My heart swelled up.
“Tell me it’s not true, sir! For God’s sake, tell me it’s not true!” was all I could say to him.
He never answered—oh me! he never answered, and he turned away his face.
There was one dreadful moment of silence. He still held his arms round my neck, and on a sudden he put his lips close to my ear.
“Did you get your money out?” he whispered. “Were you in time on Saturday afternoon?”
I broke free from him in the astonishment of hearing those words.
“What!” I cried out loud, forgetting the third person at the window. “That man who brought the message—”
“Hush!” he said, putting his hand on my lips. “There was no better man to be found, after the officers had taken me—I know no more about him than you do—I paid him well as a chance messenger, and risked his cheating me of his errand.”
“You sent him, then!”
“I sent him.”