went away, and said nothing about it. The crime was discovered next
morning, but no suspicion was fixed upon him, as no one had known of
his presence on the terrace that night.
COUNSEL FOR THE PROSECUTION.--But could you not denounce the man who
committed the crime?
BELK.--I did not know who he was--I never saw him before or since the
light fell on him through the window, until----
COUNSEL FOR THE PROSECUTION.--Until when?
BELK.--Until I saw him to-day.
There was a great sensation in court, and every one looked at one
another in astonishment, while a gleam of triumph flashed from the
eyes of the prisoner.
COUNSEL FOR THE PROSECUTION.--If you saw him to-day, as you say, do you
know his name?
BELK.--Yes.
COUNSEL FOR THE PROSECUTION.--And the name of this man who killed Sir
Rupert?
BELK.--The man who accuses the prisoner of the murder--the man you
call Dombrain.
If there was excitement before, there was ten times more excitement
now, and the crier found great difficulty in reducing all present to
silence. There was a sudden pause in the noise, and the prisoner,
raising her eyes to heaven, said in a solemn voice--
"It is true! I am innocent of this crime. He has fallen himself into
the pit he digged for another."
Yes, she was innocent, and the man who accused her guilty; but
when they looked for Dombrain, in order to arrest him, he had
disappeared--vanished into the depths of mighty London, when he heard
his name coupled with that of murder.
CHAPTER XXXV.
EXPIATION.
What fools are they who think God ever sleeps,
Or views their follies with a careless eye.
Fortune may heap her favours on their heads.
Blithe Pleasure lull them with her jingling bells,
And life for them be one long carnival;
But in their triumph of prosperity,
When all the smiling future seems serene,
God; frowning, stretches out His mighty arm,
And lo! the hungry grave gapes at their feet.
So Mrs. Belswin was delivered from her great peril, and was taken home
by Kaituna and her lover with great rejoicing. Maxwell, indeed, after
hearing the story of this woman, had hesitated for a moment as to
whether he ought to let her be with her daughter, seeing that she had
forfeited her maternal rights by her own act, but when he hinted this
to Kaituna she rebuked him with one sentence--
"She is my mother."
So Maxwell held his peace, and after Mrs. Belswin had been released
from her position of ignominy and shame, he had escorted both mother
and daughter to their lodgings. There he left them, and at Mrs.
Belswin's request, went to seek for Belk, and bring him there to
receive the thanks of the woman he had saved. Having departed on his
errand, Kaituna sat down beside her mother, in order to hear from her
own lips the story of her sad life.