It's your business to have it maintained;
and if you don't, I'll have you punished as accessory to the deed. Hear
me?"

All this had been delivered in the lowest tone possible, yet each
syllable was as distinctly enunciated as if it had been shouted. The
doctor knew Marshall. He chose that idle threat of "accessory" as the
safest means to accomplish his own object.

This was all very well, so far as it went. Unfortunately, the doctor was
not the only person to whom the valet had already announced his
suspicion. There were other servants in the kitchen, and they had been
swiftly poisoned by his opinion. So that when, after a sleepless night
of watching beside his kinsman's bed, Frederic Kaye set off for "Charity
House" and his relatives, he was even then a marked man.

Into the sacredness of reunion, when the little family on the knoll were
discussing all that had befallen them, on either side, and the two men
were renewing old affections, while Hallam and Amy were forming new ones
for this new uncle, there came an alarming summons.

A local officer of the law presented himself before the group and on
behalf of the public safety arrested the stranger.

"Arrest me? Why, what in the name of justice do you mean?"

"Just what I say. For the attack upon a peaceful citizen, who lies at
the point of death, brought there by your villainous hand," repeated the
sheriff, solemnly. He so seldom had opportunity to exercise his office
that he now embellished it with all the dignity possible.

"Indeed, take care of your words, friend! It was a case of rescue, not
attack. You are slightly mixed in your ideas, sir. I found him suffering
a terrible horsewhipping at the hands of somebody whom I do not know,
who slipped away from me when I seized him, and disappeared in the
darkness. I was too anxious over Mr. Wingate to notice, or even care,
which direction the rascal took. But--aha, it's too absurd!"

"Remember that whatever you say will be used against you," cautioned the
officer of the law.

"Let it. I could ask no better treatment."

"You say you grabbed a fellow. What was he like?"

"It was too dark to see distinctly. He appeared rather tall and slim. I
don't remember that he said a word, but he laughed harshly as he ran.
Somehow, that laugh gave me the impression that the man was demented.
But I have nothing else to judge by, and I would not be unjust. The
thing for which to be thankful is that Dr. Wise hopes my kinsman'