"No fear of that, my dear. You've behaved like a man, from first to last. Never speak ill of the dead, they say, and I'm not going to. He was your father, and if his ways were not our ways, we're the better for it, and while he lived he was the worse for it. You were right in refusing to take up his business, right in trying to carve out an honourable career for yourself, right in going to see him that Friday, and trying to get the money you were entitled to. Not that you _would_ have got it--but, there, I won't say anything against one that's gone to where I hope he'll be forgiven. You were right in everything, Reginald." "God bless you, mother," said Florence. "Right even in falling in love with our dear Florence?" said Reginald, tenderly. "Who could help it, bless her sweet face! Give me a kiss, my son, and you, too, Florence, and you, too, Dick, and you, too, father. And mind you, lad, I'm as glad as glad can be that you gave your evidence as you did to-day, and made a clean breast of it. You spoke the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, with love and innocence in your heart. Now, father, what did the detective have to say to you? Don't be afraid to tell us. Is he keeping an eye upon Reginald?" "He is, mother; and I said if any charge is brought against him he'll be ready to meet it." "Of course he will, and we'll stand by him, shoulder to shoulder. Father, you've been thirty years in the service, and you ought by this time to be pretty well used to the ways of witnesses. What is your opinion of Dr. Pye as a witness?" "He gave his evidence in a straightforward manner," replied Uncle Rob, guardedly. "What one has to consider in reckoning up a witness is the effect he produces upon judge and jury, whether they put faith in what he says, or throw doubt upon it." "Which way would it be with Dr. Pye?" "They'd believe every word he spoke." "What do you think, Dick?" asked Aunt Rob. "I don't trust him," Dick replied. "Give your reason." "Can't. Haven't any?" "Prejudice, then, Dick," said Uncle Rob. "Perhaps. Call it that. Aunt, have you never seen a man you disliked, without being able to account for it?" "It's happened more than once." "And you've found him out afterwards to be a bad lot?" "That has happened, too." "A kind of instinct, you see," said Dick. "What gets over me," said Aunt Rob, shaking her head, as though she had not made up her mind, "is the way he stood up for Reginald. All he seemed to want was fair play." "Yes, seemed to want," said Dick, doggedly. "At all events it was honest in him not to be too positive about the resemblance to the man he saw. Do you know anyone, Dick, that answers to the description and that might be mistaken for Reginald?" "No one, aunt." "Not Abel Death?" "Not a bit like Reginald." "In the name of all that's mysterious, what is he keeping out of the way for? Did you ever know a case in such a tangle?"