Page:Under three flags; a story of mystery (IA underthreeflagss00tayliala).pdf/55

 should be in possession of every bit of knowledge obtainable concerning all the persons who have any bearing, near or remote, upon the case."

Miss Hathaway turns upon Ashley a pair of blue eyes in whose depths he can read naught but purity and honesty. "I fear I can tell you little," she says.

"Derrick Ames"

"Is innocent," she interrupts.

"I am of the same opinion. Derrick Ames and your sister were lovers?" She nods.

"Your father, I am told, strongly opposed the young man's attentions. There was a more favored suitor."

Miss Hathaway regards him with mild surprise. "You knew then"

"What I have come to ask you about more particularly," finishes Ashley, unblushingly, regarding his digression from the truth as a bit of diplomacy.

"I was not very well acquainted with him," avers Miss Hathaway, "although we have lived in the same town nearly all our lives. But father regarded him as a model young man, and until lately encouraged his attentions to Helen in every way."

"Now, who the deuce is she talking about?" wonders Ashley, who has simply chanced it in his assertion that there was a more favored suitor than Derrick Ames.

"I never fancied him, and Helen disliked him exceedingly," continues Miss Hathaway. "But the more she discouraged him the more persistent he became. One night Helen came to my room in tears. They had had a fearful scene, she stated. She should marry him or none, he had declared, and had made all sorts of wild threats."

"I did not know he was such a desperate character," remarks Ashley tentatively.

"I do not believe the people of this town knew what his true character was. Helen said he seemed to have torn off the mask that night and that his face was that of a demon. He was wild with rage and left the house with curses. I sometimes think" Miss Hathaway pauses and her face wears a troubled expression.