n my own defense, I have acknowledged my guilt. Without
a word in my own defense, I will reveal how the crime was committed.

"No thought of him was in my mind, when I saw his wife insensible on the
deck of the timber-ship. I did my part in lowering her safely into the
boat. Then, and not till then, I felt the thought of him coming back. In
the confusion that prevailed while the men of the yacht were forcing the
men of the ship to wait their time, I had an opportunity of searching
for him unobserved. I stepped back from the bulwark, not knowing whether
he was away in the first boat, or whether he was still on board--I
stepped back, and saw him mount the cabin stairs empty-handed, with the
water dripping from him. After looking eagerly toward the boat (without
noticing me), he saw there was time to spare before the crew were taken.
'Once more!' he said to himself--and disappeared again, to make a last
effort at recovering the jewel box. The devil at my elbow whispered,
'Don't shoot him like a man: drown him like a dog!' He was under water
when I bolted the scuttle. But his head rose to the surface before I
could close the cabin door. I looked at him, and he looked at me--and I
locked the door in his face. The next minute, I was back among the last
men left on deck. The minute after, it was too late to repent. The storm
was threatening us with destruction, and the boat's crew were pulling
for their lives from the ship.

"My son! I have pursued you from my grave with a confession which my
love might have spared you. Read on, and you will know why.

"I will say nothing of my sufferings; I will plead for no mercy to my
memory. There is a strange sinking at my heart, a strange trembling in
my hand, while I write these lines, which warns me to hasten to the end.
I left the island without daring to look for the last time at the woman
whom I had lost so miserably, whom I had injured so vilely. When I left,
the whole weight of the suspicion roused by the manner of Ingleby's
death rested on the crew of the French vessel. No motive for the
supposed murder could be brought home to any of them; but they were
known to be, for the most part, outlawed ruffians capable of any crime,
and they were suspected and examined accordingly. It was not till
afterward that I heard by accident of the suspicion shifting round at
last to me. The widow alone recognized the vague description given
of the strange man who had made one of the yacht's crew