Mrs. Middleton did not immediately speak. Though she was responsible for this crime, having instigated it, she was really shocked when it was brought home to her.
"You are sure he is dead?" she said, after a pause.
"When a chap pitches head-first down a well thirty feet deep, there isn't much hope for him, is there?"
"No, I suppose not. Where did this accident happen?" asked the lady.
"That ain't important," answered Rudolph. "It's happened—that's all you need to know. Tony won't never come after that estate of his."
"It would have done him little good. He was not fitted by education to assume it."
"No; but he might have been educated. But that's all over now. It's yours. Nobody can take it from you."
"True!" said Mrs. Middleton, and a look of pleasure succeeded the momentary horror. "You will be ready to testify that the boy is dead?"
"There won't be any danger, will there? They won't ask too many questions?"
"As to that, I think we had better decide what we will say. It won't be necessary to say how the boy died."