A gesture, but whether of assent or dissent I could not tell.

"We know of no other person who was there but the men employed."

_"What do you know?"_

With all her restraint gone--a suffering and despairing woman, Mrs.
Ocumpaugh was on her knees, grasping my arm with both hands.

"Quit this torture! tell me that you know it all and leave me
to--to--die!"

"Madam!"

I was confounded; and as I looked at her face, strained back in wild
appeal, I was more than confounded, I was terrified.

"Madam, what does this mean? Are you--you--"

"Lock the door!" she cried; "no one must come in here now. I have said
so much that I must say more. Listen and be my friend; oh, be my friend!
_Those were my footsteps you saw in the bungalow. It was I who carried
Gwendolen into that secret hole._"

XXI

PROVIDENCE

Had I suspected this? Had all my efforts for the last half-hour been for
the purpose of entrapping her into some such avowal? I do not know. My
own feelings at the time are a mystery to me; I blundered on, with a
blow here and a blow there, till I hit this woman in a vital spot, and
achieved the above mentioned result.

I was not happy when I reached it. I felt no elation; scarcely any
relief. It all seemed so impossible. She marked the signs of incredulity
in my face and spoke up quickly, almost sharply:

"You do not believe me. I will prove the truth of what I say.
Wait--wait!"--and running to a closet, she pulled out a drawer--where
was her weakness now?--and brought from it a pair of soiled white
slippers. "If the house had been ransacked," she proceeded pantingly,
"these would have told their own tale. I was shocked when I saw their
condition, and kept my guests waiting till I changed them. Oh, they will
fit the footprints." Her smile was ghastly. Softly she set the shoes
down. "Mrs. Carew helped me; she went for the child at night. Oh, we are
in a terrible strait, we two, unless you will stand by us like a
friend--and you will do that, won't you, Mr. Trevitt? No one else knows
what I have just confessed--not even Doctor Pool, though he suspects me
in ways I never dreamed of. Money shall not stand in the way--I have a
fortune of my own now--nothing shall stand in the way, if you will have
pity on Mrs. Carew and myself and help us to preserve our secret."

"Madam, what secret? I pray you to make me acquainted with the whole
matter in all its details before you ask my assistance."

"Then you do no