A man who would have taken the trouble that he did to prevent his daughter knowing that she was an heiress, and fancied that he was followed about by black fellows, might do anything, reasonable or unreasonable, under the sun.

At any rate, Mr.Thorndyke, I will carry out your instructions as to inquiries in London, and will duly inform you of the result; beyond that I must really decline to give any advice or opinion upon the matter, which is altogether beyond me." On leaving the lawyer's, Mark went to Bow Street, and related to the chief the circumstances attending his father's murder.
"I have heard them from the man I sent down at your request, Mr.
Thorndyke, and taking the attempt early in the evening and the subsequent murder, there can be no doubt that the affair was one of revenge, and not of robbery.

Had the second attempt stood alone, robbery might have been the object; the mere fact that nothing was stolen in no way alters the case.

Men are often seized with a certain panic after committing a murder, and fly at once without attempting to carry out their original purpose.

Your father, no doubt, fell heavily, and the man might well have feared that the fall would be heard; but the previous attempt precludes the supposition that robbery was at the bottom of it.
It points to a case of revenge, and certainly goes a very long way to support the theory that we talked over when I last saw you, that the highwayman who endeavored to stop you on the road, whom you wounded, and who afterwards went down to Southampton, was the escaped convict, Bastow.