reared herself in
the bed.

"Come here, Hope--come here, Random," she said in a much stronger voice.
"I have much to tell you. Yes, I took the emerald after dark and threw
it into the sentry box when the man wasn't looking. I escaped your spy,
Random, and I escaped the notice of the sentry. I walked like a cat, and
like a cat I can see in the dark. I am glad you have got the emerald."

"Where did you get it?" asked Random quietly.

"That's a long story. I don't know that I have the strength to tell it.
I have written it out."

"You have written it out?" said Hope quickly, and drawing near.

"Yes. Jane thought that I was writing letters, but I was writing out the
whole story of the murder. You were good to me, Random, you dear boy,
and on the impulse of the moment I took the emerald to you. I was sorry
when I got back, but it was too late then to repent, as I did not dare
to go near the Fort again. Your spy who watched might have discovered me
the second time. I then thought that I would write out the story of the
murder, so as to exonerate myself."

"Then you are not guilty of Bolton's death?" asked Sir Frank, puzzled,
for her confession was somewhat incoherent.

"No. I did not strangle him. But I know who did. I have written it all
down. I was just finishing when I heard the tapping at the window. I
let him in and he tried to get the confession, for I told him what I had
done."

"Who did you tell?" asked Hope, much excited.

Mrs. Jasher took no notice.

"The confession is lying on my desk--all the sheets of paper are loose.
I had no time to bind them together, for he came in. He wanted the
emerald, and the confession. I told him that I had given the emerald to
you, Random, and that I had confessed all in writing. Then he went mad
and flew at me with a dreadful knife. He knocked over the candles and
the lamp. Everything went out and all was darkness, and I lay crying for
help, with that devil stabbing--stabbing--ah--"

"Who, in heaven's name, is the man?" demanded Random, standing up in his
eagerness. But Mrs. Jasher had fallen back in a faint, and Robinson was
again supplying her with brandy.

"You had better leave the room, you two," he said, "or I can't be
answerable for her life."

"I must stay and learn the truth," said Random determinedly, "and you,
Hope, go into the parlor and find that confession. It is on the desk, as
she said, all loose sheets. No doubt it was the confession which the man
she