"I asked him to," replied Dean, quickly; "Mr. Alder has been a good friend to me all through."
"He has been a good friend to us all," said Edith, touching Arthur's hand. "Does Mr. Alder know who you are?"
"Yes. He had been present at my trial, you know, and, in spite of my altered appearance, he recognized me on one of his visits to the Hall. I begged him to keep my secret, and he did. I asked him to talk of me as guilty, so that I might be the more effectually concealed."
"I don't see how that would help you," interrupted Gebb, sharply.
"Why not? If Alder had gone about insisting that I was innocent, you might have suspected that he had seen me lately; while by stating what everybody believed, no questions would be asked."
"True enough," said Gebb, his brow clearing. "But I confess this disjointed information of yours puzzles me not a little. Suppose you tell us the whole story from the time you first masqueraded as Mad Martin."
"Certainly," assented Dean, readily. "I intended to do so, as I wish you to help me to establish my innocence. Also, I owe it to my son and Miss Wedderburn to relate things I formerly kept from them."
"We are all attention," said Edith, and leaned forward eagerly.
"When I was feigning madness at the Hall," said Dean, glancing at his three auditors, "I was wondering all the time how I could prove my innocence of Kirkstone's murder. One night, Mrs. Grix--who had found out my true name--told me that Miss Gilmar had written a confession of the crime; and--as she believed--had hidden it in the house. She gathered this from some words let fall by Miss Gilmar. Thenceforth it became the aim of my life to find that confession; but although I looked everywhere, I could not discover it. Then Mr. Alder came visiting at the Hall, as you know, Edith, and he guessed who I was. Feeling that I could not deceive him, I confessed that I was really Marmaduke Dean, and consulted him as to the possibility of proving my innocence. Alder scoffed at the idea of a confession being in existence, as he said if Miss Gilmar were guilty, she would not put the fact down in black and white. He advised me to consult Basson, who had been my counsel, and to see if I could not be cleared; but this I was afraid to do, lest Basson should hand me over to the police."
"Oh, he would never have done that," said Gebb, remembering the personality of Basson, "he is good nature itself."