uld find me guilty, and of course I had to settle what I should do
afterward. If it was only myself I think I should go away and take
another name; but in that case there would be no chance of my ever
clearing myself, and for father's sake and for the sake of Charlie and
Lucy I must not throw away a chance of that. It would be awfully against
them all their lives if people could say of them that their brother was
the fellow who murdered their stepfather. Perhaps they will always say
so now; still it is evidently my duty to stay, if it were only on the
chance of clearing up the mystery.

"In the next place I feel that I ought to stay for the sake of money
matters. I don't think, in the present state of things, with the
Luddites burning mills and threatening masters, any one would give
anything like its real value for the mill now. I know that it did not
pay with the old machinery, and it is not every one who would care to
run the risk of working with the new. By the terms of the settlement
that was made before my mother married again the mill is now hers, and
she and Charlie and Lucy have nothing else to depend upon. As she is not
capable of transacting business it falls upon me to take her place,
and I intend to try, for a time at any rate, to run the mill myself. Of
course I know nothing about it, but as the hands all know their work the
foreman will be able to carry on the actual business of the mill till I
master the details.

"As to the office business, the clerk will know all about it. There was
a man who used to travel about to buy wool, I know my mother's husband
had every confidence in him, and he could go on just as before. As to
the sales, the books will tell the names of the firms who dealt with us,
and I suppose the business with them will go on as before. At any rate
I can but try for a time. Of course I have quite made up my mind that I
shall have no personal interest whatever in the business. They may think
that I murdered Mulready, but they shall not say that I have profited
by his death. I should suppose that my mother can pay me some very small
salary, just sufficient to buy my clothes. So I shall go on till Charlie
gets to an age when he can manage the business as its master; then if
no clue has been obtained as to the murder I shall be able to give it up
and go abroad, leaving him with, I hope, a good business for himself and
Lucy."

"I think that is as good a plan as any," Mr. Porson said; "but, h