had
nothing to lose, and much - in the way of character, cash, and cleanliness - to
gain. These persons Moore hunted like any sleuth-hound; and well he liked the
occupation: its excitement was of a kind pleasant to his nature: he liked it
better than making cloth.
    His horse must have hated these times, for it was ridden both hard and
often: he almost lived on the road, and the fresh air was as welcome to his
lungs as the policeman's quest to his mood: he preferred it to the steam of
dye-houses. The magistrates of the district must have dreaded him: they were
slow, timid men; he liked both to frighten and to rouse them. He liked to force
them to betray a certain fear, which made them alike falter in resolve and
recoil in action - the fear, simply, of assassination. This, indeed, was the
dread which had hitherto hampered every manufacturer and almost every public man
in the district. Helstone alone had ever repelled it. The old Cossack knew well
he might be shot: he knew there was risk; but such death had for his nerves no
terrors: it would have been his chosen - might he have had a choice.
    Moore likewise knew his danger: the result was an unquenchable scorn of the
quarter whence such danger was to be apprehended. The consciousness that he
hunted assassins was the spur in his high-mettled temper's flank. As for fear,
he was too proud - too hard-nurtured - (if you will) - too phlegmatic a man to
fear. Many a time he rode belated over moors, moonlit or moonless as the case
might be, with feelings far more elate, faculties far better refreshed, than
when safety and stagnation environed him in the counting-house. Four was the
number of the leaders to be accounted for: two, in the course of a fortnight,
were brought to bay near Stilbro'; the remaining two it was necessary to seek
further off: their haunts were supposed to lie near Birmingham.
    Meantime, the clothier did not neglect his battered mill: its reparation was
esteemed a light task; carpenters' and glaziers' work alone being needed. The
rioters not having succeeded in effecting an entrance, his grim, metal darlings
- the machines - had escaped damage.
    Whether, during this busy life - whether, while stern justice and exacting
business claimed his energies and harassed his thoughts - he now and then gave
one moment, dedicated one effort, to keep alive gentler fires than those which
smoulder in the fane of