hose
present, except Nell and Nanse M'Collum who had absconded. If Nell
were the woman's mother, her anxiety to bring the criminal to justice
appeared very natural. Then, again, young O'Rorke's father, who seemed
to know the history of Nell M'Collum, denied that she ever had a
daughter. How could he be certain that she had not, without knowing her
private life thoroughly? These circumstances appeared rather strange, if
not altogether incomprehensible; so much so, indeed, that he thought
it necessary, before they separated, to speak with O'Rorke's family in
private. Having expressed a wish to this effect, he dismissed the
other parties, except Nell, whom he intended to keep confined until the
discovery of her niece.

"Pray," said he to the father of our humble hero, "how do you know,
O'Rorke, that Nell M'Collum never had a daughter?"

"Right well, your honor. I knew her since she was a child; an' from that
day to this she was never six months from this town at a time. No, no--a
son she had, but a daughter she never had."

"Let me ask you, young man, on what business were you abroad last night?
I expect you will answer me candidly?"

"It's no matther," replied young Lamh Laudher gloomily, "my character's
gone. I cannot be worse, an' I will tell no man how I spent it, till I
have an opportunity of clarin' myself."

"If you spent it innocently," returned the magistrate, "you can have no
hesitation in making the disclosure we require."

"I will not mention it," said the other; "I was disgraced, an' that is
enough. I think but little of the robbery."

Brookleigh understood him; but the last assertion, though it exonerated
him in the opinion of a man who knew something about character, went far
in that of his friends who were present to establish his guilt.

They then withdrew; and it would have been much to young Lamh Laudher's
advantage if this private interview had never taken place.

CHAPTER V.

The next morning O'Rorke and his wife! waited upon Mr. Brookleigh to
state, that in their opinion it would be more judicious to liberate
Nell M'Collum, provided he kept a strict watch upon all her motions.
The magistrate instantly admitted both the force and ingenuity of the
thought; and after having appointed three persons to the task of keeping
her under surveillance, he set her at large.

This was all judicious and prudent; but in the mean time, common rumor,
having first published the fact of young Lamh Laudh