Harry Bernard remained over at the farm-house in New York State to see
Nell, who had been left in the care of Paul Ender. Nell had almost
entirely recovered from the shock of her recent treatment, and was
overjoyed at the outcome of her friends' visit to New York.

"Elliston will be convicted and hanged," was Bernard's verdict.

On the very day of Harry's arrival at the farm-house, he, with the old
farmer, was summoned to visit one who had met with a fatal accident
and was about to die.

It proved to be Martin Skidway, who lay on a barn floor with his head
in his mother's lap, gasping his life away, an ugly wound in his side.

He had accidentally shot himself and was rapidly sinking. A fugitive
in hiding for weeks, his life had been an intolerable one. Now that he
was dying, he made a full confession, admitting his own hand in the
awful railroad crime, and implicating two others, Elliston and Nick
Brower. Sam Swart had been one of them, but he was known to be dead.

"Without HIS urging I would never have stained my hands; in fact, it
was Elliston who struck the blow that killed the express messenger."

Without this confession, there was evidence enough to convict the New
Yorker; with it, both Brower and the principal were found guilty of
murder in the first degree and sentenced to the gallows. Nick Brower
was the only one of the four who expiated his crime on the gallows.
Harper Elliston died in prison by his own hand.

He left a note admitting the express crime, and also confessing to the