Then they connected Mr.Belcher's behavior during the day with the affair, and, though they said nothing at the time, they thought of his ostentatious anxiety, his evident perturbation when Mr.Buffum announced to him the escape, his offer of the reward for Benedict's discovery, and his excited personal appearance among them.

He acted like a guilty man--a man who was trying to blind them, and divert suspicion from himself.
To the great horror of Mr.Buffum, his establishment was thoroughly inspected and ransacked, and, as one after another left the hill for his home, he went with indignation and shame in his heart, and curses on his lips.

Even if Benedict and his innocent boy had been murdered, murder was not the only foul deed that had been committed on the hill.

The poor-house itself was an embodied crime against humanity and against Christianity, for which the town of Sevenoaks at large was responsible, though it had been covered from their sight by Mr.Belcher and the keeper.

It would have taken but a spark to kindle a conflagration.