When the first week in the New Year had passed, and Jed Roff had not returned, Richard Merton instituted an inquiry, which led to the discovery that he had never gone to Coraki, nor had his wife been seen or heard of in the town. Where was she? What had become of her? Foul play was freely hinted at, and none was more assiduous in sowing the seed of suspicion than Jabez Gegg. It was a settled thing in the minds of all that Jed Roff was in league with Wahwon, and that one of them had started the big fire; but few could yet look at it in the same light as Jabez Gegg--that a double crime had been committed and the hut burnt down to hide the traces. There was reason enough to believe that he had given Mumby his quietus, the latter having been set to watch him, and that is a thing the average man detests; but had he made away with his wife also, or was she travelling with him to some out-of-the- way place? Everything had been well planned; he had got his wife secretly en route before making a move himself, and thus unhampered had slipped away unnoticed. Such was the argument of Richard Merton, who, from a vague idea that Edith was connected with Jed Roff, tried hard enough to expel from his mind all thoughts that the man was linked with crime.
Mrs. Merton took a more satisfactory view of the matter. She would not hear of such a thing as that her foster-child was related to such a man as Roff, who, if he had done nothing else, had all but ruined her husband, and run away to hide like a criminal. She did not spare Jed Roff, but spared Edith from such as he.
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