I will admit that I had a suspicion
concerning you."
"A suspicion concerning me!" exclaimed the stranger.
"Yes."
"What suspicion did you indulge?"
"I looked upon you as an enemy of the girl."
"And that is why you first deceived me as to her appearance?"
"Yes."
"I am not her enemy."
"I trust you are not, and I must be convinced that you are
not."
"What first led you to set me down as an enemy?"
"Shall I speak plainly?"
"Yes."
"The strange anxiety you showed concerning a certain
mysterious box, especially after I had spoken of jewels and
gems."
A peculiar smile flitted over the stranger's face, and after a
moment's thoughtfulness, he said:
"Surrender the box to me intact, and I will pay you as a
reward the money value of all the jewels and gems you may find
in it."
"Why are you so anxious to secure the box?"
"It contains proofs of the identity of the girl."
"And when her identity is established?"
"She will come into her rights."
"You know she has been debarred of certain rights?"
"Yes."
"How is it you have let her remain here so many years?"
"I believed her dead."
"When did you hear that she was living?"
"I was summoned a few weeks ago to the dying bed of a
notorious criminal. The dying man told me that he had been
employed to run away with my child."
"Ah!" interrupted the detective, "you are Renie's father?"
"The girl is my child."
"And you have all along believed her dead."
"I have all along believed her dead; but the dying man told me
that she still lived, that he had placed the infant in charge
of a fisherman's wife named Pearce.
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