ll-treatment of
Benedict, breathed the suspicion that both he and his boy had been
foully dealt with by one who had an interest in getting them out of the
way.

It was a marvel to see how quickly this suspicion took wing. It seemed
to be the most rational theory of the event. It went from mouth to mouth
and ear to ear, as the wind breathes among the leaves of a forest; but
there were reasons in every man's mind, or instincts in his nature, that
withheld the word "murder" from the ear of Mr. Belcher. As soon as the
suspicion became general, the aspect of every incident of the flight
changed. Then they saw, apparently for the first time, that a man
weakened by disease and long confinement, and never muscular at his
best, could not have forced the inner door of Benedict's cell. Then they
connected Mr. Belcher's behavior during the day with the affair, and,
though they said nothing at the time, they thought of his ostentatious
anxiety, his evident perturbation when Mr. Buffum announced to him the
escape, his offer of the reward for Benedict's discovery, and his
excited personal appearance among them. He acted like a guilty man--a
man who was trying to blind them, and divert suspicion from himself.

To the great horror of Mr. Buffum, his establishment was thoroughly
inspected and ransacked, and, as one after another left the hill for his
home, he went with indignation and shame in his heart, and curses on his
lips. Even if Benedict and his innocent boy had been murdered, murder
was not the only foul deed that had been committed on the hill. The
poor-house itself was an embodied crime against humanity and against
Christianity, for which the town of Sevenoaks at large was responsible,
though it had been covered from their sight by Mr. Belcher and the
keeper. It would have taken but a spark to kindle a conflagration. Such
was the excitement that only a leader was needed to bring the tumult of
a violent mob around the heads of the proprietor and his _protege_.

Mr. Belcher was not a fool, and he detected, as he sat in his wagon
talking with Buffum in a low tone, the change that had come over the
excited groups around him. They looked at him as they talked, with a
serious scrutiny to which he was unused. They no more addressed him with
suggestions and inquiries. They shunned his neighborhood, and silently
went off down the hill. He knew, as well as if they had been spoken,
that there were not only suspicions against him, but in