“It’s true! Even he will not deny it. Old Leslie thought him crazy––then. It was different when he came back and accused me! He had been shipwrecked with Genevieve. They were alone together all those weeks, and so one can––” Ashton checked himself. “No, you must not think––He saved her. When they came back he claimed the bridge as his own––those lost plans.”
“His plans? So that was it! And you––?”
“Of course they believed him. What was my word against his with Genevieve and Leslie. Leslie’s consulting engineer was an old pal of Blake’s. So of course I––I’ll say though that Blake agreed to put it that I had only borrowed his idea of the central span.”
“That was generous of him, if he really believed––”
“Did he?––did Genevieve? Do they believe it now? You see why I must go away.”
“I don’t any such thing,” rejoined the girl.
“You don’t?” he exclaimed. “When they are 135 coming here, believing I did it! They must believe it, all of them! And my father––after all this time––They agreed not to tell him. Yet he has found out. That letter, up at the waterhole––it was from his lawyers. He had cut me off––branded me as an outcast.”
“Without waiting to hear your side––without asking you to explain? How unjust! how unfair!” cried Isobel.
Ashton winced. “I––I told you I––my record was against me. But I was his son––he had no right to brand me as a––a thief! My valet read the letter. He must have told the guide––the scoundrels!”
Tears of chagrin gathered in the young man’s dark eyes. He bit his lip until the blood ran.