It was a double joy. Not only would Rachel be cleared for ever before
the world, but her husband would stand exonerated at her side. The day
of unfounded suspicions, of either one of them, by the other or by the
world, that day at least was over once for all.
Her heart was too full for many explanations; she lingered while
Langholm told of his interview with Abel, and then left him to one with
her husband alone.
Langholm thereupon spoke more openly of his whole case against Steel,
who instantly admitted its strength.
"But I owe you an apology," the latter added, "not only for something I
said to you this afternoon, more in mischief than in malice, which I
would nevertheless unsay if I could, but for deliberately manufacturing
the last link in your chain. I happened to buy both my revolvers and
Minchin's from a hawker up the country; his were a present from me; and,
as they say out there, one pair was the dead spit of the other. This
morning when I found I was being shadowed by these local heroes, it
occurred to me for my own amusement to put one of my pair in a
thoroughly conspicuous place, and this afternoon I could not resist
sending you to the room to add it to your grand discoveries.
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