ved in every
fibre of his awakened manhood, waited--thinking, perhaps, how few minutes
had passed since he hung upon the words of a fellow being for his
condemnation to death, or release to the freedom which he now enjoyed.

A moment! But what an eternity before I saw the rigid lines of her white,
set face relax--before I marked the play of human, if not womanly,
emotion break up the misery of her look and soften her youthful lips into
some semblance of their old expression. Love might be dead--friendship,
even, be a thing of the far past--but consideration was still alive and
in another instant it spoke in these trembling sentences, uttered across
a threshold made sacred by a tragedy involving our three lives:

"Come in and explain yourself. No man should go unheard. I know you will
not come where Adelaide's spirit yet lingers, if you cannot bring hands
clean from all actual violence."

I motioned my driver away, and as Carmel drew back out of sight, I caught
at Arthur's arm and faced him with the query:

"Are you willing that I should enter? I only wish to declare to her, and
to you, an innocence I have no means of proving, but which you cannot
disbelieve if I swear it, here and now, by your sister Carmel's sacred
disfigurement. Such depravity could not exist, as such a vow from the
lips guilty of the crime you charge me with. Look at me, Arthur. I
considered you--now consider me."

Quickly he stepped back. "Enter," said he.

It was some minutes later--I cannot say how many--that one of the
servants disturbed us by asking if we knew anything about Zadok.

"He has not come home," said he, "and here is a man who wants him."

"What man?" asked Arthur.

"Oh, that detective chap. He never will leave us alone."

I arose. In an instant enlightenment had come to me. "It's nothing," said
I with my eyes on Carmel; but the gesture I furtively made Arthur, said
otherwise.

A few minutes later we were both in the driveway. "We are on the brink of
a surprise," I whispered. "I think I understand this Sweetwater now."

Arthur looked bewildered, but he took the lead in the interview which
followed with the man who had made him so much trouble and was now doing
his best to make us all amends.

Zadok could not be found; he was wanted by the district attorney, who
wished to put some questions to him. Were there any objections to his
searching the stable-loft for indications of his whereabouts?

Arthur made none; and the d