’He has robbed me,’ repeated Taverner vehemently. ’Do you want proof? The five pound note.’ Honor shuddered; she had forgotten that. ’Do you remember, Luxmore, you paid me a note of the Exeter and Plymouth Bank? Do you remember that I took the number?’ Oliver looked helplessly about the room, from Langford to Honor and Kate. ’I ask you, whence you got that note? Come, answer me that? You, Luxmore, who gave you that note?’ ’Charles,’ moaned the carrier, and covered his face with his hands, as he threw himself into a chair. ’I thought as much. Let me tell you that that note had been abstracted from my box. I had the list of all the notes in it, but I did not go over them till I found that I had been robbed. Here is the note. I did not restore it to the box. I kept it in iny pocket-book. I can swear—I have my entries to prove it—that it had been stolen from me. When I found Charles was gone, I thought it must have been he who had robbed me. When I saw the number of the note agreed with one I had put into the box a month ago, then I knew it must be he. You brought me the note, and he is your son.’ Kate burst into tears and wrung her hands. Honor saw the faces of the children frightened, inclined for tears; she sent them all upstairs to their bedrooms. Oliver sat at the table with his forehead in his hands, and his fingers in his hair. None spoke. Langford looked at the carrier, then at Honor. Kate threw herself into the chair by the window and wept aloud. Honor stood in the middle of the room, with her head bent; she was deadly pale, she dared not raise her eyes. ’What will you do?’ she asked in a low tone. ’Do!’ exclaimed Taverner; ’Oh, that is soon answered. I send at once to Tavistock, Launceston, and Okehampton, and communicate with the proper authorities and have him arrested. There are magistrates, and constables, and laws, and prisons in England, for the detention and chastisement of thieves and burglars.’ Oliver moaned. ’I cannot bear the disgrace. I shall drown myself.’ ’What will that avail?’ sneered Langford. ’Will it save my thousand pounds? Will it save Charles from transportation? It is a pity that there is no more hanging for robbery, or Wellon’s mound would be handy, and the old gibbet beam in my barn would serve once more.’ The words were cruel. Honor’s teeth clenched and her hands closed convulsively. Then Oliver Luxmore withdrew his hands from his face, dragged himself towards Langford, and threw himself on the ground at his feet. ’Have pity on him, on me, on us all. The shame will kill us, brand us. It will kill me, it will stain my name, my children, for ever.’ ’Get up,’ said Langford, roughly. ’I’m not to be moved by men’s tears.’ But Oliver was deaf; his great absorbing agony momentarily gave dignity to his feeble pitiful character, to him even crouching on the slate floor.