ar some accident has
overtaken him; but he'll come back yet as I'm a living man!"

She heard me like one dazed: her eyes were everywhere about the room,
as though seeking something she could not find. Presently she opened
the door with great caution, and was gone a minute or more. When she
returned she had a flask of spirits and some biscuits in her hand, and
this time, I noticed, she locked the door after her.

"Edmond is sleeping; they have sent Aunt Rachel to Tokio," she almost
whispered; "Benno, our servant, is to be trusted. I heard that you were
starving in the hills; but how could I help--how could I, Jasper? It
was madness for you to come here, and yet I am glad--so glad! And oh,"
she says, "we'll find a way; we'll find a way yet, Jasper!"

I poured some brandy from the flask, for I had need of it, and gulped
it down at a draught. Her vivacity was always a thing to charm a man;
as a girl she had the laughter and the spirits of ten.

"What shall we do, Jasper?" she kept on saying, "what shall we do next?
Oh, to think that it's you, to think that it is Jasper Begg in this
strange housel" she kept crying; "and no way out of it, no safety
anywhere! Jasper, what shall we do--what shall we do next?"

"We shall tell your husband, Miss Ruth," said I, "and leave the last
word with him. Why, think of it, five men cast adrift on his shore, and
they to starve. Is he devil or man that he refuses them food and drink?
I'll not believe it until I hear it. The lowest in humanity would never
do such a thing! Aye, you are judging him beyond ordinary when you
believe it. So much I make bold to say!"

I turned to the fire, and began to warm my fingers at it, while he, for
her part, drew up one of the silk-covered chairs, and sat with her
pretty head resting in a tired way between her little hands. All our
talk up to this time had been broken fragments; but this I judged the
time for a just explanation, and she was not less willing.

"Jasper," says she of a sudden, "have you read what I wrote in the
book?"

"To the last line," said I.

"And, reading it, you will ask Edmond to help you?"

"Miss Ruth," said I, "how shall one man judge another? Ships come to
this shore, and are wrecked on it. Now and then, perchance, there is
foul play among the hands. Are you sure that your husband has any part
in it--are you sure he's as bad as you think him?"

Well, instead of answering me, she stood up suddenly and let her dress
fall by