ans, who knew exactly the value of the
jewels to a halfpenny, and how they were kept in a box under the bed,
and how the prisoner had carried them off by stealth, and buried them
somewhere in the sands of Newton Bay. Some of these, the more
charitably disposed, could go even further than this. They explained
how it was that the prisoner had never meant to commit the murder at
all, but simply to steal the jewels, but had been interrupted in the
act by the unexpected waking of the deceased woman. They grew
impressive as they pictured the elder woman suddenly roused from sleep
by the midnight robber, and the emotions of that robber detected in
the act of guilt. They could tell you how she started back in terror,
and then, realizing that ruin was upon her, succumbed to temporary
frenzy, and with the weapon which she had brought to open the
jewel-chest dealt the fatal blow to her unhappy victim.

Others, less lenient in their views, had obtained quite different
details. They could relate numerous previous attempts of the prisoner
on the life of her benefactress. They knew how she had sought to
introduce poison into her food, from which she was only saved by a
miraculous chance, which caused her to be summoned from the table just
as she was about to taste the fatal dish. Also how she had on one
occasion led her victim along the cliff with the well-formed purpose
of pushing her over the edge; only the curate happened to come along
and meet them, and accompanied them till the opportunity was gone.

The Owenite section, on the other hand, had their account, equally
authentic, and, if possible, more minute and graphic than the other.
They would tell you more about their villain, Lewis, than he himself
could possibly have remembered. They took you back to his childhood.
They started you with the well-known story of his beating his little
sister, the sister in the North whom he had refused to go and see.
They explained the causes which led to his expulsion from school after
school. They tracked him to Australia, and unearthed dark secrets in
his life out there which would have made the bushranger Kelly reject
him from his historic gang. Finally, they brought him back to England
a ruined desperado, intent on getting at his relative's wealth by fair
means or foul. The robbery of her jewels was only part of his scheme.
By killing her he obtained the whole of her wealth at once. Then a
victim became necessary--a stalking-horse to misl