h, I have been
hunting for you ever since."

"But, sir," Alice said, more and more surprised, "what message could
possibly be of sufficient importance for you to undertake so long a
journey to deliver it?"

"I did not know how long you might be before you returned to England,
Miss Hardy, and as I knew how anxiously the answer to my message would
be expected, I preferred to follow you, in order that there might be no
more delay than necessary."

Suddenly a thought flashed across Alice Hardy's brain. She advanced a
step nearer to her visitor, and exclaimed--

"Do you come from my cousin Frank?"

"You have guessed rightly. I met him abroad; I am not at liberty at
present to say where. He rendered me one of the greatest services one
man can render to another--he saved my life, and did much more; but upon
that it is not now necessary to enter."

"But the message, sir," Alice interrupted, "you cannot know how we have
been longing for a word from him all this time."

"I do not know yet, Miss Hardy, whether I have any message to deliver;
it depends upon what you say in answer to what I tell you. I think I can
give you his very words as we sat together the night before I left for
England: 'I have a little cousin, a girl, she was like my sister; I
think, I hope, that in spite of everything she may still have believed
me innocent. Will you see her, and tell her you have seen me? Say no
more until you see by her manner whether she believes me to be a rascal
or not.'"

"No, no," Alice broke in, with a cry, "not for one moment; surely Frank
never doubted me. Never for a single instant did I believe one word
against him."

"Is anything the matter, my dear?" Captain Bayley asked, opening his
door, for the sound of her raised voice had reached him.

"No, uncle," she cried, hurrying to him, "it is a message from Frank. Go
away a minute, or----No," and she turned again to Mr. Adams, "surely my
uncle can hear too, he is as interested as I am."

"My message was to you alone, Miss Hardy," Mr. Adams said gravely; "I
must deliver it as it was delivered to me. It will be for you to decide
whether, after hearing it, you think it right to observe the injunction
it contains for your absolute silence."

"At least tell me, sir," Captain Bayley exclaimed, as much agitated as
Alice, "whether he is alive and well."

"He is alive and well, sir--at least he was when I saw him last, now
nearly four months ago."

"Thank God for that, at