oes not know you as we
do, and does not understand that all this means that you are so relieved
from the anxiety that you have felt for the last two years that you are
obliged to give vent to your feelings somehow. Please, Mr. Adams, don't
regard what my uncle says in the slightest, but tell us all about Frank.
As to his going away, we know nothing about his motives, or why he went,
or anything else, and I am quite sure he will be able to explain it when
we see him; as to running away from cowardice, uncle knows as well as we
do that the idea is simply ridiculous. So please go on, and if uncle
interrupts we will go down to another sitting-room and he shall hear
nothing about it."

Mr. Adams then told the story of his acquaintance with Frank; how, when
all seemed dark, when he was lying prostrate with fever brought on by
overexertion and insufficient food, Frank had come to his son and had
insisted on helping him; how he had helped to nurse him, and how,
finally, Frank and his companions had worked the claim and realised a
fortune for him. He told how popular Frank was among his companions, how
ready he was to do a kindly action to any one needing it, and finally
repeated the conversation they had had together the last evening, and
Frank's determination not to return to England until he had gained such
a fortune that he could not be suspected of desiring to gain anything
but his uncle's esteem when he presented himself before him and declared
he was innocent.

"The young scamp," Captain Bayley growled, "thinking all the time of his
own feelings and not of mine. It's nothing to him that I may be fretting
myself into my grave in the belief of his guilt; nothing that I may be
dead years and years before he comes home with this precious fortune he
relies on making. Oh no! we are all to wait another twenty years in
order that this jackanapes may not be suspected of being mercenary;
three dozen at the triangles would do him a world of good, and if he
were here I would----"

"You wouldn't do anything but shake his hand, and shout 'Frank, my boy,
I am glad to see you back again,' so it's no use pretending that you
would," Alice interrupted. "And now, Mr. Adams, it's past twelve, and I
feel ashamed that we should have kept you so long; but I know you don't
mind, and you have made us all very happy. You will come again in the
morning, will you not? There is so much to ask about, and we have not
yet even begun to tell you how de