"Why--why--now, look here, Ed Higgins, I ain't got time to explain things to a derned idgit like you. Everybody else understands _how_, don't you?" and he turned to the crowd. Everybody said yes. "Well, that shows what a fool you are, Ed. Don't bother me any more. I've got work to do."
"Say, Anderson," began Alf Reesling from the outer circle, "I got something important to tell--"
"Who is that? Alf Reesling?" cried Anderson wrathfully.
"Yes; I want to see you private, Anderson. Its important," begged Alf.
"How many times have I got to set down on you, Alf Reesling?" exploded Anderson. "Doggone, I'd like to know how a man's to solve mysteries if he's got to stand around half the time an' listen to fambly quarrels. Tell yer wife I'll--"
"This ain't no family quarrel. Besides, I ain't got no wife. It's about this here--"
"That'll do, now, Alf! Not another word out of you!" commanded Anderson direfully.
"But, dern you, Anderson," exploded Alf, "I've got to tell you--"
"Don't swear in the presence of the dead," he said solemnly. "You're drunk, Alf; go home!" And Alf, news and all was hustled from the schoolhouse by a self-appointed committee of ten.
"Now, we'll search fer the body," announced Anderson. "Git out of the way, Bud!"
"I ain't standin' on it," protested twelve-year-old Bud Long.
"Well, you're standin' mighty near them blood-stains an'--"
"Yes, 'n ain't blood a part of the body?" rasped Isaac Porter scornfully; whereupon Bud faded into the outer rim.
"First we'll look down cellar," said Mr. Crow. "Where's the cellar at?"
"What? No cellar? Well, where in thunder did they hide the body, then?"
"There's an attic," ventured Joe Perkins.
A searching party headed by Anderson Crow shinned up the ladder to the low garret. No trace of a body was to be found, and the searchers came down rather thankfully. Then, under Mr. Crow's direction, they searched the wood piles, the woods, and the fields for many rods in all directions. At noon they congregated at the schoolhouse. Alf Reesling was there.
"Find it?" said he thickly, with a cunning leer. He had been drinking. Anderson was tempted to club him half to death, but instead he sent him home with Joe Perkins, refusing absolutely to hear what the town drunkard had to say.