see thou'd do more harm nor good, vor you might bring him back just when he had gone safe away.'
' Oi didn't think of that,' Luke said, rubbing his chin. ' That be so, sure-ly. He'd be bound to cooin back agin. Well, lad, oi wiU think it over agin avore moorning, and do thou do t' same. Thou knaw'st moi wishes now. We ha' got atween us to get Maister Ned off—that be the thing as be settled. It doan't matter how it's done, but it's got to be done soomhow; and oi rely on thee to go into the box and sweer sommat as 'ull maake moi story good, whatever it be.
' There can't be nowt wrong about it—a loife vor a loife be fair, anyway. There be more nor eno' in Yorkshire in these toimes, and one more or less be of no account to anyone.'
' Oi be thy man, Luke,' Bill said earnestly. ' Whatever as thou sayest oi will sweer to; but I would reyther change places.'
' That caan't be, Bill, so it bain't no use thinking aboot it. Oi knaw thou wilt do thy best vor Polly and t' young uns. It 'ull be rough on her, but it bain't to be helped; and as she will be going away from Varley and settling elsewhere, it wouldn't be brought up agin her as she had an uncle as were a Luddite and got hoone; for killing a bad maister. Good-noight, lad! oi will see thee i' t' mornino*.'
CHAPTER XIII.
COMMITTED FOR TRIAL.
FTER a talk with Luke Marner early in the morning Bill Swinton went down into Mars-den to hear if there was any news of Ned. He was soon back again. 'Maister Ned's took,' he said as he met Luke, who was standing in front of his cottage awaiting his return before starting out to renew his search for Ned. ' Oi hear, at noine o'clock last noight he walked in to Justice Thompson's and said as he had coom to give hisself up. He said as how he had been over at Painton, where the old woman as was his nurse lives; and directly as the news coom in t' arternoon as Foxey had been killed and he was wanted for the murder, he coom straight over.'
'That's roight,' Luke said heartily; 'that settles it. He must ha' been innocent or he would ha' bolted straight away, and not coom back and gi'd hisself oop to justice. It were only his hiding away as maade oi think as he moight ha' done it. Noo in course he will be able
to clear hisself; for if he was over at Painton, why, he couldn't be here—that be plain to anyone.'
' Oi be aveared, by what t' constable told me, as he won't be able vor to prove it. It seems as how he didn't get to Painton till t' morning. He says as how he were awalk-ing aboot on t' moor all night. So you see he will have hard work vor to clear hisself.'
' Then I shall ha' to give meself up,' Luke said quietly. 'Ye see as it can't do him harm now, 'cause he ha' coom back; and ef oi says as I killed the man they will open the doors, and he wilL only have to walk out.'
' Oi ha' been athinking of that as I coom back,' Bill said, ' and oi doan't think as oi see my way clear through it now. Firstly, if Maister Ned did it, of course he will hold his tongue and leave 'em to prove it, which maybe they can't do; so he has a chance of getting off. But if you cooms forward and owns up, he will be saaf, if he did it, to say so at once; and so you will have done him harm rather nor good. Vor of course he will be able to prove his story better nor you will yourn, and you will have put the noose round his neck instead of getting it put round yourn. In the second place, it be loike enough as they lawyer chaps moight find out as your story weren't true when they coom to twisting me inside owt in the box. They might foind as oi war a-swearing false. There be never no saying. They moight prove as that bit of rope warn't yourn. Polly moight swear as she hadn't been asleep till arter the time you said you went out, and that you never moved as long as she war awake. Lots of
unexpected things raoight turn up to show it war a lie and then you know they'd drop onto Maister Ned wourse nor ever.'
'I doan't believe they would ask you any questions, Bill. When a man cooms and says, 'Oi did a murder,' they doan't want to ask many questions aboot it. They takes it vor granted as he wouldn't be such a fool as vor to say he did it when he didn't. But th' other point be more sarous. It be loike enough as t' lad did it, and if he did he will out wi' it when oi cooms forward. If oi could get to see him first oi moight argue him into holding his tongue by pointing owt that moi loife bain't of so much valley as hissen, also that I owe a debt to his feyther.'
