"About eleven o'clock last night," said he, "as I was about to retire, I heard a slight noise, which appeared to proceed from the library. Knowing that you would not be there at that hour, I at once suspected that the river-thieves, who have grown so bold of late, had broken into the house. I seized my rifle, and when I opened the door the thief sprung out at the open window. I pursued him down the shell-road to the river; upon reaching which I perceived him paddling a canoe towards the opposite shore. I fired. A splash in the water followed the discharge. The canoe came ashore a short distance below, but the man was either killed by the ball or drowned. In the canoe I found a bundle of valuables, which had been stolen from the library,--among them your father's watch." "But was this Hatchie? Are you quite sure it was Hatchie?" asked Emily, with much anxiety; for she felt keenly the loss of her slave-friend. "My investigations this morning proved it to be so. He is missing, and the appearance of the thief corresponded to his size and form. I am now satisfied, though I did not suspect it at the time, that he was the man upon whom I fired." "But Hatchie was always honest and faithful," said Emily. "So he was, and I must share your surprise," returned Jaspar. "There is a possibility that it was not he," suggested Mr. Faxon. "There can be no doubt," said Jaspar, sharply. "The evidence is conclusive." "No doubt!" repeated Mr. Faxon, with a penetrating glance into the eye of Jaspar, whose apparent anxiety to settle the question had roused his first suspicion. "He was, if I mistake not, the only servant of your household who was on the estate at the time of Miss Dumont's birth?" "He was, I believe," replied Jaspar, with a coolness that belied the anxiety within him. "Were you _alone_ when you shot him, Mr. Dumont?" asked the clergyman, sternly. "I was alone. But allow me to ask, sir, by what right you question me. I am not your pupil or your servant," replied Jaspar, rather warmly, his natural testiness getting the better of his discretion. "Pardon me, sir," replied the minister, in a tone of mock humility. "Do not let my curiosity affront you." "But it does affront me," said Jaspar, losing his temper at the sarcastic manner of the other. "Now, allow me to inquire your business with this girl." "I came in the discharge of my duty as a Christian minister, to impart the consolations of religion to this afflicted child of the church. Of course, my business could not be with _you_ in that capacity." "You seem to have departed very widely from your object," replied Jaspar, with a sneer which he always bestowed upon religious topics. "True, I have. This last blow upon poor Emily was so sudden and so severe as to call forth a remark, and even a question of the validity of the will." "Indeed!" replied Jaspar, with a nervous start; "you have the will as her father left it."