The words seemed to have a sobering effect on Captain Bayley. The blood seemed to die out of his face; he put one hand on a chair, as if to steady himself, while he looked fixedly in his nephew's face.
"Do you mean, Fred," he said, in a low voice, "do you mean that you have a doubt of Frank's innocence?"
"I should rather not say anything about it," Fred replied. "I hope with all my heart that Frank is not guilty, but——"
"What do you think?" Captain Bayley repeated; "have you any grounds whatever for believing him guilty?"
"No, sir, and I do not wish you to be in the slightest degree influenced by what I said." He paused, but Captain Bayley's eyes were still fixed upon him, as if commanding a complete answer.
"Well, sir," he went on hesitatingly, "I must own that, sad as it is to say so, I fear Frank did it."
"Did he confess it to you?" Captain Bayley asked, in a strained, strange voice.
"No, uncle, not in so many words, but he said things which seemed to me to mean that. When I tried to dissuade him from running away, and urged him to remain till his innocence could be proved, he said angrily, 'What's the use of talking like that, when you know as well as I do that it can't be proved.' Afterwards he said, 'It is a bad job, and I have been an awful fool. But who could have thought that note would ever be traced back to Litter?' and other remarks of the same kind. He may be innocent, uncle—you know how deeply I wish we could prove him so—but I fear, I greatly fear, that we shall be doing Frank more service by letting the matter drop. You know the fellows in the school all believe him innocent, and though his going away has staggered some of them, the general feeling is still all in his favour; therefore they are sure to speak of him as a sort of victim, and when he returns, which of course he will do in a few years' time, the matter will have died away and have been altogether forgotten."
The old officer sat down at the table and hid his face in his hands.
All this time Alice, pale and silent, had sat and listened with her eyes fixed upon the speaker, but she now leapt up to her feet.