And whatever may hap, I has as good mind to tell 'e." "That you are absolutely bound to do," I answered, as forcibly as I could.

"Duty to your former master and to me, his only child--and to yourself, and your Maker too--compel you, Jacob Rigg, to tell me every thing you know." "Then, miss," he answered, coming nearer to me, and speaking in a low, hoarse voice, "as sure as I stand here in God's churchyard, by all this murdered family, I knows the man who done it!" He looked at me, with a trembling finger upon his hard-set lips, and the spade in his other hand quivered like a wind vane; but I became as firm as the monument beside me, and my heart, instead of fluttering, grew as steadfast as a glacier.

Then, for the first time, I knew that God had not kept me living, when all the others died, without fitting me also for the work there was to do.
"Come here to the corner of the tower, miss," old Jacob went on, in his excitement catching hold of the sleeve of my black silk jacket.

"Where we stand is a queer sort of echo, which goeth in and out of them big tombstones.

And for aught I can say to contrairy, he may be a-watching of us while here we stand." I glanced around, as if he were most welcome to be watching me, if only I could see him once.