“But you helped to throw the murdered man into the river?” said the justice’s clerk.
“Yes, sir,” said Hopcraft; “for he vowed to knock me on the head if I did not, and throw me after the other body.”
“And you took some of the money stolen from the murdered man?”
“That’s a true bill,” said Hopcraft. “But it was only two pounds; and Scammel swore that if I did not take it, and keep my tongue in my head, he would do for me in no time. And he would, too, your worships. He wor na a man to play with, worn’t Scammel. Oh, goodness gracious me! my life ever sin’ that has been a plague to me. He has been coming continjally o’ nights and threatening me to peach, and swear it was aw my doings, if I did not give him this, and that, and t’other. ‘For, Hopcraft,’ he said; ‘you’re in for it, you know; it’s all between me and you, and I can hang you any time.’”
“‘Nay,’ I’ve said; ‘there’s those Shalcrosses; I seed them wi’ you at th’ lane-end.’
“‘Shalcrosses be d—d,’ he would say. ‘Where are they, Hopcraft—where are they? Tell me that.’
“And as nobody ever saw them after the murder I verily thought he’d murdered them too. God knows, may happen he has.”
“But he used to come to you of nights. What was that for?”
“I reckon,” said Hopcraft, “it was to see as all wor safe, and to threaten me afresh, and to squeeze something out of me. O gentlemen, everybody’s seen how things have gone wi’ me since th’ murder,—pigs, hens, cabbages, potatoes, everything; it was Scammel that came and fetched them. Oh, he was a leech, a blood-sucker! and he’d ha’ had my very heart’s blood out of me. Monny and monny a time my wife has said, ‘Go, Hopcraft, go and peach. It wor better to be hanged than live such a life as this. Aren’t we all starving? neither me nor th’ childer have hardly a rag on us, and as for living, it is not living, we are awlis as holler as drums. Let us all be hanged rather than live o’ thissons.’”
“And why did not you follow your wife’s good advice?”