As for motive, it would simply be put forward that he had been in
a hurry to succeed his uncle. And very likely some tale of a
quarrel with his father or something of that sort would be invented,
and would go uncontradicted since there would be no one to
contradict it.
And most probably what was contemplated at Wreste Abbey was no
ordinary burglary, but the assassination of old Lord Chobham, of
which the guilt would also be set down to him.
Very clearly now he realized that this tremendous plot was aimed,
not only at life, but at honour--that not only was his life
required, but also that he should be thought a murderer.
With the realization of the danger that threatened at Wreste Abbey
he turned and began to run back in the direction where it lay, that
he might take timely warning there, but he did not run a dozen
strides when he remembered Ella again, and paused.
Surely he must think of her first, alone and unprotected. For she
was the woman he loved; and besides, she had summoned him to her
help, and then she was a woman, and at least, the others were men.
All this flood of thoughts, this intuitive grasping of a situation
terrible beyond conception, almost unparalleled in bloody and
dreadful horror, passed through his mind with extreme rapidity.
Once more he turned and began to run--to run as he had never run
before, for now he saw that all depended on the speed with which
he could cover the eight miles that lay between him and Ottam's
Wood, whether he could still save his father or not.
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