It was a heavy-looking drover that had touched me.
"Are you the chap that was tried to-day for murder of Jeweller Todd?" he asked.
"Well?" said I again, but I could see the crowd falling back, as if I was a leper, at his question.
"Well? 'Taint well then, as I reckon, to be making so free with respectable folk."
There was a murmur of assent from the mouths turned towards me.
The landlord came forward from behind the bar.
"I was acquitted," I urged defiantly.
"Ac-quitted!" said he, with big scorn in the syllables. "Hear im now—'ac-quitted!' Landlord, is this a respectable house?"
The landlord gave his verdict.
"H'out yer goes, and damn yer impudence!"
I looked round, but their faces were all dead against me.