The villain laughed heartlessly.
"Not so," he replied. "I hated her, but I would not have risked hanging for her sake. It was no fault of mine that she came to her death so tragically."
"Dead and buried these sixteen years," old Hugh moaned, wringing his feeble hands, and weeping as if the bereavement were but of yesterday. "John, tell me where to find my darling's grave."
"She lies in the bottom of the lake!" he replied, and those who watched him saw him shudder and turn pale for the first time.
"How came she there?" broke out Bertram Chesleigh.
"My sister was a somnambulist, Mr. Chesleigh. You will not deny that fact, father. She wandered from the house in her sleep, and walked deliberately into the lake."
"You saw her?"
"Yes, I was the only witness to the tragic deed," he replied, and again they saw a shudder shake his strong frame, and the chill dew beaded his forehead.
"Devil, you lie! You pushed her in!" cried Richard Leith, wild with rage and grief.
"Did you, John? Oh, tell me the truth," moaned his father.