"
"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.
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