"Your brother will not speak," his uncle returned. "Don't you see you
must answer for yourself? Say, then: Are you the guilty man your father
thought you, or are you not? Let us hear, Joe."

"I am not!" avowed the young man, bowing his head in a sort of noble
shame that must have sent a pang of anguish through the heart of his
brother.

"Oh, I knew it, I knew it!" came from Edith's lips in a joyous cry, as
she bounded to his side and seized him by one hand, just as his sister
grasped the other in a burst of shame and contrition that showed how far
she was removed from any participation in the evil machinations of her
elder brother.

The sight seemed to goad Hartley Benson to madness. Looking from one to
the other, he uttered a cry that yet rings in my memory: "Carrie! Edith!
do you both forsake me, and all because of a word which any villain
might have uttered? Is this the truth and constancy of women? Is this
what I had a right to expect from a sister, a--a friend? Carrie, you at
least always gave me your trust,--will you take it away because a
juggling spy and a recreant brother have combined to destroy me?"

But beyond a wistful look and a solemn shake of the head, Carrie made no
response, while Edith, with her eyes fixed on the agitated countenance
of her lover, did not even seem to hear the words of pleading that were
addressed to her.

The shock of the disappointment was too much for Hartley Benson.
Clenching his hand upon his breast, he gave one groan of anguish and
despair and sank into a chair, inert and helpless. But before we could
any of us take a step toward him, before the eyes of the doctor and mine
could meet in mutual understanding, he had bounded again to his feet,
and in a burst of desperation seized the chair in which he sat, and held
it high above his head.

"Fools! dotards!" he exclaimed, his eyes rolling in frenzy from face to
face, but lingering longest on mine, as if there he read the true secret
of his overthrow, as well as the promise of his future doom. "You think
it is all over with me; that there is nothing left for you to do but to
stand still and watch how I take my defeat. But I am a man who never
acknowledges defeat. There is still a word I have to say that will make
things a little more even between us. Listen for it, you. It will not be
long in coming, and when you hear it, let my brother declare how much
enjoyment he will ever get out of his victory."

And whirling the chair