"I am afraid to tell you." Katy turned her white face toward him. "But I must tell you. It has been on my mind day and night. I have tried to think of another way, but I cannot." "But what is it?" "When I was a little girl and lived with my grandfather and grandmother, I used to run away, and one day I ran away to the church. Alvin Koehler's father was there plastering the wall, and I watched him, and after a while I went to sleep in a pew. When I woke up Alvin's father was gone, but your father was there, David." David gave a great start. "You cannot say anything to me against my father!" "But I must tell you, David. You will have to decide what is to be done. I haven't told the squire or any one, but you must know. It has been on my mind all this time. I can't rest or sleep any more. I went up to your father and he spoke roughly to me, and then I ran out and went home to my grandmother. She laughed at me and said your father was only chasing me home where I ought to be. After a while I believed it. Then Alvin Koehler's father got up at the funeral and talked about the communion set and I didn't believe such a thing for a minute, not a minute. Alvin is not--is not--very honest--and I never believed it." "You didn't believe what?" said David with a dry throat. "What in this world are you talking about?" "I didn't believe for a minute that your father would have anything to do with taking the communion set. I--" "He didn't have anything to do with it," cried David. "What nonsense is this?" Katy covered her face with her hands. She went on mechanically as though she had prepared what she had to say. "Before your mother died and the preacher came to give her communion, he lifted the cup high in the air and the light shone on it. Then I remembered everything that I had forgotten, how I had run away to the church and everything, and I knew that your father had the shining cup in his hand when I ran up to him. That was what I wanted--the shining cup. He was there with it in his hand; it is as plain as if it were now." "I do not believe you!" To this Katy returned no answer. "Why didn't you tell it long ago?" "I didn't remember this part till that night," said Katy, patiently. "But I couldn't come and tell you then! I have thought over this and prayed over it. If I could bear it for you, I would, David. But I can't." "I do not believe you," said David. "You imagined it. What could my father have wanted with the communion service? What could he have done with it?" "There was a hole in the wall and he pushed it in quickly." "A hole in the wall!" "Alvin's father was mending the wall. There used to be a window there. I asked the squire about the window. Alvin's father was closing it up." Into David's mind came a sickening recollection of the wild-eyed, desperate figure which had risen to shout out the terrible accusation.