rt, a frightful suspicion entering
his mind.

"I know no better than you, my boy. I have just arrived from an evening
trip on the water. I was about to enter my quarters when I stumbled over
your uncle's body."

"What could have brought him here?"

"I cannot tell, nor can I conjecture who killed him."

"It can't be he," thought Robert, dismissing his fleeting suspicion.
"What shall I do, sir?" he asked, unprepared, with his boyish
inexperience, to decide what to do under such terrible circumstances.

"Go and summon some of your neighbors to carry the poor man to his home.
Meanwhile break the news to your aunt as you best can," said the hermit
in a tone of quiet decision.

"But should I not call the doctor?"

"It will be of no avail. Your uncle is past the help of any physician.
Go, and I will stay here till you return."

The startling news which Robert brought to the fishermen served to bring
men, women and children to the spot where John Trafton lay, ghastly with
blood.

Well known as he was, the sight startled and agitated them, and, in
their ignorance of the real murderer, suspicion fastened upon the
hermit, who, tall and dignified, with his white hair falling upon his
shoulders, stood among them like a being from another world.

Trafton's habits were well known, but the manner of his death enlisted
public sympathy.

"Poor John!" said Tom Scott. "I've known him, man and boy, for a'most
fifty years, and I never thought to see him lying like this."

"And what will you do with his murderer?" asked his wife in a shrill
voice.

Mrs. Scott was somewhat of a virago, but she voiced the popular thought,
and all looked to Scott for an expression of feeling.

"He ought to be strung up when he's found," said Scott.

"You won't have to look far for him, I'm thinkin'," said Mrs. Scott.

"What do you mean, wife?" asked Scott, who was not of a suspicious
turn.

"There he stands!" said the virago, pointing with her extended finger to
the hermit.

As this was a thought which had come to others, hostile eyes looked upon
the hermit, and two or three moved forward as if to seize him.

The old man regarded the fishermen with surprise and said with dignity:

"My friends, what manner of man do you think I am that you suspect me of
such a deed?"

"There's no one could have done it but you," said a young man doggedly.
"Here lies Trafton at the foot of your ladder, with no one near him but
you. You was found with hi