e that some one may not be tempted
to turn traitor."

"What is the matter with Bill?" Ned asked Luke Marner that afternoon. "I
see he is away."

"Yes, sir, he be a-sitting with John Stukeley, who they say is main bad.
It seems as how he has taken a fancy to t' lad, though why he should
oi dunno, for Bill had nowt to do wi' his lot. Perhaps he thinks now as
Bill were right and he were wrong; perhaps it only is as if Bill ha' got
a name in the village of being a soft hearted chap, allus ready to sit
up at noight wi' any one as is ill. Anyhow he sent last noight to ask
him to go and sit wi' him, and Bill sent me word this morning as how he
couldn't leave the man."

"Do you know what is the matter with him?"

"I dunno for certain, Maister Ned, but I has my suspicions."

"So have I, Luke. I believe he got a gunshot wound in that affair at the
mill."

Luke nodded significantly.

"Dr. Green ought to see him," Ned said. "A gunshot wound is not a thing
to be trifled with."

"The doctor ha' been up twice a day on the last three e days," Luke
replied. "Oi suppose they got frighted and were obliged to call him in."

"They had better have done so at first," Ned said; "they might have
been quite sure that he would say nothing about it to the magistrates
whatever was the matter with Stukeley. I thought that fellow would get
into mischief before he had done."

"It war a bad day for the village when he coomed," Luke said; "what
wi' his preachings and his talk, he ha' turned the place upside down. I
doan't say as Varley had ever a good name, or was a place where a quiet
chap would have chosen to live, For fighting and drink there weren't a
worse place in all Yorkshire, but there weren't no downright mischief
till he came. Oi wur afraid vor a bit when he came a-hanging aboot
Polly, as the gal might ha' took to him, for he can talk smooth and has
had edication, and Polly thinks a wonderful lot of that. Oi were main
glad when she sent him aboot his business."

"Well, there is one thing, Luke; if anything happens to him it will
put an end to this Luddite business at Varley. Such a lesson as that in
their midst would do more to convince them of the danger of their goings
on than any amount of argument and advice."

"It will that," Luke said. "Oi hear as they are all moighty down in the
mouth over that affair at Cartwright's. If they could not win there,
when they were thirty to one, what chance can they have o' stopping the
mi