When, however, he found the incomers were inclined to accuse him of trick or knavery, he spoke out bravely enough.
Old Cameron had died--they knew old Cameron?
Yes, the men assented to this knowledge.
And after he had been dead two days and one night, Mr.Bates--they knew Mr.Bates ?-- Assent again.
-- Had put him in the coffin with his own hands and nailed down the lid.
He was quite dead--perfectly dead.
On hearing this the bold girl who had come with them shrieked again, and two of the younger men took her aside, and, holding her head over a bucket in the corner poured water on it, a process which silenced her.
"And," said Turrif, quietly speaking in French, "what then ?" "What then ?" said Saul; "Then to-day I brought him in the cart." "And buried him on the road, because he was heavy and useless, and let some friend of yours play with the box ?" continued Turrif, with an insinuating smile.
Saul swore loudly that this was not the case, at which the men shrugged their shoulders and looked at Trenholme.
To him the scene and the circumstances were very curious.

The house into which they had come was much smaller than Turrif's.

The room was a dismal one, with no sign of woman or child about it.

Its atmosphere was thick with the smoke of tobacco and the fumes of hot whisky, in which Saul and his host had been indulging.

A soft, homemade candle, guttering on the table, shed a yellow smoky light upon the faces of the bearded men who stood around it.