ashionable hotel. But Lucy Murdoch was not to be daunted. It would do
just as well to travel to London with one child as two, and even serve
still further to destroy her identity. So she would have cast Duncan off
like an old shoe. Elsie's determination made this difficult, but she
soon devised a plan to get Elsie off by cunning, and leave Duncan
behind. Although she promised Elsie that Duncan should go to the
hospital, she had left instructions with Meg that he was to be taken
back to Andrew's house. Meg, however, took him to the hospital, and said
(poor ignorant thing) that she had found him ill in the street. When she
got home she put on her most stupid air, and declared that she didn't
rightly know what Mrs. Murdoch meant her to do, that she was very sorry
if she'd done wrong, and hadn't she better go and fetch him back? Andrew
abused her, but at the hospital the child was left. Poor Meg! she had in
her a kind heart, and might have been a good, happy girl but for bad
companions.

The police, however, were on the track of the Murdochs. They had been
watched from place to place, and evidence collected. When they least
thought of danger they found themselves lodged in a prison.

Elsie's account greatly helped to prove their guilt. Meg was examined,
and was found to have known a great deal about their doings; but as she
was not found guilty of any crime, she was allowed to go free, and
advised by the magistrate to forsake her old companions, and endeavour
to live honestly and respectably. A charitable lady afterwards took her
into a home, being much touched by the account she gave of Duncan's
illness, and the way she had done what she could to save his life.

John and Lucy Murdoch were sentenced to be imprisoned for a great many
years. The man Andrew was also severely punished.

What they intended, to do with Elsie was not clear. Duncan they had left
dangerously ill, without nursing or medical advice. The magistrate
pointed out to him that they ought to be grateful to Meg, for if the
child had died they would certainly have been charged with causing his
death.

Probably they would have left Elsie to a similar fate: unless, indeed,
they had succeeded in making her one of themselves, in which case she
would, perhaps, have been tempted to join them in some hideous crime,
and have ended her days in a prison.

CHAPTER XXIII.--BACK HOME AGAIN.

Elsie and her mother travelled all night, and reached Edinburgh early
th