whatever for believing him guilty?"

"No, sir, and I do not wish you to be in the slightest degree influenced
by what I said." He paused, but Captain Bayley's eyes were still fixed
upon him, as if commanding a complete answer.

"Well, sir," he went on hesitatingly, "I must own that, sad as it is to
say so, I fear Frank did it."

"Did he confess it to you?" Captain Bayley asked, in a strained, strange
voice.

"No, uncle, not in so many words, but he said things which seemed to me
to mean that. When I tried to dissuade him from running away, and urged
him to remain till his innocence could be proved, he said angrily,
'What's the use of talking like that, when you know as well as I do that
it can't be proved.' Afterwards he said, 'It is a bad job, and I have
been an awful fool. But who could have thought that note would ever be
traced back to Litter?' and other remarks of the same kind. He may be
innocent, uncle--you know how deeply I wish we could prove him so--but I
fear, I greatly fear, that we shall be doing Frank more service by
letting the matter drop. You know the fellows in the school all believe
him innocent, and though his going away has staggered some of them, the
general feeling is still all in his favour; therefore they are sure to
speak of him as a sort of victim, and when he returns, which of course
he will do in a few years' time, the matter will have died away and have
been altogether forgotten."

The old officer sat down at the table and hid his face in his hands.

All this time Alice, pale and silent, had sat and listened with her eyes
fixed upon the speaker, but she now leapt up to her feet.

"Uncle," she said, "don't believe him, he is not speaking the truth, I
am sure he is not. He hates Frank, and I have known it all along,
because Frank is bigger and better than he; because Frank was generous
and kind-hearted; because every one liked Frank and no one liked him. He
is telling a lie now, and I believe every word he has said since he came
into the room is false."

"Hush! child," the old officer said; "you must not speak so, my dear. If
it was only the word of one lad against another, it would be different;
but it is not so. The proof is very strong against Frank. I would give
all I am worth if I could still believe him innocent, and had he come to
me and put his hand in mine, and said, 'Uncle, I am innocent,' I would
have believed him against all the evidence in the world. It is not I who
cond