"Then we formed the plan of going abroad and returning to some place like this, only not so lonely. We packed all our valuables to be put in a safe by Mr. Alden. When my sister had packed the family papers and her own jewelry and locked and sealed the box, she called me to look at it and gave me the key. When she was ill in Paris she told me of her confession, and that it lay at the bottom of this box. But she asked me most solemnly never to open it unless someone else was falsely accused. She told me that she had no further motive in life than to make up to me as far as possible for all that I had innocently suffered; but she begged me not to make life too hard for her by ever speaking of this matter again. I have never spoken to her again about it." Bertha's voice had become very melancholy; now she ceased. "This mulatto calling himself 'Dolphus is certainly the boy?" "Yes--oh, yes; we both knew him the moment he turned up again." "Have you never seen him between then and now?" "No." "Where has he been?" "I don't know." "How did he find you?" "By bribing the porter in Mr. Alden's office to show him the letters he carried. He has a right to protection and support from us, for there is still a great reward offered for him. Mr. Alden offered it." "And Alden does not guess that this is he?" "How should he? He has no idea that we would hide him. But now we cannot conceive what will happen, for altho we are sure that he won't tell about us as long as he has a chance of escape, Hermie herself says that if he is condemned he may, in despair and revenge, tell all that he knows." "Alden must be told this." She sprang up with great energy. "He must not know. It is the one thing Hermie will not let him know if it is possible to help it. Oh, of course the worst catastrophe may come and overwhelm us; but while we have hope of escape, Hermie will not let Mr. Alden know that." It had become dark. Hermione Claxton was looking for her sister, walking across the meadow and calling in motherly tones. "Answer me just one thing. Did your sister tell you in plain words that she committed this deed?" "No; she did not. But I have tried to make what she said mean anything else. In any case she would not have said a word she could help; such words are too terrible. Can you think I have not sought to believe otherwise?" She said this in a tense, hurried voice, and standing at the barn door, called back: "I'm coming, I'm coming, dear." "She never did it," said Durgan strongly. "She knows who did. She is shielding someone." "That is very easy to say," said the girl scornfully. "Of one thing I am certain; there is no one on earth she would shield at my expense. Think what we have suffered while she fought through that terrible trial. She knows no one, loves no one on earth, but me and Mr. Alden." "I'm coming, I'm coming, darling." She took up her empty pail and ran. Chapter XXII THE EARTHLY PURGATORY