"You will never know how much you have comforted me," he said. "I did not do it, Peggy. I did not do it. Cherish that certainty as a support in the hard, dark days thou wilt be called to pass through."
"Waste no time in telling me what I know already as well as thou. Let us take counsel rather, while we may. Tell me first what do they say? What reason have they? What have they found, seen, imagined?"
"Not much, but enough; they know that I followed Father Mohl out into the night—that he was never seen after till he was found dead in the wood yonder."
"But how couldst thou have joined in a death struggle and brought home no trace of conflict?"
"When I came back I was torn with brambles and stained with blood—of a beast, I told them—but who could know if I spoke truth?"
It was characteristic of Neville to see his adversary's case more strongly than his own.
"This is all but a series of happenings. Any one might have met with the same disaster, and come to his death by an arrow from the bow of one of the natives."
"It was no arrow that did the deed. It was a knife—an English knife."
"Oh, I am so glad! now surely they can trace the murderer."