Page:Under three flags; a story of mystery (IA underthreeflagss00tayliala).pdf/56

 "What on earth does she think?" meditates Ashley, who is becoming a trifle bewildered.

"I sometimes think it was his hand that struck down our poor father. But then he could have had no motive, and there was in my eyes a reason for his action which other people could not surmise."

"And yet that action seemed unexplainable?" hazards Ashley.

"To others, yes. It seemed perhaps a confession of guilt. But after what Helen told me I firmly believe that he has gone to search for her. And when he and Derrick Ames meet, I shudder to think of what may happen."

Ashley sees the light at last. So Ralph Felton was the favored suitor—Ralph Felton, whom nearly every one in Raymond regarded as a model young man, and who, despite his unaccountable flight, found plenty of people willing to explain it in a dozen charitable ways.

"You say that until lately Mr. Hathaway regarded Felton's attentions to your sister with favor. Had he any reason for suspending his approval?"

"I imagine so. During the last month or so he rarely spoke of him, and once, when his name was mentioned at table, he frowned."

"I suppose you know that the case looks black against Ames; that not half a dozen people in the town have a good word to say for him?"

"I do not care what is said against Derrick Ames. I am sure that he is innocent of any connection with my father's death. What he was to others I cannot say, but in the eyes of Helen and myself he was a noble-hearted young man, incapable of an unworthy thought or act."

"She pleads for him as if for a lover," thinks Ashley, regarding with admiration the girl before him. The flash in the blue eyes and the flush in the cheeks tell of warm sympathies and a loyal heart.

"Your sister never intimated to you the likelihood of an elopement?" Ashley inquires.

"Never. Had she a thought of such a thing I should have known it. We kept nothing from each other."

"You knew that they met clandestinely?"