only to Miss Ellison's influence, exerted on my
behalf--

"I fear," he said with a slight smile, "somewhat illegally.

"However, the imputation would have rested on me all my life, if it
had not been for Thorne's confession. I thought that he did the
first affair. I knew that he was concerned in the second, although
I could not prove it; but he has now made a full confession, saying
that he himself poisoned the dog, and confirming the story I told
at the trial."

"Oh, I am glad!" Kate exclaimed. "You know, Captain Whitney, that I
was sure of your innocence; but I know how you must have longed for
it to be proved to the world.

"What will you do, Mr. Barker, to make it public?"

"I shall send a copy of the confession, properly attested, to the
magistrates of Lewes; and another copy to the paper which, Captain
Whitney tells me, is published there weekly.

"It is curious," he went on, "that the sight of Whitney should have
recalled those past recollections; while, so far as I could see,
everything that has happened afterwards, his career of crime and
the blood that he has shed, seem altogether forgotten."

"I suppose there is no hope for him?" Kate asked, in a low voice.

"He is dying now," Mr. Barker said. "Ruskin is with him. He was
fast becoming unconscious when we left him, and Ruskin said that
the end was at hand."

A quarter of an hour later the surgeon came in, with the news that
all was over.

"Now, Captain Whitney, you must come into your room, and let me
bandage up your shoulder properly. I hadn't half time to do it,
before."

"But you won't want me to lie in bed, or any nonsense of that
sort?" Reuben asked.

"I would, if I thought you would obey my orders; but as I see no
chance of that, I shall not trouble to give them. Seriously, I do
not think there is any necessity for it, providing always that you
will keep yourself very quiet. I shall bandage your arm across your
chest, so there can be no movement of the shoulder; and when that
is done, I think you will be all right."

There was only one more question which Reuben had to ask, with
regard to the event of the preceding day--why it was that Smithson
did not go to his comrade's assistance. He then learned that Thorne
rode quietly up to the back of the house and dismounted, then went
to the stable, where Smithson was asleep--having been on guard
during the night--and pushed a piece of wood under the latch of the
door, so that it could not be