've much to repent of, but certainly you aren't answerable
as if you'd killed poor Joe. Only, see how one thing leads to another.
If you'd only loved the inside of your home as much as you loved the
inside of the public, you'd have kept out of the way of temptation, and
have escaped a deal of misery. Well, Ned, cast this burden on the Lord.
Tell him all about it, as you've told me; and ask him to wash away all
your sins in his precious blood, and he'll do it."

"I will, I will, Thomas," said the poor sufferer.

When Bradly left Ned Taylor's house, he walked home very slowly,
revolving many thoughts in his mind, and, according to his fashion,
giving them expression in a talk, half out loud, to himself, as
follows:-- "Well, now, we've got another step on the road to set poor
Jane straight; and yet it looks like a step, and a good long step too,
back'ards. It's all explained now what's become of the bag and the
bracelet, but we're further off from getting them than ever. I don't
know; p'raps it's lying at the left-luggage office in London. I'll send
up and see. But I mustn't say anything about it at present to Jane.
But, suppose it shouldn't be there--what then? Why, we've lost all clue
to it; we're quite in the dark. Stop, stop, Thomas Bradly! What are
you about? What are you stumbling on in that fashion for, without your
two walking-sticks--`Do the next thing,' `One step at a time'? Ay,
that's it, to be sure. And the next thing's to send to the left-luggage
office in London; and the rest's to be left with the Lord."

So that evening Bradly spoke to one of the guards, a fellow-abstainer,
and a man with whom he was on intimate terms, telling him as much of the
story of the losing of the bag as was necessary, without mentioning his
sister's name, and asked him to make full inquiries in London. His
friend accordingly did so without delay, but brought back the sorrowful
tidings that nothing answering to the bag described was lying at the
left-luggage office, or had been seen or heard of by any of the
officials.

Poor Thomas! He could not help feeling a little disheartened. He had
hoped, as Ned Taylor proceeded with his confession, that something was
coming that would lead to the discovery of the long-lost and earnestly-
desired evidence of Jane's innocence; and now that confession only
showed that the bag had been carried hopelessly out of their reach. Had
it been hidden away somewhere in Crossbourne, there