"Tera," said Jack, as they drew near Mr. Johnson's house, "you must tell the parson chap how you tricked Rachel."
"Aué," wept Tera, "he will be cross with me. I don't want to."
"You must," insisted her lover; "we must put our heads together and find out the truth somehow. We must clear Mayne. After getting that money out of Rachel, it is the least you can do to make it up to her."
The girl clapped her hands. "You will keep the money, then, Jack?"
"H'm! that depends upon Rachel. I'll place you in the psalm-singer's charge first. Then I'll go and see Rachel."
The minister was absent for the moment, but he was expected to return shortly. Mrs. Johnson, however, received Tera, though with no very good grace. She knew that the girl had refused to marry her son, and had involved him in great trouble by her secret flight. As a mother, and more particularly as a woman, she would have refused admittance to the fugitive; but she was also a Christian, and it was her duty to forgive. So it was arranged that Tera should occupy her old room. Leaving her, then, in charge of Mrs. Johnson and the ubiquitous and ever-faithful Tolai, Jack, after promising to return in a couple of hours, set out for Bethdagon to see Rachel. His errand was not a pleasant one. But it was necessary and right that Rachel should be undeceived, that Tera's trickery should be made known to her, and the money, which through it had been forthcoming, restored.
Rachel had returned home in a state of mind easier to imagine than to describe. After the graphic story narrated by Tera, she fully believed that the girl, giving rein to the savage instincts of her nature, had murdered Zara to protect herself from pursuit. She could not decide what to do, for, anxious as she was to save Herbert, she could not bring herself to denounce the native girl. After all, she was a savage, and did not regard murder with any great abhorrence. From her point of view she was less guilty than a European would have been. Rachel said nothing to Herbert of the information she had received as value for her five hundred pounds. She did not even mention the fact to her father: she sat down alone to consider what course she should take. Before she could decide, her cousin arrived and informed her of the trick which Tera had played upon her. She was naturally sceptical.
"But Tera told me the details," she insisted; "how she got the cord from Mr. Johnson's study, how she met Zara for the second time, and how she hid the body in the field."
"I know, Rachel. Tera let herself go in fine style, I've no doubt, but only to get your money. She saw Zara only once, and that was when they changed dresses. The rest of the yarn is all her own!"
"Are you sure. Jack? Can you trust her?"