A wan smile, in which was yet a glint of pride, crossed her face. "Then," she said, "I have faith that you will believe me now. I went to that house to gain a thing dearer than my own happiness. No one at home knew it. I did so secretly--my parents believed that I had gone to visit my aunt." She paused an instant, and turned upon Craig a look of mingled scorn and aversion. "This man had once done me the honour to ask me to marry him, and I had done myself the honour to refuse. He had in his hands--how it had come to him I have never known--a letter which he threatened to publish. It was a personal letter that had no bearing on the present--one written before I was born--but it had the power to bring pain and humiliation upon some one I loved." The Judge lifted his head; his eyes were moist and shining. "That is true," he said, in a smothered voice. "I knew of the letter, and--of the threat." She did not proceed at once; her gaze was still upon Craig, and she waited. "It is true enough," he said, and burst into jarring laughter. "Yes, gentlemen. It is the fact. I had that letter and I would have made my price on it!" He looked from one to the other challengingly, the arrogance and unscrupulousness of the man leaping in his eyes. But no one spoke. Only Treadwell, his eyes averted, moved his chair a little further from him. "Yes," she repeated, deliberately. "You made your price. I went there that night, to your house, to beg you for that letter. I waited for you till you came, and when you would not give it to me otherwise, I agreed to marry you." She faced the Governor again. "I was to marry him within the hour. Then--then came the shot from the alcove. I was mad with fright and with fear. There had been three men behind the curtains. Two ran--the man who had done the shooting and another. The third--" She broke off and turned to the motionless figure in the striped clothes. "I know now that you were the third!" she said. "I thank you--with all my heart I thank you, for what you did!" There was no answer from behind the mask, and she again addressed the Governor: "This man must have heard my pleading and pitied me. He thought of me before he thought of his own escape. He took the letter I had come for from the safe and gave it to me, then dragged me to the door and told me to run. So I--I got away." The room was so still that one heard now, through the closed doors, the muffled click of the telegraph keys in the east-room, and the voices of the clerks calling the tally of figures. Wistfulness and pain had crept into her voice now. "Next day the newspapers said that the man who had fired the shot had been arrested. I believed this to be true, for though I went one day to the trial, I was in the court-room only a few moments and I could not see the face of the man who was being tried."