m the
lips of the dying man on Number 25; it was an accusation of crime
against another man as well; and the confession and accusation both had
been made, not only to gain forgiveness from God, but to right terrible
wrongs. If the confession left some things unexplained, it did not
lack confirmation; the priest had learned enough to be certain that it
was no hallucination of madness. He had been charged definitely to
repeat what had been told him to the persons he was now going to meet;
so he watched expectantly as the _Ste. Marie_ made its landing. A
train of freight cars was upon the ferry, but a single passenger coach
was among them, and the switching engine brought this off first. A
tall, handsome man whom Father Perron thought must be the Mr. Sherrill
with whom he had communicated appeared upon the car platform; the young
man from Number 25 followed him, and the two helped down a young and
beautiful girl.

They recognized the priest by his dress and came toward him at once.

"Mr. Sherrill?" Father Perron inquired.

Sherrill assented, taking the priest's hand and introducing his
daughter.

"I am glad to see you safe, Mr. Stafford." The priest had turned to
Alan. "We have thanks to offer up for that, you and I!"

"I am his son, then! I thought that must be so."

Alan trembled at the priest's sign of confirmation. There was no shock
of surprise in this; he had suspected ever since August, when Captain
Stafford's watch and the wedding ring had so strangely come to
Constance, that he might be Stafford's son. His inquiries had brought
him, at that time, to St. Ignace, as Father Perron's had brought him
now; but he had not been able to establish proof of any connection
between himself and the baby son of Captain Stafford who had been born
in that town.

He looked at Constance, as they followed the priest to the motor which
was waiting to take them to the house of old Father Benitot, whose
guest Father Perron was; she was very quiet. What would that grave
statement which Father Perron was to make to them mean to him--to Alan?
Would further knowledge about that father whom he had not known, but
whose blood was his and whose name he now must bear, bring pride or
shame to him?

A bell was tolling somewhere, as they followed the priest into Father
Benitot's small, bare room which had been prepared for their interview.
Father Perron went to a desk and took therefrom some notes which he had
made. He did not