ration of Craven, who to
avoid the shame of the approaching revelation, joined a party of
explorers bound for the recently discovered gold mines in California.

"The civilized world is then rid of two villains at once," said the
uncompromising Traverse.

Herbert took from his pocket the confession of Colonel Le Noir, which
he said he was now at liberty to use as he thought proper for the ends
of justice. That certain parts of the disclosure intimately concerned
Traverse Rocke, to whom he should therefore read the whole. The
confession may be briefly summed up as follows:

The first item was that he had sought to win the affections of Marah
Rocke, the supposed wife of Major Ira Warfield; he had sedulously
waylaid and followed her with his suit during the whole summer; she had
constantly repulsed and avoided him; he, listening to his own evil
passions, had bribed her maid to admit him in the dark to Marah's
cabin, upon a certain night when her husband was to be absent; that the
unexpected return of Major Warfield, who had tracked him to the house,
had prevented the success of his evil purpose, but had not saved the
reputation of the innocent wife, whose infuriated husband would not
believe her ignorant of the presence of the villain in her house; that
he, Gabriel Le Noir, in hatred as well as in shame, had forborne until
now to make the explanation, which he hoped might now, late in life as
it was, bring the long-severed pair together, and establish Marah Rocke
and her son in their legal and social rights.

The second item in the black list of crime was the death of his elder
brother, whom he declared he had not intended to kill. He said that,
having contracted large debts which he was unable to pay he had
returned secretly from his distant quarters to demand the money from
his brother, who had often helped him; that, meeting his brother in the
woods, he made this request. Eugene reproached him for his extravagance
and folly, and refused to aid him; an encounter ensued, in which Eugene
fell. He, Gabriel Le Noir, fled pursued by the curse of Cain, and
reached his own quarters before even his absence had been suspected.
His agency in the death of his brother was not suspected even by his
accomplice in other crimes, the outlaw called Black Donald, who,
thinking to gain an ascendency over one whom he called his patron,
actually pretended to have made way with Eugene Le Noir for the sake of
his younger brother.

The thir