Before your trial I was convinced that you had killed my old friend, whom I was so keen to see again that I came up to town by the very first train after getting his letter.

You had robbed me of the only friend I had in England at the very moment when he needed me and I was on my way to him.

I could have saved his ship, and you had sent both him and it to the bottom! That, I say candidly, was what I thought." "I don't blame you for thinking it before the trial," said Rachel.

"It seems to have been the universal opinion." "I formed mine for myself, and I had a particular reason for forming it," continued Steel, with a marked vibration in his usually unemotional voice.

"I don't know which to tell you first....