“Harold, this is false! Tell me it is false!”
“I wish to God it were, Bets. But you must keep your feelings under better control if you are to help me out of this miserable state of affairs.”
“You know it is false!” she implored. “I shall tell everybody it’s a lie! No one can know him and believe that.”
“You must remember that this all happened years ago, before you and I were born.”
“But, his life now! Oh, Harold, you don’t believe this! Tell me it isn’t true!”
“I’ve been almost sweating blood over it since I discovered the truth. I’ve tried to find some other explanation or solution, but there is none other. Father is guilty of the crime for which Adoniah Phillips was made to suffer. 324 I don’t know how they got hold of his true name, for he was going under an assumed one over there. But they did, and the worst of it is, the old trader’s wife is here in the city right now. She is on Father’s track. I’ve been staving her off, but she smells a rat in the fact that I bear his name, and I can’t hold her much longer from locating him.”
“No! No! You shall not tell me that Father is a criminal! You must take back that awful word about him!”
Harold groaned, and settled back into his chair. The girl fell back into hers, and covered her face with trembling hands. She sprang suddenly to her feet and to her brother’s side.
“Father was never in Australia! He made his money trading in Africa. We’ve heard him say that many times, and I believe him. I shall not believe those papers. They are blackmail.”
“Then, I must go on alone. My temptation was to cover this up, but, Bets, I can’t. I had hoped that you’d go through it with me, for it’s going to be a mighty dirty mess to 325 clean up. But if you persist in believing Father’s story instead of mine–––”