to tell me what was the truth. I know it now. There was a
deeper, a truer truth under everything. That was why you had to do as
you did. That's why everything was so. I wasn't innocent. Things don't
_happen_ as those things did. They work out, because they have to."

The girl was watching him with fright and wonder in her eyes. What was
he going to say? But she let him go on.

"No, I wasn't innocent," he said, as though to himself now. "I fooled
myself into thinking that I was. But I was not. I meant to kill a man.
I had meant to for a long time. Nothing but Rafe Gadbeau's quickness
prevented me. No, I wasn't innocent. I was guilty in my heart. I was a
murderer. I was guilty. I was as guilty as Rafe Gadbeau! As guilty as
Ca--!"

The girl had suddenly sprung forward and thrown her arms around his
neck. She caught the word that was on his lips and stopped it with a
kiss, a kiss that dared the onlooking world to say what he had been
going to say.

"You shall not say that!" she panted. "I will not let you say it!
Nobody shall say it! I defy the whole world to say it!"

"But it's--it's true," said the boy brokenly as he held her.

"It is not true! Never! Nothing's true, only the truth that God has
hidden in His heart! And that is hidden! How can we say? How dare we
say what we would have done, when we didn't do it? How do we know
what's really in our hearts? Don't you see, Jeffrey boy, we cannot say
things like that! We don't know! I won't let you say it.

"And if you do say it," she argued, "why, I'll have to say it, too."

"You?"

"Yes, I. Do you remember that night you were in the sugar cabin? I was
outside looking through the chinks at Rafe Gadbeau. What was I
thinking? What was in my heart? I'll tell you. I was out there
stalking like a panther. I wanted just one thing out of all the world.
Just one thing! My rifle! To kill him! I would have done it
gladly--with joy in my heart! I could have sung while I was doing it!

"Now," she gasped, "now, if you're going to say that thing, why, we'll
say it together!"

The big boy, holding the trembling girl closer in his arms, understood
nothing but that she wanted to stand with him, to put herself in
whatever place was his, to take that black, terrible shadow that had
fallen on him and wrap it around herself too.

"My poor little white-souled darling," he said through tears that
choked him, "I can't take this from you! It's too much, I can't!"

After a little the