"Do you believe it now?"
"If I didn't, do you think I'd have tried for a moment to conceal what he said to me?"
"Why did you conceal it?"
"Because Arthur Sloane was my friend, and his daughter's happiness would have been ruined if I'd thrown further suspicion on him. Besides, what I did conceal could have been of no value to any detective or sheriff on earth. It meant nothing, so long as I knew the boy's sincerity—and his innocence as well as Arthur's."
"But," Hastings persisted, "why all this concern for Webster, after his engagement had been broken?"
"How's that?" Wilton countered. "Oh, I see! The break wasn't permanent. Arthur and I had decided on that. We knew they'd get together again."
Hastings halted in front of the judge's chair.
"Have you kept back anything else?" he demanded.
"Nothing," Wilton said, with a return of his former sullenness. "And," he forced himself to the avowal, "I'm sorry I kept that back. It's nothing."