iserable occurrence touching Rachel, Robin Frost was a fearfully
changed man; never, from the hour that the coroner's inquest was held
and certain evidence had come out, had he been seen to smile. He had now
been ill with ague, in the same way as Grind. Hearing the approach of
footsteps, he turned his head, and rose when he saw it was Lionel.

"Well, Robin, how fares it? You are better, I hear. Sit yourself down;
you are not strong enough to stand. What an enemy this low fever is! I
wish we could root it out!"

"Many might be all the healthier for it, sir, if it could be done," was
Robin's answer, spoken indifferently--as he nearly always spoke now. "As
for me, I'm not far off being well again."

"They said in the village you were going to die, Robin, did they not?"
continued Lionel. "You have cheated them, you see."

"They said it, some of 'em, sir, and thought it, too. Old father thought
it. I'm not sure but Mr. Jan thought it. _I_ didn't, bad as I was,"
continued Robin, in a significant tone. "I had my oath to keep."

"Robin!"

"Sir, I have sworn--and you know I have sworn it--to have my revenge
upon him that worked ill to Rachel. I can't die till that oath has been
kept."

"There's a certain sentence, Robin, given us for our guidance, amid many
other such sentences, which runs somewhat after this fashion: 'Vengeance
is mine,'" quietly spoke Lionel. "Have you forgotten who it is says
that?"

"Why did he--the villain--forget them sentences? Why did he forget 'em
and harm her?" retorted Robin. "Sir, it's of no good for you to look at
me in that way. I'll never be baulked in this matter. Old father, now
and again, _he'll_ talk about forgiveness; and when I say, 'weren't you
her father?' 'Ay,' he'll answer, 'but I've got one foot in the grave,
Robin, and anger will not bring her back to life.' No, it won't,"
doggedly went on Robin. "It won't undo what was done, neither: but I'll
keep my oath--so far as it is in my power to keep it. Dead though he is,
he shall be exposed to the world."

The words "dead though he is" aroused the attention of Lionel. "To whom
do you allude, Robin?" he asked. "Have you obtained any fresh clue?"

"Not much of a fresh one," answered the man, with a stress upon the word
"fresh." "I have had it this six or seven months. When they heard he was
dead, then they could speak out and tell me their suspicions of him."

"Who could? What mystery are you talking?" reiterated Lionel.

"Never