more----"

Garrison interrupted, addressing Dorothy:

"They think they have discovered something important or vital in the
fact that I sometimes use the name Garrison. And they have managed to
steal an old letter----"

"I'll tell about the letter, if you please!" cried old Robinson
shrilly. He turned to Dorothy, who was very white. "There you are!"
he said, waving the letter before her face. "There's the letter from
his sweetheart--the woman he asked to become his wife! Here's her
acceptance, and her protestations of love. She is doubtless his wife
at this moment! Read it for yourself!"

He thrust it into Dorothy's hand with aggressive insistence.

Dorothy received it obediently. She hardly knew what she should say or
do to confute the old man's statements, or quiet his dangerous
suspicions. His arrival at the truth concerning herself and Garrison
had disconcerted her utterly.

Garrison did not attempt to take the letter, but he addressed her
promptly:

"I am perfectly willing to have you read the letter. It was written
over a year ago. It is Ailsa's letter. I told you I was once engaged
to Ailsa; that she married my friend, without the slightest warning;
that I had not destroyed her last letter. She never acquired the habit
of dating her letters, and therefore this one might appear to be a bit
of recent correspondence."

"A very pretty explanation!" cried old Robinson. "We'll see--we'll
see! Dorothy, read it for yourself!"

Dorothy was rapidly recovering her self-possession. She turned to her
uncle quite calmly, with the folded bit of paper in her hand.

"How did you come by this letter," she inquired. "You didn't really
steal it?"

Garrison answered: "The letter was certainly stolen. My suit-case was
rifled the night of my arrival at Branchville. These gentlemen hired a
thief to go through my possessions."

"I've been protecting my rights!" the old man answered fiercely. "If
you think you can cheat me out of my rightful dues you'll find out your
mistake!"

"I wouldn't have thought you could stoop to this," said Dorothy. "You
couldn't expect to shake my faith in Jerold."

She handed Garrison the letter to show her confidence.

Garrison placed it in his pocket. He turned on the Robinsons angrily.

"You are both involved in a prison offense," he said--"an ordinary,
vulgar burglary. I suppose you feel secure in the fact that for
Dorothy's sake I shall do nothing about it--to-day