"We know of no other person who was there but the men employed." _"What do you know?"_ With all her restraint gone--a suffering and despairing woman, Mrs. Ocumpaugh was on her knees, grasping my arm with both hands. "Quit this torture! tell me that you know it all and leave me to--to--die!" "Madam!" I was confounded; and as I looked at her face, strained back in wild appeal, I was more than confounded, I was terrified. "Madam, what does this mean? Are you--you--" "Lock the door!" she cried; "no one must come in here now. I have said so much that I must say more. Listen and be my friend; oh, be my friend! _Those were my footsteps you saw in the bungalow. It was I who carried Gwendolen into that secret hole._" XXI PROVIDENCE Had I suspected this? Had all my efforts for the last half-hour been for the purpose of entrapping her into some such avowal? I do not know. My own feelings at the time are a mystery to me; I blundered on, with a blow here and a blow there, till I hit this woman in a vital spot, and achieved the above mentioned result. I was not happy when I reached it. I felt no elation; scarcely any relief. It all seemed so impossible. She marked the signs of incredulity in my face and spoke up quickly, almost sharply: "You do not believe me. I will prove the truth of what I say. Wait--wait!"--and running to a closet, she pulled out a drawer--where was her weakness now?--and brought from it a pair of soiled white slippers. "If the house had been ransacked," she proceeded pantingly, "these would have told their own tale. I was shocked when I saw their condition, and kept my guests waiting till I changed them. Oh, they will fit the footprints." Her smile was ghastly. Softly she set the shoes down. "Mrs. Carew helped me; she went for the child at night. Oh, we are in a terrible strait, we two, unless you will stand by us like a friend--and you will do that, won't you, Mr. Trevitt? No one else knows what I have just confessed--not even Doctor Pool, though he suspects me in ways I never dreamed of. Money shall not stand in the way--I have a fortune of my own now--nothing shall stand in the way, if you will have pity on Mrs. Carew and myself and help us to preserve our secret." "Madam, what secret? I pray you to make me acquainted with the whole matter in all its details before you ask my assistance." "Then you do not know it?" "Not altogether, and I must know it altogether. First, what has become of the child?" "She is safe and happy. You have seen her; you mentioned doing so just now." "Harry?" "Harry." I rose before her in intense excitement. What a plot! I stood aghast at its daring and the success it had so nearly met with.