“By God, sir, there’s only one meaning that I can guess.  You, sir, what’s wrong? Are you to blame?”

I faced him fairly now.  “I am so accused by her,” I answered slowly.

“What! What!” He stood as though frozen.

“I shall not lie about it.  It is not necessary for me to accuse a girl of falsehood.  I only say, let us have this wedding, and have it soon.  I so agreed with Miss Grace last night.”

The old man sprang at me like a maddened tiger now, his eyes glaring about the room for a weapon.  He saw it—­a long knife with ivory handle and inlaid blade, lying on the ledge where I myself had placed it when I last was there.  Doctor Bond sprang between him and the knife.  I also caught Colonel Sheraton and held him fast.

“Wait,” I said.  “Wait!  Let us have it all understood plainly.  Then let us take it up in any way you Sheratons prefer.”

“Stop, I say,” cried the stern-faced doctor—­as honest a man, I think, as ever drew the breath of life.  He hurled his sinewy form against Colonel Sheraton again as I released him.  “That boy is lying to us both, I tell you.  I say he’s not to blame, and I know it.  I know it, I say.  I’m her physician.  Listen, you, Sheraton—­you shall not harm a man who has lied like this, like a gentleman, to save you and your girl.”

“Damn you both,” sobbed the struggling man.  “Let me go!  Let me alone!  Didn’t I hear him—­didn’t you hear him admit it?” He broke free and stood panting in the center of the room, we between him and the weapon.  “Harry!” he called out sharply.  The door burst open.

“A gun—­my pistol—­get me something, boy!  Arm yourself—­we’ll kill these—­”

“Harry,” I called out to him in turn.  “Do nothing of the sort!  You’ll have me to handle in this.  Some things I’ll endure, but not all things always—­I swear I’ll stand this no longer, from all of you or any of you.  Listen to me.  Listen I say—­it is as Doctor Bond says.”

So now they did listen, silently.

“I am guiltless of any harm or wish of harm to any woman of this family,” I went on.  “Search your own hearts.  Put blame where it belongs.  But don’t think you can crowd me, or force me to do what I do not freely offer.”

“It is true,” said Doctor Bond.  “I tell you, what he says could not by any possibility be anything else but true.  He’s just back home. He has been gone all summer.”

Colonel Sheraton felt about him for a chair and sank down, his gray face dropped in his hands.  He was a proud man, and one of courage.  It irked him sore that revenge must wait.

“Now,” said I, “I have something to add to the record.  I hoped that a part of my story could be hid forever, except for Miss Grace and me alone.  I have not been blameless.  For that reason, I was willing, freely—­not through force—­to do what I could in the way of punishment to myself and salvation for her.  But now as this thing comes up, I can no longer shield her, or myself, or any of you.  We’ll have to go to the bottom now.”