It could not be otherwise.

Doubtless the Squire, having no opportunity to converse in private with his relatives or friends at the moment of his sudden arrest, had been forced to keep his secret, for the present, for fear of involving Israel in still worse calamities.

But would he leave him to perish piecemeal in the wall?
All surmise was baffled in the unconjecturable possibilities of the case.

But some sort of action must speedily be determined upon.

Israel would not additionally endanger the Squire, but he could not in such uncertainty consent to perish where he was.