ought
every one was against me, when it was all my fault. I know it now. Any
fellow can make himself liked if he only tries--no, without trying, if
he'll only go straight and act like a man. But somehow I couldn't. I
got jealous of you, and wild because people made so much of you. And I
said you hated me, and did all you could to make things worse, but it
wasn't true, Dale, old fellow. It was all my fault."

"Yes, yes; but that's all over, old chap," I said huskily. "You'll get
well, and do your bit of punishment, and make a fresh start."

He looked at me with a smile on his poor wan face, and I never realised
before how good-looking he was. And then I shuddered, for he said
quietly--

"Yes, I shall make a fresh start--somewhere else."

"Walters!" I whispered.

"Yes, somewhere else," he repeated. "It was all wrong; and just when I
was at my worst, that wretch, who had been watching me and reading it
all, came to me, and, as if he were some evil spirit, kept on day after
day, laughing and jeering at me, till he regularly worked round me like
the snake he is, and flattered, and planned, and talked of the future,
till in my weak, vain folly I drank it all in. For I was weak, and he
was strong; and at last, though I didn't know it then, I was his slave,
Dale, and ready to do every bit of villainy he wished. But there, I
need not tell you any more. I only want you, knowing all you do, to go
to my poor old father and mother and tell them everything--how it all
happened. It will be better than for them only to know it from the
papers. They will understand then how it was I went wrong so quickly,
right to the bitter end."

"No," I cried; "you shall go and confess it all yourself."

He laughed gently.

"Oh no. I'm glad Jarette aimed so straight, Dale. It was the kindest
thing he could do. It's all over now. Can't you see it's best?"

"No," I said more firmly. "It would be best for you to get well, and
prove in the future as a man, that you have repented your weakness as a
boy."

"Yes, perhaps," he said, after a long pause; "but it is not to be so.
I'm not going to be tried here, Dale, where no one can tell everything,
and understand how weak I was, and how, from the first day, I bitterly
repented giving that man such power over me. I'm going to be judged
there, Dale, where everything is known."

He closed his eyes as he spoke, and I was going to steal away, but his
grasp tightened on my hand.