in Naples. It was mailed here. If she had landed in
Palermo or any other place you would have had some sign of it. But
see--there is not a sign. Nothing but 'Naples' is here, inside and
out--nothing but 'Naples;' and she never came to Naples! She wrote
this to bring you here."

"Oh, my God! how severely you judge her! You will drive me mad by
insinuating such frightful suspicions. How is it possible that one
whom I know so well and love so dearly could be such a demon as this?
It can not be."

"Listen, my child," said Obed Chute, tenderly. "Strengthen yourself.
You have had much to bear in your young life, but this is easier to
bear than that was which you must have suffered that morning when you
first woke and found the water in your cabin. Tell me--in that hour
when you rushed up on deck and saw that you were betrayed--in that
hour--did no thought come to your mind that there was some other than
Gualtier who brought this upon you?"

Zillah looked at him with a frightened face, and said not a word.

"Better to face the worst. Let the truth be known, and face it,
whatever it is. Look, now. She wrote this letter which brought you
here--this letter--every word of which is a lie; she it was who sent
Gualtier to you to bring you here; she it was who recommended to you
that miscreant who betrayed you, on whose tracks the police of France
and Italy are already set. How do you suppose she will appear in the
eyes of the French police? Guilty, or not guilty?"

Zillah muttered some inarticulate words, and then suddenly gasped
out, "But the hat and the basket found by the fishermen?"

"Decoys--common tricks," said Obed Chute, scornfully. "Clumsy enough,
but in this case successful."

Zillah groaned, and buried her face in her hands.

A long silence followed.

"My poor child," said Obed Chute at last, "I have been all the day
making inquiries every where, and have already engaged the police to
search out this mystery. There is one thing yet, however, which I
wish to know, and you only can tell it. I am sorry to have to talk in
this way, and give you any new troubles, but it is for your sake
only, and for your sake there is nothing which I would not do. Will
you answer me one question?"

Zillah looked up. Her face had now grown calm. The agitation had
passed. The first shock was over, but this calm which followed was
the calm of fixed grief--a grief too deep for tears.

"My question is this, and it is a very important