Used 'em all up--for m' mince-meat!" Ford knew he was lying.

His eyes searched the untidy tables and the corners filled with bags and boxes.

Mose was a good cook, but his ideas of order were vague, and his system of housekeeping was the simple one of leaving everything where he had last been using it, so that it might be handy when he wanted it again.

A dozen bottles might be concealed there, like the faces in a picture-puzzle, and it would take a housecleaning to disclose them all.

But Ford, when he knew that no bottle had been left in sight, began turning over the bags and looking behind the boxes.
He must have been "growing warm" when he stood wondering whether it was worth while to look into the flour-bin, for Mose gave an inarticulate snarl and pounced on him from behind.