her any communication
which she would not make willingly and of her own free action. "I am
told," he said, "that two men have been taken for the murder."

"Where did they find 'em, sir?"

"They had escaped to America, and the police have brought them back.
Did you know them, Carry?" She was again silent. The men had not been
named, and it was not for her to betray them. Hitherto, in their
interviews, she had hardly ever looked him in the face, but now she
turned her blue eyes full upon him. "You told me before at the old
woman's cottage," he said, "that you knew them both,--had known one
too well."

"If you please, sir, I won't say nothing about 'em."

"I will not ask you, Carry. But you would tell me about your brother,
if you knew?"

"Indeed I would, sir;--anything. He hadn't no more to do with Farmer
Trumbull's murder nor you had. They can't touch a hair of his head
along of that."

"Such is my belief;--but who can prove it?" Again she was silent.
"Can you prove it? If speaking could save your brother, surely you
would speak out. Would you hesitate, Carry, in doing anything for
your brother's sake? Whatever may be his faults, he has not been hard
to you like the others."

"Oh, sir, I wish I was dead."

"You must not wish that, Carry. And if you know ought of this you
will be bound to speak. If you could bring yourself to tell me what
you know, I think it might be good for both of you."

"It was they who had the money. Sam never seed a shilling of it."

"Who is 'they'?"

"Jack Burrows and Larry Acorn. And it wasn't Larry Acorn neither,
sir. I know very well who did it. It was Jack Burrows who did it."

"That is he they call the Grinder?"

"But Larry was with him then," said the girl, sobbing.

"You are sure of that?"

"I ain't sure of nothing, Mr. Fenwick, only that Sam wasn't there
at all. Of that I am quite, quite, quite sure. But when you asks me,
what am I to say?"

Then he left her without speaking to her on this occasion a word
about herself. He had nothing to say that would give her any comfort.
He had almost made up his mind that he would take her over with him
to the mill, and try what might be done by the meeting between the
father, mother, and daughter, but all this new matter about the
police and the arrest, and Sam's absence, made it almost impossible
for him to take such a step at present. As he went, he again
interrogated Mrs. Stiggs, and was warned by her that words fell daily
f