"It is false!" cried Dan in a clear ringing voice. "It is false, you bad sister!" "It is true, Daniel Taylor," said Solomon Fewster in his smooth oily voice. "I have here a letter from a sailor on board the 'Merry Andrew,' informing me that Minnie and Joshua are on the same ship." At this corroborative testimony, Susan fell upon her knees, and raised her arms. "Curse that false friend!" she cried. But Ellen fell at her side, exclaiming, "O Susan, Susan, restrain your tongue! For all our sakes--for my sake! He is my husband!" Whereat Solomon Fewster, upon whose face there had hitherto been an ill-concealed expression of triumph, crushed the letter he held in his hand, and muttered a bitter curse. And Dan, folding Ellen in his arms, said,-- "Hush, my sister, hush! Blessings on your wedding-ring! Blessings on your husband and my true friend! We shall live to see him give the lie to slanderous tongues. I have something to live for now--to defend the honor of my brother!" CHAPTER XXV. THE DEAD WITNESS. When Ellen felt the comforting protection of Dan's arms, and heard the words to which he gave utterance in the nobility of his soul, the despair by which she had been overwhelmed vanished like snow before the sun, and left her an unhappy, but not a hopeless woman. "This, then, was your secret," said Dan to her, as she lay in his arms; "your marriage with Jo. It is the proof of his faithfulness, my dear. For me, I needed none. No heart but mine can judge my friend; no tongue shall malign him unanswered while I am by." "Good, noble brother," she sobbed, "to comfort me thus in the midst of your own great grief! I do not doubt him; I love him--love him--love him! My faithful darling!"