said, there was no room, and that it
would make a mess in the book.

"There is one more thing," I went on; "you say the mother of him you
seek was a great lady. Well, I saw the body of the mother of the boy
who was found, and it was that of a common person very roughly clad with
coarse underclothes and hands hard with labour, on which there was but
one ring, and that of silver. Here it is," and going to a drawer I took
from it a common silver ring which I once bought from a pedlar because
he worried me into it. "Lastly, gentlemen, the father of our lad was no
lord, unless in your country it is the custom of lords to herd sheep,
for the boy told me that in his own land his father was a shepherd,
and that he was travelling to some distant English colony to follow his
trade. That is all I have to say about it, though I am sorry that the
lad is not here to tell it you himself."

When he had heard this statement of mine, which I made in a cold and
indifferent voice, the young lord, Ralph's cousin, rose and stretched
himself, smiling happily.

"Well," he said, "there is the end of a very bad nightmare, and I am
glad enough that we came here and found out the truth, for had we not
done so I should never have been happy in my mind."

"Yes," answered the lawyer, the interpreter rendering their words all
the while, "the Vrouw Botmar's evidence is conclusive, though I shall
put her statement in writing and ask her to sign it. There is only one
thing, and that is the strange resemblance of the names," and he glanced
at him with his quick eyes.

"There are many Mackenzies in Scotland," answered Lord Glenthirsk, "and
I have no doubt that this poor fellow was a shepherd emigrating with his
wife and child to Australia or somewhere." Then he yawned and added, "I
am going outside to get some air before I sleep. Perhaps you will draw
up the paper for the good lady to sign."

"Certainly, my lord," answered the lawyer, and the young man went away
quite convinced.

After he had gone the lawyer produced pen and ink and wrote out the
statement, putting in it all the lies that I had told, and copying the
extract from the fly-leaf of the Bible. When he had done the interpreter
translated it to me, and then it was that the lawyer told me about
the last wishes of the dying lord, and how it would have cost him ten
thousand pounds and much business also had the tale proved true. Now
at last he gave me the paper to sign. Besides the candles