But Mrs Tresize very deftly stepped in front of him as he came on menacing.
'If you are not a fool,' she said sharply, 'you will waste no time, but hurry along and pay the carriers. They, for their part, won't waste any time with neat brandy. In ten minutes or so they'll be wanting your blood in a bottle—and, if it's all the same to you, Mr Truman, I'd rather they didn't start hunting you through these premises. What's more,' she added, as he hesitated, 'the riding-officer was close on your track just now. You owe it to Doctor Unonius here, that he has overrun it.'
The butcher clutched at his bag, and made as if to open it.
'You needn't trouble,' Mrs Tresize assured him sweetly. 'Your money's good—and so will be mine when it comes to settling, for all that I'm reported "near." Good-night!'
'Good-night!' growled Butcher Truman, and lurched forth with his bag.
The widow, staring after him, broke into a laugh.
'Tryphena,' she said, 'fetch the doctor's horse and harness him quick! We must get him out of this, good man. Are the tubs stowed?'
'All of 'em, missus. I counted the four dozen.'
'Four dozen is forty-eight; and that doctor'—she turned to him— 'is not my age, by a very long way.'
But when Dapple had been harnessed, and the doctor drove off (after looking at his watch and finding that it indicated ten minutes to four), Mrs Tresize lingered at the back door a moment before ordering Tryphena to shut and bolt it.
'There was nothing else to do but lie,' she said to herself, meditatively. 'But, all the same, it's lost him for me.'