"You have not? Pray, then, what———"
"I come t' tell you, Doctor Meredith, that perhaps if it hadn't been fer some of your boys maybe there wouldn't have been any fire!"
"What's that?" exclaimed the doctor, drawing himself up sharply and looking at the farmer intently. "Just what do you mean, Mr. Appleby?"
"Jest what I said. I'm not satisfied as t' how that fire started, and I suspect that some of your students set it."
"Preposterous! Why should they do such a thing as that?"
"Because some of them have a grudge against me. It ain't th' fust time the school boys has played tricks on me. Two years ago they burned up an old shed."
"So you said at the time, but you could never prove it, I believe. You should be careful how you make accusations, sir."
"I am careful, Doctor Meredith, an' that's why I didn't come sooner.
I've got evidence now."
"Evidence? What kind?"
"Well, one of my hired men saw a fellow, who looked like a school lad, sneaking around the hay stacks a leetle while afore they begun to blaze."