ace lifted to the small window, where he
could see a patch of the blue sky and white, scudding clouds. For the
moment his spirit was not in that cell. It was free and on top of a
mountain, looking into the clear eyes of a woman who loved him. He was
so rapt in his vision that he did not hear the grating of the key in
the lock, and Betty stood abashed, with her back to the door, feeling
that she was gazing on a stranger. Relieved against the square of
light, his hair looked darker than she remembered Peter's ever to have
been,--as dark as Richard's, but that rough, neglected beard,--also
dark,--and the tanned skin, did not bring either young man to her
mind.

The pause was but for a moment, when he became aware that he was not
alone and turned and saw her there.

"Betty! oh, Betty! You have come to help me." He walked toward her
slowly, hardly believing his eyes, and held out both hands.

"If--I--can. Who are you?" She took his hands in hers and walked
around him, turning his face to the light. Her breath came and went
quickly, and a round red spot now burned on one of her cheeks, and her
face seemed to be only two great, pathetic eyes.

"Do I need to tell you, Betty? Once we thought we loved each other.
Did we, Betty?"

"I don't--don't--know--Peter! Oh, Peter! Oh, you are alive! Peter!
Richard didn't kill you!" She did not cry out, but spoke the words
with a low intensity that thrilled him, and then she threw her arms
about his neck and burst into tears. "He didn't do it! You are alive!
Peter, he didn't kill you! I knew he didn't do it. They all thought
he did, and--and--your father--he has almost broken his bank
just--just--hunting for Richard--to--to--have him hung--and oh!
Peter, I have lived in horror,--for--fear he w--w--w--would, and--"

"He never could, Betty. I have come home to atone. I have come home to
give myself up. I killed Richard--my cousin--my best friend. I struck
him in hate and saw him lying dead: all the time they were hunting him
it was I they should have hunted. I can't understand it. Did they take
his dead body for mine--or--how was it they did not know he was struck
down and murdered? They must have taken his body for mine--or--he
must have fallen over--but he didn't, for I saw him lying dead as I
had struck him. All these years the eye of vengeance has been upon me,
and my crime has haunted me. I have seen him lying so--dead. God!
God!"

Betty still clung to him and sobbed incoherently