g for his actions and
proffering a renewal of his friendship.

This message was duly received by Sommers, who, in addition to their
estrangement, appeared to be distressed about his own affairs, but
who, nevertheless, welcomed the repentant Bucholz with all the
cordiality of his disposition, and the coldness of the past few days
was forgotten in this renewal of their friendship.

CHAPTER XXIII.

_The Reconciliation._--_Bucholz makes an Important Revelation._--_Sommers
obtains His Liberty and leaves the Jail._

It is a truism almost as old as Time itself, that true love is never
fully known until after the lovers have once quarreled and made their
peace. The kiss of reconciliation after a temporary estrangement is
frequently more potent than the first declaration of affection.

Nor was the rule disproved in the present case, and as the two men
clasped hands upon the renewal of their seeming friendship, the
crisis of their intercourse was reached. The separation of the past
few days had shown Bucholz the necessity of a friendly voice and a
friendly hand. The guilty secret which he had been keeping so long in
his heart must find utterance--it had become heavy to bear. From this
day forth all the concealment which he had practiced upon Sommers
were to be swept away before the tide of this reconciling influence.
Hereafter they were to stand face to face, acknowledged criminals,
whose joint interest was to secure their liberty; whose only object
was to effect their escape from the meshes of the law they had
outraged, and which now seemed to envelop them so completely.

No protestations of innocence or acknowledgments of guilt were
necessary--the bedrock of an implicit and instinctive understanding
had been reached, and each looked upon the other as fellow prisoners
who were to suffer for their misdeeds, unless some potent agency
intervened for their preservation.

From the nature of their intercourse preceding this event, Sommers
did not entertain a single doubt of the guilt of William Bucholz. His
avoidance of the matter while in conversation; the confusion which
marked his demeanor as Sommers conveyed to him indirectly or
otherwise his belief that he knew more of the murder than he had as
yet admitted, and his weak denials--all went very far to confirm him
in the belief that William Bucholz, and him alone, was connected
intimately and actively with the tragedy.

At the interview which followed their reconc