You might have lifted the weight by confessing."

"To what end? It was too late. Thorn had disappeared. I never heard of
him, or saw him,