feeling was satisfaction.
' I am glad I have given him a lesson,' he muttered to himself, ' and have paid him off for months of insolence. He won't try it on again, and as for his threats, pooh! he'll be gone in a few weeks, and there will be an end of it.'
After he had gone Mrs. Mulready tried to sooth Ned, but the boy would not listen to her, and in fact did not seem to hear her.
' Don't you mind, mother,' he said in a strange quiet
voice, 'I will pay him off;' and muttering these words over and over again he went out into the hall, took down his cap in a quiet mechanical sort of way, put it on, opened the door, and went out.
' Oh' Charlie,' Mrs. Mulready said to her second son, who, sobbing bitterly, had thrown himself down in a chair by the table, and was sitting with his head on his hands, ' there will be something terrible come of this! Ned's temper is so dreadful, and my husband was wrong, too. He should never have beaten him so, though Ned did say such things to him. What shall I do? these quarrels will be the death of me. I suppose Ned will be wandering about all night again. Do put on your cap, Charlie, and go out and see if you can find him, and persuade him to come home and go to bed; perhaps he will listen to you.'
Charlie was absent an hour, and returned saying that he could not find his brother.
' Perhaps he's gone up to Varley as he did last time,' Mrs. Mulready said. ' I am sure I hope he has, else he will be wandering about all night, and he had such a strange look in his face that there's no saying where he might go to, or what he might do.'
Charlie was almost heart-broken, and sat up till long-past his usual time waiting for his brother's return. At last his eyes would no longer keep open, and he stumbled up stairs to bed, where he fell asleep almost as his head touched the pillow, in spite of his resolution to be awake until Ned returned.
Down stairs Mrs. Mulready kept watch. She did not
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expect Ned to return, but she was listening for the wheels of her husband's gig. It was uncertain at what time he would return; for when he rose from the tea-table she had asked him what time he expected to be back, and he had replied that he could not say; he should stop until the repairs were finished, and she was to go to bed and not bother.
So at eleven o'clock she went up stairs, for once before when he had been out late and she had sat up he had been much annoyed; but after she got in bed she lay for hours listening for the sound of the wheels. At last she fell asleep and dreamed that Ned and her husband were standing at the end of a precipice grappling fiercely together in a life-and-death struggle. She was awaked at last by a knocking at the door; she glanced at her watch, which hung above her head; it was but half-past six.
'What is it, Mary?'
' Please, mum, there's a constable below, and he wants to speak to you immediate.'
Mrs. Mulready sprang from the bed and began to dress herself hurriedly. All sorts of mischief that might have come to Ned passed rapidly through her mind; her husband had not returned, but no doubt he had stopped at the mill all night watching the men at work. His absence scarcely occasioned her a moment's thought. In a very few minutes she was down stairs in the kitchen, where the constable was standing waiting for her. She knew him by sight, for Marsden possessed but four constables, and they were all well-known characters.
'What is it?' she asked; 'has anything happened to my son?'
' No, mum,' the constable said in a tone of surprise, ' I didn't know as he wasn't in bed and asleep, but I have some bad news for you, mum; it's a bad job altogether.'
'What is it?' she asked again; 'is it my husband?'
' Well, mum, I am sorry to say as it be. A chap came in early this morning and told me as summat had happened, so I goes out, and half a mile from the town I finds it just as he says.'
'But what is it?' Mrs. Mulready gasped.
' Well, mum, I am sorry to have to tell you, but there was the gig all smashed to atoms, and there was the little black mare lying all in a heap with her neck broke, and there was ,' and he stopped.
' My husband!' Mrs. Mulready gasped.
: ' Yes, marm, I be main sorry to say it were. There, yards in front of them, were Mr. Mulready just stiff and cold. He'd been flung right out over the hoss's head. I expect he had fallen on his head and must have been killed roio-ht
o
out; and the worst of it be, marm, as it warn't an accident, for there, tight across the road, about eighteen inches above the ground, was a rope stretched tight atween a gate on either side. It was plain enough to see what had happened. The mare had come tearing along as usual at twelve mile an hour in the dark, and she had caught the rope, and in course there had been a regular smash.'
The pretty colour had all gone from Mrs. Mulready's
face as he began his story, but a ghastly palor spread over her face, and a look of deadly horror came into her eyes as he continued.
' Oh, Ned, Ned,' she wailed, ' how could you!' and then she fell senseless to the ground.
The constable raised her and placed her in a chair.
' Are you sure the master's dead ?' the servant asked, wiping her eyes.
' Sure enough,' the constable said. ' I have sent the doctor off already, but it's no good, he's been dead hours and hours. But/' he continued, his professional instincts coming to the surface, ' what did she mean by saying, 'Oh, Ned, how could you!' She asked me, too, first about him; ain't he at home?'
' No, he ain't,' the servant said, ' and ain't been at home all night; there were a row between him and maister last even; they had a fight. Maister Charlie he ran into the parlour as I was a clearing away the tea-things, hallowing out as maister was a killing Ned. Missis she ran in and I heard a scream, then maister he drove off, and a minute or two later Maister Ned he went out, and he ain't come back again. When I went in with the candles I could see missis had been a crying. That's all I know about it.'
'And enough too,' the constable said grimly 'This here be a pretty business. Well, you had best get your missis round and see about getting the place ready for the corpse. They have gone up with a stretcher to bring him back. They will be here afore long. I must go up to Justice Thompson's and tell him all about it. This be a pretty
kittle of fish, surely. I be main sorry, but I have got my duty to do.'
An hour later Williams the constable with a companion started out in search of Ned Sankey, having a warrant in his pocket for his arrest on the charge of wilful murder.
The excitement in Marsden when it became known that Mr. Mulready had been killed was intense, and it was immensely heightened when it was rumoured that a warrant had been issued for the arrest of his stepson on the charge of murder. Quite a little crowd hung all day round the house with closed blinds, within which their so lately active and bustling townsman was lying.
All sorts of conjectures were rife, and there were many who said that they had all along expected harm would come of the marriage which had followed so soon after the death of Captain Sankey. The majority were loud in expression of their sympathy with the dead mill-owner, recalling his cheery talk and general good temper. Others were disposed to think that Ned had been driven to the act; but among very few was there any doubt as to his guilt. It was recalled against him that he had before been in the dock for his assault upon Mr. Hathorn, and that it had been proved that he had threatened to kill his master. His sullen and moody demeanour at the marriage of his mother told terribly against him, and the rumours of the previous quarrel when Ned had assaulted his stepfather, and which, related with many exaggerations, had at the time furnished
a subject of gossip in the town, also told heavily to his disadvantage.
Williams having learned from the servant that Ned was in the habit of going up to Varley had first made his inquiries there; but neither Bill nor Luke Marner, who were, the constable speedily learned, his principal friends there, had seen him. Varley was greatly excited over the news of the murder. Many of the men worked at Mulready's mill, and had brought back the news at an early hour, as all work was of course suspended.
There was no grief expressed in Varley at Mr. Mulready's death, indeed the news was received with jubilant exultation. 'A good job too,' was the general verdict; and the constable felt that were Ned in the village he would be screened by the whole population. He was convinced, however, that both Bill Swinton and Luke Marner were
