But I understand you are a doctor ?" "I was pretty well known in London." "Then," Harding asked bluntly, "what brought you to Sweetwater ?" "If you haven't heard, I may as well tell you, because the thing isn't a secret at the settlement." Clarke turned and his eyes rested on Blake.

"I'm by no means the only man who has come to Canada under a cloud.

There was a famous police-court affair that I figured in.
Nothing was proved against me, but my practise afterward fell to bits.
As a matter of fact, I was absolutely innocent of the offense.

I had acted without much caution, out of pity, and laid myself open to an attack that was meant to cover the escape of the real criminal." Blake thought he spoke the truth, and he felt some sympathy; but Clarke went on: "In a few weeks I was without patients or friends; driven out from the profession I loved and in which I was beginning to make my mark.

It was a blow that I never altogether recovered from; and the generous impulse which got me into trouble was the last that I ever yielded to." His face changed, growing hard and malevolent, and Blake now felt strangely repelled.