‘It’s a queer world this, isn’t it, turnkey?’ ‘None the less queer for having _you_ in it,’ said the man, as he shut the door with a bang, and made the heavy bolts fall into their sockets. CHAPTER XXXI. MISGIVINGS. Meantime, James Semple’s conscience had been making him very miserable. It was not the fraud that troubled him. He had long since made up his mind that to prevent his uncle’s unnatural intentions from being carried out was a very venial offence. Nor was it merely Alec’s incarceration. That, he thought, would be amply compensated by the quarter of a million which would fall to his share as one of the residuary legatees. Alec’s fortune, in fact, would be twice as large as his own; and it was only fair that he should take his share of the inconveniences which were inseparable from the securing of it. But if his cousin should be convicted, and sentenced to a long term of penal servitude, Semple knew that he would feel very uncomfortable indeed. Yet, he argued, Alec would certainly have himself to thank if that was the result. If he had chosen to take Beattie’s hint, and declare that his uncle, before he died, had privately told him that he had changed his mind, and wished to leave the bulk of his money to his two nephews, all would have been well, and Dr. Mackenzie might have raged as much as he pleased, without being able to do any harm. It was Alec’s inability to explain the discrepancy between the will as it stood and his uncle’s known intentions which formed the real strength of the prosecution. It would be very sad if Alec were convicted in consequence of his own obstinacy, but it would be still more sad, it would be a quite intolerable calamity, if anything should happen to Mr. James Semple. And in spite of Beattie’s assurances, he felt far from secure. He was horrified to find that Alec was actually in prison before he had heard that criminal proceedings had been thought of. If the fraud were discovered, what would be his fate? ‘I say, Beattie,’ he said to his friend one day, ‘I almost think I’ll take a voyage to California, or somewhere, and stay there till this affair has been thoroughly forgotten. You could remit my share of the proceeds, couldn’t you?’ Beattie looked at him curiously. ‘I might. But I should be much more likely to remit a detective officer.’ ‘What!’ cried the other with a white, scared face. ‘You don’t mean that you would turn traitor, do you?’ ‘I mean that you would turn traitor if you bolted just now. Don’t you see that it would make everybody believe that you had done something, and that you were afraid you would be found out? Besides, we need your evidence for your cousin’s trial.’ Semple muttered something to the effect that Alec’s trial could get on very well without him. ‘But you don’t think they can convict him?’ he said aloud.