nted rumors
that had reached my ears I had put down to Crofts's desire for a
scapegoat, and the conversation between Frances and Nelly, and Nelly's
conclusions, all came to me after this interview with Hamilton.

Failing to reach any conclusion after a long discussion of the subject,
Hamilton and I began to speak on other topics, and I asked him where he
had been and what he had been doing.

"I have been at the French court, gambling furiously, and hoarding my
money," he answered. "I have not even bought a suit of clothes, and have
turned every piece of lace and every jewel I possessed into cash."

"I supposed you were leaving off some of your old ways, gambling among
them," I remarked, sorry to hear of his fall from grace.

"And so I have," he answered. "But I wanted a thousand pounds to use in a
good cause, and felt that I was doing no wrong to rob a very bad Peter in
France to pay a very good Paul at home. I have paid the good Paul, and am
now done with cards and dice forever."

"I'm glad to hear you say so, George," I returned.

"Yes, I'll tell you how it was," he continued. Then he gave me an account
of the killing of Roger Wentworth, the particulars of which I then
learned for the first time. I allowed him to proceed in his narrative
without interruption, and he finished by saying: "I learned that same
evening that a thousand pounds had been stolen from a traveller. I
suspected Crofts, Wentworth, and Berkeley of the robbery, but I did not
know certainly that they had committed the crime, since I did not see
them do it. The next morning I learned that a man had been killed by
highwaymen, and as I felt sure that the murder had been committed
in the affair I had witnessed, I went to France because I did not want
to be called to testify in case criminal proceedings were instituted.
In France I learned that the murdered man was young Wentworth's uncle.

"Of course, I did not receive a farthing of the money, but I almost felt
that I was accessory before the fact because I had not hastened to
prevent the crime, and after the fact because I had made no effort to
bring the criminals to justice. Churchill told me flatly that I should be
alone if I tried the latter, and said that he was not so great a fool as
to win the enmity of the king by attempting to bring the law upon Crofts.
You know Churchill's maxim, 'A fool conscience and a fool damned.'"

"There is wisdom in it," I answered.

"I suppose there is," returne