"If you knew all this, why did you not denounce him at the time?" growled Sir Simon, who was feeling terribly scandalized by the whole thing.
"Because he had sailed for America before I had finished tracking it out."
"And you followed him there! And worried his life nearly out of him, trying to make your own game. I see now; I understand it all," added the aggrieved knight, his thoughts going back to the semi-explanations of Hopper's conduct and claims, given him by Mr. Trace.
"Anybody else would have done the same in my place, sir," was the self-excusing answer. "It was better for him that I should keep the affair hushed up, than proclaim it."
"And the Paradynes to have lain under the guilt all this while!" groaned Sir Simon. "What on earth did he do with the money?" he added, the problem striking him.
"Ah well, that's best known to himself," cried Hopper. "He had it. He went into ventures under another name, for one thing."
"Into ventures?"
"Speculations, and that," explained Hopper. "Lots of folks do the same nowadays, more than the world knows of. If successful, they grow into millionaires, and their friends can't make out how; if non-successful, there comes a smash. Ask him, sir, whether it's not all true that I have told you. I saw him come up that path a few minutes ago."
Sir Simon Orville had no need to ask. A conviction that the man did indeed speak truth was within him, sure and certain as a light of revelation. He followed Mr. Trace to his chamber and accused him, speaking quietly and sadly; and Mr. Trace finding that Hopper was below, felt scared out of his senses. The time for denial was past: Robert Trace, believing himself overtaken by the destiny that seemed so long to have been pursuing him, did not attempt to make any. Sir Simon, locked in with him, saw how it was—that the hunted man was, and had been all these years, at his ex-clerk's mercy.
"I never intended to accuse Paradyne," said Mr. Trace with abject lips. "Loftus got meddling with the accounts, a thing he had not done for years, and found something was wrong. For appearance sake, I was obliged to go through the books with him; and then to agree with him that fraud must be at work. It was Loftus who accused Paradyne; there was no one else whom it was possible to suspect; it was Loftus who ordered him to be taken into custody: and I could not say the man was innocent without betraying myself. Then came Paradyne's sudden death, and I let the onus of guilt rest upon him."