for you to hear told."

"I can well believe, Varney, from your manner of speech, and from the
words you use, that you have some secret to relate beyond this simple
fact of the murder of this gamester by Marmaduke Bannerworth."

"You are right--such is the fact; the death of that man could not have
moved me as you now see me moved. There is a secret connected with his
fate which I may well hesitate to utter--a secret even to whisper to the
winds of heaven--I--although I did not do the deed, no, no--I--I did not
strike the blow--not I--not I!"

[Illustration]

"Varney, it is astonishing to me the pains you take to assure yourself
of your innocence of this deed; no one accuses you, but still, were it
not that I am impressed with a strong conviction that you're speaking to
me nothing but the truth, the very fact of your extreme anxiety to
acquit yourself, would engender suspicion."

"I can understand that feeling, Charles Holland; I can fully understand
it. I do not blame you for it--it is a most natural one; but when you
know all, you will feel with me how necessary it must have been to my
peace to seize upon every trivial circumstance that can help me to a
belief in my own innocence."

"It may be so; as yet, you well know, I speak in ignorance. But what
could there have been in the character of that gambler, that has made
you so sympathetic concerning his decease?"

"Nothing--nothing whatever in his character. He was a bad man; not one
of those free, open spirits which are seduced into crime by
thoughtlessness--not one of those whom we pity, perchance, more than we
condemn; but a man without a redeeming trait in his disposition--a man
so heaped up with vices and iniquities, that society gained much by his
decease, and not an individual could say that he had lost a friend."

"And yet the mere thought of the circumstances connected with his death
seems almost to drive you to the verge of despair."

"You are right; the mere thought has that effect."

"You have aroused all my curiosity to know the causes of such a
feeling."

Varney paced the apartment in silence for many minutes. He seemed to be
enduring a great mental struggle, and at length, when he turned to
Charles Holland and spoke, there were upon his countenance traces of
deep emotion.

"I have said, young man, that I will take you into my confidence. I have
said that I will clear up many seeming mysteries, and that I will enable
you to understand what w