ous offer, but it would be of
no use to me. I have, as you suspect, got into a scrape at home, but it
is from no fault of my own. I have been wrongfully suspected of
committing a crime; and until that charge is in some way or other
cleared up, and the slur on my name wiped off, I would not return to
England if I had a hundred thousand pounds."

"And can nothing be done? Would it be any use whatever to set to work on
any line you can suggest? I would make it my own business, and follow up
any clue you could give me."

"Thank you very much, Mr. Adams; thank you with all my heart: but
nothing can be done, there is nothing to follow. It was not a question
of a crime so committed that many outside persons would be interested in
it, or that it could be explained in a variety of ways. So far as the
case went it was absolutely conclusive, so conclusive that I myself,
knowing that I was innocent, could see no flaw in the evidence against
myself, nor for months afterwards could I perceive any possible
explanation save in my own guilt. Since then I have seen that there is
an alternative. It is one so painful to contemplate that I do not allow
myself to think of it, nor does it seem to me that even were I myself
upon the spot, with all the detective force of England to aid me, I
could succeed in proving that alternative to be the true one except by
the confession of the person in question.

"If he were capable of planning and carrying out the scheme which
brought about my disgrace, he certainly is not one who would under any
conceivable circumstances confess what he has done. Therefore, there is
nothing whatever to be done in the matter. Years and years hence, if I
make a fortune out here, I may go home and say to those whose esteem and
affection I have lost, 'I have no more evidence now than I had when I
left England to support my simple declaration that I was innocent, but
at least I have nothing to gain by lying now. I have made a fortune, and
would not touch one penny of the inheritance which would once have been
mine. I simply come before you again solemnly to declare that I was
innocent, wholly and conclusively as appearances were against me.' It
may be that the word of a prosperous man will be believed though that of
a disgraced schoolboy was more than doubted."

"And is there no one to whom I could carry the assurance of your
innocence?" Mr. Adams asked. "Some one may still be believing in you in
spite of appearances. I