"One word before you speak," said Maxwell, quietly. "As you know, I am going to marry Miss Pethram, and I promised her to find out the assassin of her father. Chance, in the person of your mother, placed in my hands a clue which led me to believe that Signor Ferrari had something to do with the crime----"
"Cospetto! what honour."
"Signor Ferrari, however," resumed Archie, quietly, "has proved his innocence, and in order to do so has unintentionally made out a very strong case against you, Mr. Belk. Whether you are guilty or not I do not know; but, you see, I have not informed the police about anything connected with the matter."
"And why, sir?"
"Because the clue was placed in my hands by your mother, and I would not have it on my conscience, however guilty you may be, to take advantage of the innocent betrayal of a son by his mother."
Mrs. Belk sobbed violently at this, and Belk, with a sudden flush, held out his hand, but drew it back at once.
"No, sir," he said, bluffly, "I won't give you my hand yet, till you've heard my story. I did get that diamond from the foreign gent as he says. He was trespassing, and I could have made things hot for him, but to get off he gave me the diamond."
"Do you think that was right, seeing Signor Ferrari is a foreigner and ignorant of English laws?" asked Maxwell.
"I don't say it was right, sir," replied Belk with a queer look; "and it was not altogether the trespass. There was something else I need not tell you of that made me take his diamond."
Mrs. Belswin darted a sudden look on both men, who were eyeing her jealously, and flushed a deep red; but Maxwell was so interested in Belk's story that he did not notice her perturbation, and signed to him to continue.