nce
toward the hope of Raynham, knowing him the accomplice-incendiary, and
believing the deed to have been unprovoked and wanton. But he must do
so, he knew, to let the boy have a fair trial against himself. Be
it said, moreover, that the baronet's possession of his son's secret
flattered him. It allowed him to act, and in a measure to feel, like
Providence; enabled him to observe and provide for the movements of
creatures in the dark. He therefore treated the boy as he commonly
did, and Richard saw no change in his father to make him think he was
suspected.

The youngster's game was not so easy against Adrian. Adrian did not
shoot or fish. Voluntarily he did nothing to work off the destructive
nervous fluid, or whatever it may be, which is in man's nature; so that
two culprit boys once in his power were not likely to taste the
gentle hand of mercy; and Richard and Ripton paid for many a trout and
partridge spared. At every minute of the day Ripton was thrown into
sweats of suspicion that discovery was imminent, by some stray remark
or message from Adrian. He was as a fish with the hook in his gills,
mysteriously caught without having nibbled; and dive into what depths
he would he was sensible of a summoning force that compelled him
perpetually towards the gasping surface, which he seemed inevitably
approaching when the dinner-bell sounded. There the talk was all of
Farmer Blaize. If it dropped, Adrian revived it, and his caressing way
with Ripton was just such as a keen sportsman feels toward the creature
that had owned his skill, and is making its appearance for the world
to acknowledge the same. Sir Austin saw the manoeuvres, and admired
Adrian's shrewdness. But he had to check the young natural lawyer,
for the effect of so much masked examination upon Richard was growing
baneful. This fish also felt the hook in his gills, but this fish was
more of a pike, and lay in different waters, where there were old
stumps and black roots to wind about, and defy alike strong pulling
and delicate handling. In other words, Richard showed symptoms of a
disposition to take refuge in lies.

"You know the grounds, my dear boy," Adrian observed to him. "Tell me;
do you think it easy to get to the rick unperceived? I hear they suspect
one of the farmer's turned-off hands."

"I tell you I don't know the grounds," Richard sullenly replied.

"Not?" Adrian counterfeited courteous astonishment. "I thought Mr.
Thompson said you were ove