All that evening my father and Jim and I took serious counsel together. We thrashed the matter out in all its bearings. My father's first view was that so soon as Miriam was sufficiently restored in health the whole truth must be told. To this I demurred that the result would probably be to make her ill again; that it was plain to see the horror of that night had so overcome her that the less her mind dwelt upon those tragic happenings the better; that my plan was to put Up in the sparrings without more delay, in trust that the new interests of a new life would go far to banish the terrors that beset the midnight hours; that the Bradburys were dead and nothing we could do could undo what was done and bring them to life again; that we were absolutely in the dark as to whether Ephraim or Daft Billy or both had struck the fatal blows; that if, through our means, Ephraim were taken he was quite capable of saving his own skin at the expense of Billy's; and finally that it would be a poor requital of Billy's devotion to Miriam to have him tracked down and put upon his trial for his life, and that I for one meant to hold my peace unless either the Red Tom's or Reuben Platt or some other hitherto unsuspected person were in serious jeopardy, when, indeed, the truth must be told, though the heavens fell. "Ah! if Billy would only come forward and tell the story himself," said my father. "That he'll never do, Mr. Holmes, asking your pardon if aw put my say in wi'out bein' axed. Yo' see it's this way, at least to my way o' thinkin' yo' see Billy's a cute sort o' chap i' some ways an' only hauf baked i' others. An' all his life, as far as we know out on it, he's bin at loggeryeads wi' th' law. He couldn't weel be a gradely Burnplatter an' not be that. Why th' whiskey-spinnin' 'at's gone on at Burnplatts ivver sin' aw knew out's enough to send th' whole boilin' on 'em to Botany Bay, to say nowt o' horse steilin', an' piece-liftin', an' poachin', an' all mak's o' ways o' ma'in a dishonest livin'. Nah! it stands to reason 'at Billy'll ha' no soort o' affection for th' law. He's a law unto hissen. He's happen thinkin' at this varry minnit 'at them Bradburys had a hand i' that mad prank o' Ephraim's ab--ab--what do yo' ca' it?" "Abducting," suggested my father.