"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 wheere 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 edi-cation, 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."
"Itwill that,"Luke said. "Oi hear as theyare 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 mills ? Oi consider as how that has been the best noight's work as ha' been done in Yorkshire for years and years. There ain't a been anything else talked of in Varley since. I ha' heard a score of guesses as to how you found owt what was a going on in toime to get to the mill—thank God there ain't one as suspects as our Polly brought you the news. My own boys doan't know, and ain't agoing to; not as they would say a word as would harm Polly for worlds, but as they gets a bit bigger and takes to drink, there's no saying what mightn't slip out when they are in liquor. So you and oi and Bill be the only ones as ull ever know the ins and outs o' that there business."
CHAPTER XX.
CLEARED AT LAST.
HE night was a wild one. The weather had changed suddenly, and the rain beat fiercely in the faces of the hands as they made their way back from the mill up to Varley. As the night came on the storm increased. The wind as it swept across the moor swirled down into the hollow in which Varley stood, as if it would scoop the houses out of their foundations, and the drops of rain were driven against roof and wall with the force of hailstones.
Bill Swinton was sitting up again with John Stukeley, and as he bent over the sick man's bed and tenderly lifted his head while he held a cup with some cooling drink to his lips, the contrast between his broad, powerful figure, and his face, marked with the characteristics alike of good-temper, kindness, and a resolute will, and the thin, emaciated invalid was very striking. Stukeley's face was without a vestige of colour; his eyes were hollow and surrounded by dark circles; his cheeks were of an ashen-
gray pallor, which deepened almost to a lead colour round his lips.
" Thou ought'st not to talk so much, John," Bill was saying. "Thou know'st the doctor said thou must not excite thyself."
" It makes no difference, Bill, no difference at all, talk
or not talk. What does it matter? I am dying, and he
knows it, and I know it; so do you. That bit of lead in
my body has done its work. Strange, isn't it, that you
should be here nursing me when I have thought of Shooter o
ing you a score of times? A year ago it seemed absurd that Polly Powlett should like a boy like you better than a man like me, and yet I was sure it was because of you she would have nothing to say to me; but she was right, you will make the best husband of the two. I suppose it's because of that I sent for you. I was very fond of Polly, Bill, and when I felt that I was going, and there wasn't any use my being jealous any longer, I seemed to turn to you. I knew you would come, for you have been always ready to do a kindness to a chap who was down. You are different to the other lads here. I do believe you are fond of reading. Whenever you think I am asleep you take up your book."
"Oi am trying to improve myself," Bill said quietly. " Maister Sankey put me in the roight way. He gives me an hour, and sometimes two, every evening. He has been wonderful kind to me, he has; there ain't nothing oi wouldn't do for him."
The sick man moved uneasily.
"THERE AIN'T NOWT WE WOULDN'T DO FOR HIM."
"No more wouldn't Luke and Polly," Bill went on. " His father gived his loife, you know, for little Jenny. No, there ain't nowt we wouldn't do for him," he continued, glad to turn the subject from that of Stukeley's affection for Polly. " He be one of the best of maisters. Oi would give my life's blood if so be as oi could clear him of that business of Mulready's."
For a minute or two not a word was said. The wind roared round the building, and in the intervals of the gusts the high clock in the corner of the room ticked steadily and solemnly as if distinctly intimating that its movements were not to be hurried by the commotion without. Stukeley had closed his eyes, and Bill began to hope that he was going to doze off, when he asked suddenly:
" Bill, do you know who sent that letter that was read at the trial—I mean the one from the chap as said he done it, and was ready to give himself up if the boy was found guilty?"
Bill did not answer.
" You can tell me, if you know," Stukeley said impatiently. " You don't suppose as I am going to tell now! Maybe I shan't see anyone to tell this side of the grave, for I doubt as I shall see the morning. Who wrote it?"
" I wrote it," Bill said; " but it warn't me as was coming forward, it war Luke's idee fust. He made up his moind as to own up as it was he as did it, and to be hung for it to save Maister Ned, acause the captain lost his loife for little Jenny."
" But he didn't do it," Stukeley said sharply.
" No, he didn't do it," Bill replied.
There was a silence again for a long time; then Stukeley opened his eyes suddenly.
" Bill, I should like to see Polly again. Dost think as she will come and say good-bye?"
" Oi am sure as she will," Bill said steadily. "Shall oi go and fetch her?"
" It's a wild night to ask a gal to come out on such an errand," Stukeley said doubtfully.
" Polly won't mind that," Bill replied confidently. " She will just wrap her shawl round her head and come over. Oi will run across and fetch her. Oi will not be gone three minutes."
In little more than that time Bill returned with Mary Powlett.
" I am awfully sorry to hear you are so bad, John," the girl said frankly.
"I am dying, Polly; I know that, or I wouldn't have sent for ye. It was a good day for you when you said no to what I asked you."
"Never mind that now, John; that's all past and gone."
" Ay, that's all past and gone, past and gone. I only wanted to say as I wish you well, Polly, and I hope you will be happy, and I am pretty nigh sure of it. Bill here tells me that you set your heart on having young Sankey cleared of that business as was against him. Is that so?"
" That is so, John; he has been very kind to us all, to feyther and all of us. He is a good master to his men, and has kept many a mouth full this winter as would have been short of food without him; but why do you ask me?"
" Just a fancy of mine, gal, such a fancy as comes into the head of a man at the last. When you get back send Luke here. It is late and maybe he has gone to bed, but tell him I must speak to him. And now, good-bye, Polly, God bless you! I don't know as I hasn't been wrong about all this business, but it didn't seem so to me afore. Just try and think that, will you, when you hear about it. I thought as I was a-acting for the good of the men."
" I will always remember that," Polly said gently.
Then she took the thin hand of the man in hers, glanced at Bill as if she would ask his approval, and reading acquiescence in his eyes she stooped over the bed and kissed Stukeley's forehead. Then without a word she left the cottage and hurried away through the darkness.