“There is something strangely mysterious in this.  I am willing to do anything and everything, in reason and without dishonor, for the safety of my nephew; the more particularly as I believe him altogether innocent of the crime laid to his charge.  More than this I dare not; and I shall not be willing to yield to unknown conditions, prescribed by a stranger, whatever be the object:  but speak out at once, sir, and keep us no longer in suspense.  In the meantime, retire, Edith, my child; we shall best transact this business in your absence.  You will feel too acutely the consideration of this subject to listen to it in discussion.  Go, my daughter.”

But the stranger interposed, with a manner not to be questioned:—­

“Let her remain, Colonel Colleton; it is, indeed, only to her that I can reveal the mode and the conditions of the assistance which I am to offer.  This was the preliminary condition of which I spoke.  To her alone can my secret be revealed, and my conference must be entirely with her.”

“But, sir, this is so strange—­so unusual—­so improper.”

“True, Colonel Colleton; in the ordinary concerns, the everyday offices of society, it would be strange, unusual, and improper; but these are not times, and this is not a region of the world, in which the common forms are to be insisted upon.  You forget, sir, that you are in the wild abiding-place of men scarcely less wild—­with natures as stubborn as the rocks, and with manners as uncouth and rugged as the woodland growth which surrounds us.  I know as well as yourself that my demand is unusual; but such is my situation—­such, indeed, the necessities of the whole case, that there is no alternative.  I am persuaded that your nephew can be saved; I am willing to make an effort for that purpose, and my conditions are to be complied with:  one of them you have heard—­it is for your daughter to hear the rest.”

The colonel still hesitated.  He was very tenacious of those forms of society, and of intercourse between the sexes, which are rigidly insisted upon in the South, and his reluctance was manifest.  While he yet hesitated, the stranger again spoke: 

“The condition which I have proposed, sir, is unavoidable, but I ask you not to remove from hearing:  the adjoining room is not so remote but that you can hear any appeal which your daughter may be pleased to make.  Her call would reach your ears without effort.  My own security depends, not less than that of your nephew, upon your compliance with the condition under which only will I undertake to save him.”

These suggestions prevailed.  Suspecting the stranger to be one whose evidence would point to the true criminal, himself an offender, he at length assented to the arrangement, and, after a few minutes’ further dialogue, he left the room.  As he retired, the stranger carefully locked the door, a movement which somewhat alarmed the maiden; but the respectful manner with which he approached her, and her own curiosity not less than interest in the progress of the event, kept her from the exhibition of any apprehensions.