And Solomon, listening anxiously for Farnsworth's answer, was depressed to hear him give merely a good-humored laugh at Uncle Abijah's thrust.
"Mr. Peaslee," asked Sampson, so unexpectedly that Solomon jumped, "didn't you say something about a marble?"
"Yes," said Mr. Peaslee, gloomily.
"Fit the bore, did it?" continued the foreman.
"Slick," answered Mr. Peaslee, with the brevity of despair.
"If that marble fitted the bore," said Albion Small, while Sampson nodded assent, "it's my opinion it might do considerable damage."
His opinion had weight, for Small was a hunter of repute. Recovered from their amusement, the grand jurors had become gradually impressed with the idea that Mr. Peaslee's confession still left some awkward questions unanswered. If the matter were so simple as he said, why had he kept silent so long?
The jurymen came from all over the rather large county, and although they all had some knowledge of the principal men of Ellmington, and although such of them as had dealings at its bank had met Mr. Peaslee, none of them knew him well. He was a newcomer at the village, and when at his farm had not had a wide acquaintance.
They looked to Farnsworth as his fellow townsman to speak for him; but Farnsworth said nothing, and seemed preoccupied and doubtful. The inference was that he shared their perplexity. They felt that Keith, for all his "cantankerousness," might be right. Solomon could draw no comfort from their faces.
All this while Paige had been playing with his watch-chain and watching Abijah, whose character he appreciated, with discreet amusement; but he found himself in essential agreement with the peppery old fellow.