as falls away after putting
their hands to the plow, and as forsakes the cause of their starving
brethren because their own stomachs is full."

"I wish we could stop him," Ned said thoughtfully. "I might get a
constable sent up to be present at the meetings, but the constables here
are too well known, and if you were to get one from another place the
sight of a stranger there would be so unusual that it would put him on
his guard at once. Besides, as you say, it would be very difficult to
prove that his expressions applied to the Luddites, although every one
may understand what he means. One must have clear evidence in such a
case. However, I hope we shall catch him tripping one of these days.
These are the fellows who ought to be punished, not the poor ignorant
men who are led away by them."

The feeling of gratitude and respect with which Ned was regarded by
the workpeople of his district, owing to his action regarding the hand
frames, did something toward lightening the load caused by the suspicion
which still rested upon him. Although he still avoided all intercourse
with those of his own station, he no longer felt the pressure so
acutely. The hard, set expression of his face softened somewhat, and
though he was still strangely quiet and reserved in his manner toward
those with whom his business necessarily brought him in contact, he no
longer felt absolutely cut off from the rest of his kind.

Ned had continued his practice of occasionally walking up with Bill
Swinton to Varley on his way to the mill. There was now little fear of
an attempt upon his life by the hands in his neighborhood; but since the
failure on the mill he had incurred the special enmity of the men who
had come from a distance on that occasion, and he knew that any night he
might be waylaid and shot by them. It was therefore safer to go round
by Varley than by the direct road. One evening when he had been chatting
rather later than usual at Luke Marner's, Luke said:

"Oi think there's something i' t' wind. Oi heerd at t' Cow this evening
that there are some straangers i' the village. They're at t' Dog. Oi
thinks there's soom sort ov a council there. Oi heers as they be from
Huddersfield, which be the headquarters o' General Lud in this part.
However, maister, oi doan't think as there's any fear of another attack
on thy mill; they war too badly scaared t'other noight vor to try that
again."

When Ned got up to go Bill Swinton as usual put on h