“He brought the baby to me in the night. It was a boy about three months old, and even if he had dressed it in ragged and dirty clothes, I knew that it must have come from some family away up in life. It had the looks of an aristocrat.
“I obeyed orders, and carried that kid far away from New York. Up here in the country I left it in charge of an old woman for a month. That was to wait till all the hue and cry had died out, you see, and was according to my orders. Then I took the baby and left him at the poorhouse door!”
Again Ralph sighed. It seemed to him that he was in a trance. Smalling had allowed his head to fall forward upon his chest, as though he could hardly bear to look into the eyes of the lad he had injured so deeply.
“Oh! please go on! How did you know that I was taken by the Wests, and called Ralph? Tell me everything—I must know all, now!” pleaded the boy, with his voice quivering.
Smalling looked up.
“I’m going to tell everything now, Ralph, because I’m sorry I ever had a hand in this game. I can see now what that scoundrel was after, and how he used me as a tool. Even if I go to jail for it, I’m going to tell the truth!”
He brought his fist down upon his knee as he spoke in this manner.
“Three years afterward I just chanced to be up in these parts again for a little stay. To tell you the ugly truth, I was hiding from the police at that time. While here I remembered about that kid, and asked a few cautious questions. In that way I learned that the Wests had adopted you, and that they called you Ralph. And when I heard that they were a good family, and would treat you white, why, I just kinder let the thing slip out of my mind, believing that you’d be happy without ever knowing that they wasn’t your real parents.
“I admit that more’n once I tried to find that gent. Them times was when I was hard up and thought I might threaten him into giving me some more coin. But he seemed to have covered his tracks too well for me. I reckon I hunted New York all over thinking to see him, but it was no go. Now I suppose it was because he kept on the other side of the ocean most of the time.”
“Then you remember what he looked like, do you?” asked Ralph, eagerly.