It was Herrick who made answer.

“I have the necessary proofs,” he said quietly.  He had crossed to a bureau in the corner of the room, and now returned with a packet of papers in his hand.

“These,” he pursued, “are from my brother Colin, who is farming in Australia.  He was a good many years my senior—­and I’ve always understood that he was a bit of a ne’er-do-well in his younger days.  Ultimately, he enlisted in the Army as a Tommy, and in that scrap on the Indian Frontier he was close behind Maurice and saw the whole thing.  He got badly wounded then, and was dangerously ill for some time afterwards, so it happened that he knew nothing about the court-martial till it was all over.  When he recovered, he wrote to Maurice, offering his evidence, and”—­smiling whimsically across at Kennedy—­“received a haughty letter in reply, assuring him that he was mistaken in the facts and that the writer did not dispute the verdict of the court.  My brother rather suspected some wild-cat business, so before he went to Australia, some years later, he placed in my hands properly witnessed documents containing the true facts of the matter, and it was only when, through Mrs. Durward, we learned that Maurice had been cashiered from the Army, that the connection between that and the Frontier incident flashed into my mind as a possibility.  I had heard that the Durwards’ name had been originally Lovell—­and I began to wonder if Garth Trent’s name had not been originally”—­with a glint of humour in his eyes—­“Maurice Kennedy!  Here’s my brother’s letter”—­passing it to Sara, who was standing next him—­“and here’s the document which he left in my care.  I’ve had ’em both locked away since I was seventeen.”

Sara’s eyes flew down the few brief lines of the letter.

“Evidently the young fool wishes to be thought guilty,” Colin Herrick had written.  “Shielding his pal Lovell, I suppose.  Well, it’s his funeral, not mine!  But one never knows how things may pan out, and some day it might mean all the difference between heaven and hell to Kennedy to be able to prove his innocence—­so I am enclosing herewith a properly attested record of the facts, Miles, in case I should send in my checks while I’m at the other side of the world.”

As a matter of fact, however, Colin still lived and prospered in Australia, so that there would be no difficulty in proving Maurice’s innocence down to the last detail.

“Do you mean,” Sara appealed to Miles incredulously, “do you mean—­that there were these proofs—­all the time?  And you—­you knew?”

“Herrick wasn’t to blame,” interposed Maurice hastily, sensing the horrified accusation in her tones.  “I forbade him to use those papers.”

“But why—­why——­”

Miles looked at her and a light kindled in his eyes.

“My dear, you’re marrying a chivalrous, quixotic fool.  Maurice refused to let me show these proofs because, on the strength of his promise to shield Geoffrey Lovell, Elisabeth had married and borne a son.  Not even though it meant smashing up his whole life would he go back on his word.”