Then Featherstone turned to Foster.  “I imagine we both dislike formal speeches and Lawrence, knowing this, means to smooth over our meeting.  For all that, there’s something to be said, and now, when the others are here, is the proper time.  When we got your telegram in England I was overwhelmed by gratitude and regret.  I saw, in fact, what a fool I had been.”  He paused with a gleam of amusement in his embarrassment.  “Indeed, I’m not sure that the recognition of my folly wasn’t the stronger feeling.  Now I’m half-ashamed to apologize for my ridiculous suspicions and must ask you to forget all about them if you can.”

“They were very natural suspicions, sir.  I couldn’t logically blame you and honestly don’t think I did.”

“Well,” said Featherstone, “it’s some comfort to reflect that my wife and daughter knew you better.  I’m glad to think you’re generous, because there is no amend I can make commensurate with the service you have done us.”

“In one sense, it was an excellent joke,” Lawrence remarked.  “While Jake was lurking in the bogs and putting up with much unpleasantness on my account, he was suspected of making away with me for the sake of an old traveling bag, which was all he could have got.  But don’t you think, sir, there was something characteristic about his telegram?  I mean the brief statement of his success.”

“My relief was so great that I did not criticize the wording, which I’m not sure I remember,” Featherstone replied.

Lawrence glanced at his mother.  “I expect you remember it.”

Mrs. Featherstone said nothing, but gave him a gentle, understanding smile.

Then Featherstone made Foster relate his last meeting with Daly on the train.  Foster had no wish to harrow the listeners’ feelings, but his memory was strangely vivid and he pictured the scene with unconscious dramatic power.  They saw it all, as he had seen it; the background of flitting trees and glimmering snow, the struggle on the rocking platform, while the icy wind screamed past the car, and the dark figure filling, for a moment, the gap in the rails.  Then they felt his thrill of horror when the gap was empty and Pete held up the torn necktie.  Foster concluded with Pete’s terse statement, “He just stepped back.”

“Into the dark!” said Alice softly and there was silence for the next few moments.

“He made us suffer,” Featherstone remarked.  “But he had pluck and boldly took the best way.  It is not for us to judge him now.”

Then Lawrence leaned forward with a flushed face.  “In the beginning, I made you suffer, and it might have been better if I had openly paid for my fault.  We’ll let that go; but there’s something yet to be said.”  He stopped and looked at the others with badly suppressed emotion.  “That I have escaped a fate like Daly’s is due to the love and trust that was given me in spite of my offense, and my partner’s unselfish loyalty.”