"
"But was this Hatchie? Are you quite sure it was Hatchie?" asked Emily,
with much anxiety; for she felt keenly the loss of her slave-friend.
"My investigations this morning proved it to be so. He is missing, and
the appearance of the thief corresponded to his size and form. I am now
satisfied, though I did not suspect it at the time, that he was the man
upon whom I fired."
"But Hatchie was always honest and faithful," said Emily.
"So he was, and I must share your surprise," returned Jaspar.
"There is a possibility that it was not he," suggested Mr. Faxon.
"There can be no doubt," said Jaspar, sharply. "The evidence is
conclusive."
"No doubt!" repeated Mr. Faxon, with a penetrating glance into the eye
of Jaspar, whose apparent anxiety to settle the question had roused his
first suspicion. "He was, if I mistake not, the only servant of your
household who was on the estate at the time of Miss Dumont's birth?"
"He was, I believe," replied Jaspar, with a coolness that belied the
anxiety within him.
"Were you _alone_ when you shot him, Mr.
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