ly knocked about.
Mulready then drove off to his factory, and Ned, who seems to have been
half stunned, went out almost without saying a word, and, as you know,
hasn't been heard of since.

"It certainly looks very dark against him. You and I, knowing the boy,
and liking him, may have our doubts, but the facts are terribly against
him, and unless he is absolutely in the position to prove an alibi, I
fear that it will go hard with him."

"I cannot believe it," Mr. Porson said, "although I admit that the facts
are terribly against him. Pray, if you get an opportunity urge upon his
mother that her talk will do Ned horrible damage and may cost him his
life. I shall at once go and instruct Wakefield to appear for him, if
he is taken, and to obtain the best professional assistance for his
defense. I feel completely unhinged by the news, the boy has been such a
favorite of mine ever since I came here; he has fought hard against his
faults, and had the makings of a very fine character in him. God grant
that he may be able to clear himself of this terrible accusation!"

Ned's first examination was held on the morning after he had given
himself up, before Mr. Simmonds and Mr. Thompson. The sitting was a
private one. The man who first found Mr. Mulready's body testified to
the fact that a rope had been laid across the road. Constable Williams
proved that when he arrived upon the spot nothing had been touched. Man
and horse lay where they had fallen, the gig was broken in pieces, a
strong rope was stretched across the road. He said that on taking the
news to Mrs. Mulready he had learned from the servants that the prisoner
had not slept at home that night, and that there had been a serious
quarrel between him and the deceased the previous evening.

After hearing this evidence Ned was asked if he was in a position to
account for the time which had elapsed between his leaving home and his
arrival at his nurse's cottage.

He replied that he could only say that he had been wandering on the
moor.

The case was remanded for a week, as the evidence of Mrs. Mulready
and the others in the house would be necessary, and it was felt that
a mother could not be called upon to testify against her son with her
husband lying dead in the house.

"I am sorry indeed to see you in this position," Mr. Simmonds said to
Ned. "My friendship for your late father, and I may say for yourself,
makes the position doubly painful to me, but I can only do m