"Won't they be fur trackin' of _him_?" One of the moonshiners, whom the child had not seen before, seemed disposed to rebuke this easy optimism.
"What fur? They will think Bubby went over the bluff too," Clenk declared definitely.
"There's nuthin' ter show fur it, though," Copenny joined the opposite opinion.
"Nuthin' needed in that mixtry of horseflesh an' human carcass an' splintered wood and leather," argued Clenk.
"Yes, they will hev ter gather up them remains in a shovel," acquiesced Holvey.
The shadowy form of the doubter who had introduced the subject, thick-set, stoop-shouldered, showed in its attitude that he was lowering and ill at ease. "Waal, you-uns hev made a powerful botch of the simple little trick of drawing a bead on a revenuer anyhow. Takin' one man fur another--I never dreamed o' the beat! Copenny war so sure o' the man an' the mare! _I_ never purtended to know either. Seems ter me ye oughter be willin' ter lis'n ter reason now."
"Waal, let's hear reason, then," Copenny's sardonic falsetto tones rasped on the air, and the little head under the broad white, gayly beribboned hat turned up attentively, as the child stood so low down among the big booted feet of the armed moonshiners.
"Why, how easy it would hev been ter throw su'thin' over the bluff----" the counsellor began.
"Good Lord!" Clenk exclaimed angrily, from his seat in the boat, "ain't ye got _no_ human feelin's, Jack Drann? We-uns never went ter shed the innercent blood nohow. We-uns war loaded fur that tricky revenuer, an' Edward Briscoe war kilt by mistake. An' now ye ter be talkin' 'bout heavin' the leetle, harmless deedie over the bluff!"
"What ails yer hearin'?" retorted Drann angrily. "I said _su'thin'_--his coat, his hat--throw _su'thin'_ over, ter make folks think he war in the accident, too--mare run away and the whole consarn flopped bodaciously over the bluff! They will scour the kentry fur Bubby ef thar ain't su'thin' positive ter make them _sure_ ez he be dead, too."
Jubal Clenk, so readily cast down, meditated dolorously, as he sat still in the boat, on this signal omission in the chain of evidence. "It would sure hev made it all 'pear a heap mo' like an accident," he said disconsolately. Then, with suddenly renewing hopefulness, "But 't ain't too late yet--good many hours 'fore daylight. We kin send the coat an' hat back an' toss them over the bluff long before it is light good."