this dreadful occurrence have upset you. I do not wonder
at it myself, but the doctor will not so readily understand you. Miss
Underhill has been strangely attached to my brother," he went on,
turning to the latter with an apologetic smile that made Uncle Joe grind
his teeth in silent wrath. "They were engaged previous to the affair of
which I have just made mention, and naturally she could never bring
herself to consider him guilty of a crime which, once acknowledged, must
necessarily act as a bar of separation between them. She calls him a
martyr, a victim, an exile, any thing but what he actually is. Indeed,
she seems really to believe in his innocence, while we,"--he paused and
looked up at his sister Carrie who had entered the room,--"while we," he
went on slowly and sadly, taking this new ally softly by the hand, "know
only too well that the unhappy boy was in every respect guilty of the
crime for which his father exiled him. But that is neither here nor
there; the dreadful subject before us is not what he once did, but
whether his being here to-night has had any thing to do with my
father's death. I cannot think it has, and yet----"

The subtle inflection of his voice spoke volumes. This great actor had
evidently been driven to bay.

"O Hartley!" came in a terrified cry from his sister; "what is this? You
cannot think, they cannot think, Joe could do any thing so dreadful as
that?" while over the face of Edith passed a look of despair, as she saw
the countenance of the doctor slowly fill with the gloom of suspicion,
and even the faithful Uncle Joe turn away as if he too had been touched
by the blight of a secret doubt.

"Ah, but I wish Joe were here himself!" she cried with startling
emphasis. "He should speak, even if it brought ruin amongst us."

But the doctor was a man not to be moved by so simple a thing as a
woman's unreasoning emotion.

"Yes, the Yellow Domino would be very welcome just now," he allowed,
with grim decision.

"That he is not here is the most damning fact of all," Hartley slowly
observed. "He fled when he saw our father fall."

"But he shall come back," Edith vehemently declared.

"If he does, I shall need no further proof of his innocence," said Uncle
Joe.

"Nor I, so that he comes to-night," returned the doctor.

"Then be satisfied, for here he is," I exclaimed from my retreat; and
drawing the mask over my face, and hastily enveloping myself in the
yellow domino, I stepped for