"And you'd best to let it be known far and wide," said Shillabeer. "And doctor ought to see her, though of course no good. Still 'tis the fashion. And crowner will sit--here's the man!"
David Bowden appeared and Simon Snell ran away. For a moment Shillabeer set himself between the dead and living.
"'Tis I found her--Madge. She's gone to glory--she's drownded herself--dead. Lord's will, David."
"Found! Thank God--where?" asked the husband. He had only heard the word 'Madge.'
"If you can thank God, 'tis a good thing, Bowden. 'Twas long afore I could, when this happened to me," answered the other. "Come. She's here--behind the edge of the wall. 'Twas the best I could do."
David had passed him, and when Shillabeer turned, the husband knelt beside the hurdle. A moment later he tore at the clothing of the corpse and pressed his hand over her heart.
"Us must go for doctor as a matter of form, and he's at Princetown to-day--his day there from eleven o'clock till two--so I'll traapse up over and tell him to call. And I'll ax you for a dry shirt afore I start, poor man."
"She's dead!" said Bowden.
"And cold. There's nought in all nature so cold as them that die by drowning. But you must think of her as far ways off from here."
"Dead--dead. God help me!"