A great forgery was committed against his employers, and he was accused.

He was tried, condemned, and sentenced to fourteen years' penal servitude, which, in those days, meant transportation abroad.

For some little time the jury had not been unanimous.

One man doubted the prisoner's guilt--the man we afterwards knew as the old miser of Walnut-tree Farm.

But he was over-persuaded at last, and Mr.Wood was convicted and sentenced.