er head in protest. "I came here to forget, and I find
you--his daughter."

"You find more than his daughter; you find his first wife, and you find
the one that killed him."

"The one that killed him!" said the woman greatly troubled. "How did you
know that?"

"All the world knows it. He was in prison four years, and since then
he has been a mutineer, a treasure-hunter, a planter, and a saviour of
these islands!"

The sick woman fell back in exhaustion. At that moment the servant
entered with a pitcher of lime-juice. Sheila took it from her and
motioned her out of the room; then she held a glass of the liquid to the
stark lips.

"Drink," she said in a low, kind voice, and she poured slowly into
the patient's mouth the cooling draught. A moment later Noreen raised
herself up again.

"Mr. Dyck Calhoun is here?" she asked.

"He is here, and none to-day holds so high a place in the minds of all
who live here. He has saved the island."

"All are here that matter," said Noreen. "And I came to forget!"

"What do you remember?" asked Sheila. "I remember all--how he died!"

Suddenly Sheila had a desire to shriek aloud. This woman--did this woman
then see Erris Boyne die? Was she present when the deed was done? If so,
why was she not called to give evidence at the trial. But yes, she was
called to give evidence. She remembered it now, and the evidence had
been that she was in her own home when the killing took place.

"How did he die?" she asked in a whisper.

"One stroke did it--only one, and he fell like a log." She made a motion
as of striking, and shuddered, covering her eyes with trembling hands.

"You tell me you saw Dyck Calhoun do this to an undefended man--you tell
me this!"

Sheila's anger was justified in her mind. That Dyck Calhoun should

"I did not see Dyck Calhoun strike him," gasped the woman. "I did not
say that. Dyck Calhoun did not kill Erris Boyne!"

"My God!--oh, my God!" said Sheila with ashen lips, but a great light
breaking in her eyes. "Dyck Calhoun did not kill Erris Boyne! Then who
killed him?"

There was a moment's pause, then--"I killed him," said the woman in
agony. "I killed him."

A terrible repugnance seized Sheila. After a moment she said in
agitation: "You killed him--you struck him down! Yet you let an innocent
man go to prison, and be kept there for years, and his father go to his
grave with shame, with estates ruined and home lost--and you were the
guilty one--you--all