I know that even if they cannot prove me guilty I cannot prove I am innocent; still, to run away would be an acknowledgment of guilt, and I am not going to do that." On the day appointed Ned was again brought up before the magistrates.
The examination was this time in public, and the justice room was crowded.

Ned, whose face was now recovering from the marks of ill usage, was pale and quiet.

He listened in silence to the evidence proving the finding of Mr.Mulready's body.

The next witness put into the box was one of the engineers at the factory; he proved that the rope which had been used in upsetting the gig had been cut from one which he had a short time before been using for moving a portion of the machinery.

He had used the rope about an hour before Mr.Mulready came back in the evening, and it was then whole.