ry of activity which his letter had called out in the detectives
came to nothing. Their search was not very strenuous; Northwick's
creditors were of various minds as to the amount of money he had carried
away with him. Every one knew that if he chose to stay in Canada, he
could not be molested there; and it seemed very improbable that he could
be persuaded to put himself within reach of the law. The law had no
terms to offer him, and there was really nothing to be done.

Putney forecast all this in his talk with Matt, when he held that they
must wait Northwick's motion. He professed himself willing to wait as
long as Northwick chose, though he thought they would not have to wait
long, and he contended for a theory of the man's whole performance which
he said he should like to have tested before a jury.

Matt could not make out how much he really meant by saying that
Northwick could be defended very fairly on the ground of insanity; and
that he would enjoy managing such a defence. It was a common thing to
show that a murderer was insane; why not a defaulter? Tilted back in his
chair, with one leg over the corner of his table, and changing the
tobacco in his mouth from one cheek to the other as he talked, the
lawyer outlined the argument which he said could be made very effective.
There was the fact to begin with, that Northwick was a very wealthy man,
and had no need of more money when he began to speculate; Putney held
that this want of motive could be made a strong point; and that the
reckless, almost open, way in which Northwick used the company's money,
when he began to borrow, was proof in itself of unsound mind: apparently
he had no sense whatever of _meum_ and _tuum_, especially _tuum_. Then,
the total collapse of the man when he was found out; his flight without
an effort to retrieve himself, although his shortage was by no means
hopelessly vast, and could have been almost made up by skilful use of
the credit that Northwick could command, was another evidence of shaken
reason. But besides all this, there was his behavior since he left home.
He had been absent nearly five months, and in that time he had made no
attempt whatever to communicate with his family, although he must have
known that it was perfectly safe for him to do so. He was a father who
was almost dotingly fond of his children, and singularly attached to his
home; yet he had remained all that time in voluntary exile, and he had
left them in entire un