“She speaks the truth,” cried a mocking voice. “I saw the cowardly wretch push her over the rail! Ah, rejected love can sometimes turn a man into a fiend.” It was Mrs. Dunn. Her glance fixed itself boldly on Emmett Harlow, and every eye followed her look. Their glances seemed to transfix him with a basilisk stare. Was it true? Could he be such a monster? He turned burning red, then ghastly pale beneath their eyes, and cried out wildly: “Do you suspect me, friends, of so terrible a deed?” Italy cried out quickly: “It is not true. Emmett is my true friend. He would not harm one hair of my head.” Mrs. Dunn’s mocking laughter rose up over the shocked silence of the others. “No, not your friend--your rejected lover!” she exclaimed. “Your rejected lover maddened by despair, and so jealous that he would rather see you dead than won by another!” A hand fell suddenly on her arm, and the splendid eyes of Francis Murray looked sternly, rebukingly, into her own. He said earnestly: “Do not make this awful accusation against our young friend unless you are quite sure of your facts. Perhaps you have made a mistake.” Under his searching gaze she cowered and crimsoned. “I--I am certain I saw some one push Miss Vale,” she stammered. “Mr. Harlow was close by her side, and it looked like his arm that gave the push. But--there was such a crowd about them, and, of course, I might have been mistaken. Miss Vale ought to know best. If she thinks I am wrong, I do not wish to press the charge.” Her eyes fell, but under the lowered lids there was a greenish glitter of gratified hate, and beneath her demure look she was saying to herself: “I have punished Emmett Harlow. He has always despised me, in spite of his courteous manners. Now I have my revenge.” A bright glance of thanks flashed from Emmett’s boyish blue eyes upon Francis Murray. “I thank you, my friend, for your faith in me,” he cried, and they clasped hands. Then the older man looked confidently around him, saying cordially: “I believe Mrs. Dunn and Miss Vale were both mistaken in believing the accident was the result of murderous intention. Some one may have jostled Miss Vale, but I feel sure it was accidental.” Every one took his cue from him, and declared that it was certainly accidental; but Mrs. Dunn, when his back was turned, shrugged her plump shoulders and looked knowing. The excursion came to a premature end, for Italy had to be taken back at once to change her wet clothes. When back at The Lodge they all made light of the affair that had been for a few moments so terribly serious. Ralph would not discuss in earnest his sensations when Italy’s frantic clutch was dragging him down into deadly peril. He declared lightly that his chief anxiety was lest Alexie should be jealous of Italy’s frantic embrace.