He had obtained leave to leave the city on a train that left at two in the afternoon, and had gone to the village of ——, only eighteen miles out.
He transacted his business, which concerned only his private interests, he said, and this much he could also say, “was connected with the events of his early life,” and returned to the city by the late train, which arrived about midnight.
On his way from the station to his lodgings he was obliged to pass Mr. Dalton’s house, where he saw, as already described, the light within one of the lower rooms.
He stated that his first impulse was to go for a police officer, but fearing the man—he had not thought there would be more than one—would be off with his booty before he could return, he resolved to remain, encounter the villain single-handed, and bring him to justice.
He then went on to describe his tussle with the two ruffians.
But he had only his own word with which to battle all the evidence against him. His story did not sound reasonable, the jury thought, particularly as he so persistently refused to state the nature of his business to the village of ——; and besides, the fact of the bracelet having been found in his possession, or what amounted to the same thing, was almost sufficient of itself to convict him.
“Earle, if you could only tell this business of yours, perhaps we might be able to do something for you; otherwise I see no chance,” Mr. Forrester had urged, when the opposing counsel had made such a point of his refusal to do so.
“I cannot, sir. It is connected with a great wrong committed years ago, and involves the name of my mother. I cannot unveil the past before the curious rabble gathered here—no, not even if I have to serve out a ten-years’ sentence for keeping silent,” Earle said, firmly, but with deep emotion.
Editha’s evidence—since she was the first to see and recognize him on the night of the robbery—went further than almost anything else toward condemning him, even though it was given with such reluctance, together with her oft-asserted belief that he was innocent.
The tender-hearted, loyal girl would rather have had her tongue paralyzed than to have been obliged to speak the words which so told against him.