"
Then he went on to tell of how maddened he had been when he had
seen her talking to Major Mallett, and of the conversation he had
overheard in her father's garden, on the evening before she was
missing.
"I jumped at the conclusion at once, Miss Greendale, that it was
Captain Mallett, as he was then. He had been round saying goodbye
to the tenants that afternoon, and I knew that he was going abroad.
What could I suppose but that he had ruined my poor girl, and had
persuaded her to go out to join him in India? I waited for a time,
while they searched for the body I knew they would never find. My
own father and mother, in their hearts, thought that I had murdered
her in a fit of jealous rage. At last I made up my mind to enlist
in his regiment, to follow him to India, kill him, find her, and
bring her home."
"How dreadful!" the girl murmured.
"It was dreadful, Miss Greendale. I believe now that I must have
been mad at the time. However, I did it, but at the end failed.
Mercifully I was saved from being a murderer. As I told you, I was
badly wounded. I thought I was going to die, and the doctor thought
so, too. So I sent for Captain Mallett that I might have the
satisfaction of letting him know that it was I who fired the shot,
and that it was in revenge for the wrong that he had done Martha.
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