"No, no!" said Bella, stopping him. "Think of my good name. It is useless making a scandal. But ask him if what he says is true." "What does he say?" questioned Cyril, with a note of savagery in his voice. "Oh hush! hush!" implored Bella, clinging to him. "Speak lower. I don't wish everyone to hear what Mr. Pence declares." "But what is it? what is it?" "Ask him. After all, he may be wrong, and--" Still holding the girl, Lister, mindful of her wish, spoke in a loud whisper to the dusty figure on the other side of the fence. Pence had just risen, sorely bruised, but, unable to leave his rival with the girl he loved, yet lingered in the roadway. "Here, you," said Lister sharply, "what have you been saying to Miss Huxham? Speak out, you dog, or I'll thrash you thoroughly. Let me go, Bella; let me go, I say." "No, no! We must avoid all scandal. Think of what might be--be--" she gasped, and without ending her sentence fell half fainting into Cyril's arms. Then came Pence's chance to discharge the vials of his wrath, for he saw that Lister, hampered by the fainting girl, could not touch him. Stepping up to the palings with his face distorted with anger, he spoke in low tones of hate. "I say now to you what I shall soon say to all. Captain Huxham adopted the girl, whom you falsely say that you love. She has no position and no name and no money, so if you marry her----" "Stop," said Cyril imperiously. "Can you swear to the truth of this wild statement? Miss Huxham always passed as the captain's daughter." "She is not Miss Huxham," said Silas, insistently. "She is Miss--I don't know what. I can prove what I say, if necessary. And I shall, unless----" "Unless what?" "Unless you renounce her so that she can become my wife." Bella heard the words and stood unexpectedly erect with fresh energy, wrathful at Pence's persistency. "Nothing will ever induce me to become your wife. And if what you say is true my aunt would have told me." "Mrs. Vand is not your aunt and Captain Huxham was not your father," said the preacher sullenly. "If needs be I can prove it." "Then do so," cried Cyril quickly, "for by doing so you will remove the sole barrier to our marriage." "What do you mean?" asked Silas, recoiling in sheer surprise. "Let me speak," said Bella, guessing what her lover meant. "We mean that had you held your tongue Cyril and I might have been forced to part. Now that I know I am not Captain Huxham's daughter I can marry him." Pence looked from one face to the other in the chill moonlight and drew his own conclusions with swift intuition, sharpened by hate. "Then this Lister man is the murderer of Huxham?" "You have to prove that," said Cyril cheerfully. "I am not bound to incriminate myself, you know."