gain.

"Speaking in the vulgar tone," he said, "you seem to be in a hurry to
wash your hands of Miss Jethro."

"I have no reason to feel any interest in her," Alban replied.

"Don't be too sure of that, my friend. I have something to tell you
which may alter your opinion. That ex-teacher at the school, sir, knows
how the late Mr. Brown met his death, and how his daughter has been
deceived about it."

Alban listened with surprise--and with some little doubt, which he
thought it wise not to acknowledge.

"The report of the inquest alludes to a 'relative' who claimed the
body," he said. "Was that 'relative' the person who deceived Miss Emily?
And was the person her aunt?"

"I must leave you to take your own view," Doctor Allday replied. "A
promise binds me not to repeat the information that I have received.
Setting that aside, we have the same object in view--and we must take
care not to get in each other's way. Here is my house. Let us go in, and
make a clean breast of it on both sides."

Established in the safe seclusion of his study, the doctor set the
example of confession in these plain terms:

"We only differ in opinion on one point," he said. "We both think it
likely (from our experience of the women) that the suspected murderer
had an accomplice. I say the guilty person is Miss Jethro. You say--Mrs.
Rook."

"When you have read my copy of the report," Alban answered, "I think you
will arrive at my conclusion. Mrs. Rook might have entered the outhouse
in which the two men slept, at any time during the night, while her
husband was asleep. The jury believed her when she declared that she
never woke till the morning. I don't."

"I am open to conviction, Mr. Morris. Now about the future. Do you mean
to go on with your inquiries?"

"Even if I had no other motive than mere curiosity," Alban answered, "I
think I should go on. But I have a more urgent purpose in view. All that
I have done thus far, has been done in Emily's interests. My object,
from the first, has been to preserve her from any association--in
the past or in the future--with the woman whom I believe to have been
concerned in her father's death. As I have already told you, she is
innocently doing all she can, poor thing, to put obstacles in my way."

"Yes, yes," said the doctor; "she means to write to Mrs. Rook--and you
have nearly quarreled about it. Trust me to take that matter in hand.
I don't regard it as serious. But I am mortally afraid of