"Yes, if you will have me for a friend," said Pence meekly. "By all means, now that you love me no longer. Be my friend,"--she held out her hand, which Pence grasped feebly--"and tell me how you got those papers." "From your father's--I mean from Captain Huxham's safe." "Then you were in the room on that night?" "Yes. I saw the body." "And you said nothing." "No. Had I done so, I should have incriminated myself. When I entered the study Captain Huxham was lying dead under the desk." "Did you see anyone about?" "I saw no one, not even Mr. Lister, whom I had followed into the house." "Just explain precisely what you did see," said Bella, anxiously. Pence thought for a few moments. "I was watching the house as usual on that night because I loved you," he said, in a slow, feeble way, for he was still weak from loss of blood. "I beheld Mr. Lister coming towards me. He brushed past me, and entered the Manor by the front door. I watched for his return, intending to speak to him. But he never came out." Bella sat up alertly. "He never came out?" "No. I don't know how long I watched; but finally I grew tired, and stole up to the house. The front door was ajar. I saw that the study door was also open, so I went in. Then I saw Captain Huxham lying dead and bleeding, with the safe open and the papers in disorder. In the safe, or, rather, tumbled on the floor before the safe was a bundle of bank-notes. The Accuser of the Brethren tempted me," said Silas, with the perspiration beading his high forehead, "and I snatched up the notes, for I thought that if I had money I could marry you. I then saw that bundle which the black man took from me, and thinking there might be more notes in the bundle, I snatched that up also and fled." "Why did you fly?" asked Bella, following this story with great interest. "I thought I heard a noise, and feared lest I should be accused of killing Captain Huxham. I ran out of the study, and out of the house, and down the path between the standing corn, as though the devil was after me. But he was not after me," wailed Pence, standing up, "he was in my heart. Here is the money for which I sold my precious soul," and he threw a packet of bank-notes on the table with feverish eagerness. "It was all for your sake!" Bella took up the notes. "The man you mistook for Mr. Lister was his father," she said quietly; "did you not see him in the room?" "I saw no one. Did Lister's father kill Captain Huxham?" "Can't you tell?" asked the girl, looking at him straightly. "I have told everything," said Pence, with an air of fatigue; "now I die," and before she could help him he fell full length on the floor quite insensible. The interview had proved too much for him in his weak state. CHAPTER XVIII THE GHOST