"When did it happen, Martha?"

"Last night, Miss Hallam. My Ben and Jonathan Clough wern't as good
friends as might be. There's a lass at t' bottom o' t' trouble; there's
allays that. She's a good lass enough, but good 'uns mak' as much
trouble as t' bad 'uns sometimes, I think. It's Jonathan's daughter,
Mary. She's ta'en Ben's fancy, and she's ta'en Bill Laycock's fancy,
too. T' lass likes my Ben, and Clough he liked Laycock; for Laycock
is t' blacksmith now, and owns t' forge, and t' house behind it. My
Ben is nobbut Clough's overlooker."

"It is a pity he stopped at Clough's mill, if there was ill-feeling
between them."

"T' lad's none to blame for that. Clough is makkin' some new kind o'
figured goods, and t' men are all hired by t' twelvemonth, and bound
over to keep a quiet tongue i' their mouths about t' new looms as does
t' work. Two days ago Clough found out that Tim Bingley hed told t'
secret to Booth; and Clough wer' neither to hold nor bind. He put
Bingley out o' t' mill, and wouldn't pay him t' balance o' t' year,
and somehow he took t' notion that Ben was in t' affair. Ben's none
so mean as that, I'm sure."

"But Bingley is a very bad man. My father sent him to the tread-mill
last year for a brutal assault. He is quite capable of murder. Has
no one looked for him?"

"Bingley says he saw my Ben shoot Clough, and Clough says it was Ben."