keep him from me!"

Sharpman began to fear that he had injured his cause by presenting the
case too strongly. At this rate the lady would soon believe, fully,
that her son had been saved and could be restored to her. With such a
belief in her mind the success of his scheme would be impossible. It
would never do to let her go on in this way; he began to remonstrate.

"But, madam, I am telling to you only what this man has told to me. I
have no means of proving his veracity, and his appearance, as I have
said, is against him. I have agreed to assist him only in case he is
able to establish, beyond question, the boy's identity. Thus far his
statements have not been wholly satisfactory."

Mrs. Burnham had grown more calm. The startling suddenness of
the proposition that Ralph was living had, for the time being,
overmastered her. Now she sank back into her chair, with pale face,
controlling her emotion with an effort, trying to give way to reason.

"What does he say?" she asked. "What is this old man's story?"

Sharpman repeated, in substance, old Simon's account of the rescue,
giving to it, however, an air of lightness and improbability that it
had not had before.

"It is possible," he added, "that the evidence you have of the child's
death is sufficient to refute this man's story completely. On what
facts do you rest your belief, if I am at liberty to ask?"

"The proofs," she replied, "have seemed to us to be abundant.