be kept in the
dark."

"The message will explain that," Mr. Adams replied, and he again
repeated the message he had given Alice.

"Yes, that explains it," Captain Bayley said, when he had finished;
"that's just like the boy of old. I like him for that. But why on earth
did he not say he was innocent at first?"

"That I cannot tell you; I know no more of the past than the message I
have given you, except he said that he had been wrongfully suspected of
committing a crime, and that, although he was innocent, the case
appeared absolutely conclusive against him, and that he saw no chance
whatever of his being cleared, save by the confession of the person who
had committed the offence."

"But why on earth didn't he say he was innocent?" Captain Bayley
repeated, with something of his old irritation. "What possessed him
to run away as if he were guilty without making one protest to us that
he was innocent?"

"I cannot tell you, sir. As I said, I know nothing whatever of the
circumstance; I do not even know the nature of the accusation against
him. I only know, from my knowledge of his character, that he is a noble
and generous young man, and that he never could have been guilty of any
dishonourable action."

"Nobody would ever have thought he would," Captain Bayley said sharply,
"unless he had as much as said so himself by running away when this
ridiculous accusation was brought forward. I should as soon have doubted
my own existence as supposed he had stolen a ten-pound note had he not
run away instead of facing it like a man. Until he bolted without
sending me a word of denial or explanation. I would have knocked any man
down who had said he believed him guilty. The evidence had no more
weight in my mind than the whistling of the wind; my doubts are of his
own creation. Thank God they are at an end now that he has declared he
is innocent. He has behaved like a fool, but there are so many fools
about that there is nothing out of the way in that. Still it was one of
the follies I should not have expected of Frank. That he should get into
a foolish scrape from thoughtlessness, or high spirits, or devilry, or
that sort of thing, I could imagine; but I am astonished that he should
have committed an act of folly due to cowardice."

"I won't hear you, uncle, any more," Alice exclaimed; "I know that you
don't mean anything you say, and that you are one of the happiest men in
the world this evening; but of course Mr. Adams d