an away with another man? On the contrary, any one could see that,
in pursuing the course she did toward me, she must have detested me. I
never saw this Mrs. Brown before we engaged her as a companion to my
mother, nor has Jessie, I am sure. I am completely at sea," Jack added,
"and therefore I leave the matter entirely with you. If Jessie is dying
of slow poison, I beseech you to discover the perpetrator of the deed,
at any cost--aye, and though it takes every dollar of my fortune, the
wretch shall be punished to the full extent of the law."

CHAPTER XXXVII.

Quietly the doctors filed into the room, and one of them turned the key
in the door.

It was Dr. Crandall who undertook the delicate task of unmasking the
suspected would-be murderess.

"I will tell you," he said, slowly. "The poor girl on the couch beside
which you have often knelt is dying of slow poison, administered to her
by some person beneath this roof."

Dorothy sprang from her chair and reeled backward, looking at him with
widely dilated eyes. She never knew how it happened, but in that instant
of time a terrible thought came to her. Could Jack Garner be guilty of
administering it to her, to free himself from the bonds he so cruelly
hated?

Oh, God! how the thought tortured her. She would not--she could not
believe it.

"Some one under this roof has been guilty of this most atrocious act,"
continued the doctor, in a stern voice. "We suspect--we know the guilty
party, and that party is in this very room!"

Dorothy clasped her hands in dumb agony, and her terrified eyes never
left the form of him who had once been her lover.

"You do not answer me, Mrs. Brown," said the doctor, frowning. "What
have you to say?"

"What could I say?" she sobbed, piteously.

"The one who is guilty of this diabolical deed must be held accountable
for it," said the doctor, facing her sternly. "A just punishment must
and shall be meted out to the wicked party. If you say that you will not
admit the truth, then I will turn the affair over to Mr. Garner, here
and now!"

What would they do with Jack? In imagination she saw him in a prison
cell, perhaps doomed to drag out all the after years of his life there,
and the thought seemed to drive her to madness.

"I will take it upon myself, and Jack shall go free," she said to
herself--"yes blameless and free."

Slowly the doctor stepped around to Jack's side.

"What have you to say in this matter, Mr. Garner?