'Well, oi ha' been thinking it over,' Bill said, 'and moi opinion is thou had best hold thy tongue till the trial. Thou can'st be in the court. Ef the jury foind him innocent, of course thou will't hold thy tongue; ef they foind him guilty, then thou'lt get up in the court, and thou'lt say to the joodge, civil loike:
'Moi lord, the gentlemen of the jury have made a mistake; oi am the chap as killed Foxey, and oi ha' got a young man here as is a witness as moi words is true.'
'Perhaps that will be the best way, Bill,' Luke said thoughtfully. 'Oi ha' bin thinking how we moight get over Polly's evidence agin me, every noight oi will get up regular and coom and ha' a talk wi' you; oi will coom out wi'out my shoes as quiet as a cat, and then if Polly sweers as oi didn't leave t' house that noight thou can'st
sweer as she knaws nothing at all aboot it, as oi ha' been out every noight to see thee.'
So the matter was allowed to stand for the time; and Bill and Luke, when they had had their breakfast, went down again to Marsden to hear what was going; on.
Marsden was greatly excited. The sensation caused by the news of the murder scarcely exceeded that which was aroused when it was heard that Ned Sankey had come in and given himself up. Some thought that at the examination which was to take place at noon he would at once confess his guilt, while others believed that he would plead not guilty, and would throw the burden of proving that he killed his stepfather upon the prosecution.
All through the previous day Mrs. Mulready had been the central object of interest to the town gossips pending the capture of her son. Dr. Green had been in and out of the house all day. It was known that she had passed from one fit of hysterics into another, and that the doctor was seriously alarmed about her state. Rumours were about that the servants, having been interviewed at the back gate, said, that in the intervals of her screaming and wild laughter she over and over again accused Ned as the murderer of her husband. Dr. Green, when questioned, peremptorily refused to give any information whatever as to his patient's opinions or words.
'The woman is well-nigh a fool at the best of times,' he said irritably, 'and at present she knows no more what she is saying than a baby. Her mind is thrown
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completely off any little balance that it had, and she is to all intents and purposes a lunatic.'
Only with his friend Mr. Porson, who called upon him after the first visit had been paid to Mrs. Mulready immediately after her husband's body had been brought in, did Dr. Green discuss in any way what had happened.
'I agree with you, Porson, in doubting whether the poor boy had a hand in this terrible business. We both know, of course, that owing to the bad training and total absence of control when he was a child in India his temper was, when he first came here, very hot and ungovernable. His father often deplored the fact to me, blaming himself as being to a great extent responsible for it, through not having had time to watch and curb him when he was a child; but he was, as you say, an excellently disposed boy, and your testimony to the efforts which he has made to overcome his faults is valuable. But I cannot conceal from you, who are a true friend of the boy's, what I should certainly tell to no one else, namely, that I fear that his mother's evidence will be terribly against him.
'She has always been prejudiced against him. She is a silly selfish woman. So far as I could judge she cared little for her first husband, who was a thousand times too good for her; but strangely enough she appears to have had something like a real affection for this man Mulready, who, between ourselves, I believe, in spite of his general popularity in the town, to have been a bad fellow. One doesn't like to speak ill of the dead under ordinary cir-
curastances, but his character is an important element in the question before us. Of course among my poorer patients I hear things of which people in general are ignorant, and it is certain that there was no employer in this part of the country so thoroughly and heartily detested by his men.'
'I agree with you cordially,' Mr. Porson said. 'Unfortunately I know from Ned's own lips that the lad hated his stepfather; but I can't bring myself to believe that he has done this.'
'I hope not,' the doctor said gravely, 'I am sure I hope not; but I have been talking with his brother, who is almost heart-broken, poor boy, and he tells me that there was a terrible scene last night. It seems that Mul-ready was extremely cross and disagreeable at tea-time; nothing, however, took place at the table; but after the meal was over, and the two boys were alone together in that little study of theirs, Ned made some disparaging remarks about Mulready. The door, it seems, was open. The man overheard them, and brutally assaulted the boy, and indeed Charlie thought that he was killing him. He rushed in and fetched his mother, who interfered, but not before
