"I do not remember that he really expressed doubt," she answered, carefully."Not exactly that, but--""But what?" prompted Palford as she hesitated."Please try to recall exactly what he said.It is most important."The fact that his manner was almost eager, and that eagerness was not his habit, made her catch her breath and look more questioning and puzzled than before.
"One day he came to my sitting-room when he seemed rather excited,"she explained."He had been with Mr.Strangeways, who had been worse than usual.Perhaps he wanted to distract himself and forget about it.
He asked me questions and talked about poor Jem for about an hour.And at last he said, `Do you suppose there's any sort of chance that it mightn't be true--that story that came from the Klondike?' He said it so thoughtfully that I was startled and said, `Do you think there could be such a chance--do you?' And he drew a long breath and answered, `You want to be sure about things like that; you've got to be sure.' I was a little excited, so he changed the subject very soon afterward, and I never felt quite certain of what he was really thinking.You see what he said was not so much an expression of doubt as a sort of question."A touch of the lofty condemnatory made Mr.Palford impressive.
"I am compelled to admit that I fear that it was a question of which he had already guessed the answer," he said.
At this point Miss Alicia clasped her hands quite tightly together upon her knees.
"If you please," she exclaimed, "I must ask you to make things a little clear to me.What dreadful thing has happened? I will regard any communication as a most sacred confidence.""I think we may as well, Palford?" Mr.Grimby suggested to his partner.
"Yes," Palford acquiesced.He felt the difficulty of a blank explanation."We are involved in a most trying position," he said."We feel that great discretion must be used until we have reached more definite certainty.An extraordinary--in fact, a startling thing has occurred.We are beginning, as a result of cumulative evidence, to feel that there was reason to believe that the Klondike story was to be doubted--""That poor Jem--!" cried Miss Alicia.
"One begins to be gravely uncertain as to whether he has not been in this house for months, whether he was not the mysterious Mr.
Strangeways!"
"Jem! Jem!" gasped poor little Miss Temple Barholm, quite white with shock.
"And if he was the mysterious Strangeways," Mr.Grimby assisted to shorten the matter, "the American Temple Barholm apparently knew the fact, brought him here for that reason, and for the same reason kept him secreted and under restraint.""No! No!" cried Miss Alicia."Never! Never! I beg you not to say such a thing.Excuse me--I cannot listen! It would be wrong--ungrateful.
Excuse me!" She got up from her seat, trembling with actual anger in her sense of outrage.It was a remarkable thing to see the small, elderly creature angry, but this remarkable thing had happened.It was as though she were a mother defending her young.