"Is that the truth--the real truth?"
"It's the absolute truth!" she answered, regarding him steadily. "I'm
not altogether a good sort, nor a very bad sort, but I'm telling you the
real truth in that. It was a sheer accident--he stepped off the parapet
and fell. Martin went into the base of the tower and came back saying he
was dead. We were both dazed--we separated. He went off to the house--I
went to my father by a roundabout way. We decided to let things take
their course. You all know a great deal of what happened. But--later--my
husband and Martin began to take certain things into their own hands.
They put me on one side. To this minute, I don't quite know how much my
father got into their secrets or how little, but I do know that they
determined to make what you might call a purse for themselves out of
Scarhaven. Martin left certain powers in his brother's hands and went
off to London. He was there, hidden, until Andrius got all ready for a
flight on the _Pike_. Then he set off to Scarhaven, to join her. But he
didn't join her, and none of us knew what had become of him until today,
when we heard of what had been found at Scarhaven. That explained it--he
had taken that short cut from the Northborough road through the woods
behind the Keep, and fallen over the cliff at the Hermit's steps. But
that very night, you, Mr. Vickers, and Mr.
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