"What boy?" asked Rudolph, vacantly.
"You know very well. Robert Middleton, my husband's cousin, whom you stole away when he was scarcely more than an infant."
"Can you prove what you say, Miss Vincent—I mean Mrs. Middleton?"
"Yes. It is idle to beat about the bush. My husband has told me all."
"Then he has told you that he hired me to carry the boy off, in order that he might inherit the estate?"
The tramp looked searchingly in the lady's face as he said this.
"Yes, he told me that," she answered, composedly.
"Well, I didn't think he'd own up to that," said the tramp, in surprise.
"My husband and I had no secrets," said the lady, coldly.