“Had detectives on the job, I suppose?” said Archibald.
“Oh, yes, the town got a couple of ’em up here. Ate everything within sight and looked wise and got nowheres. They sort of suspected Ezra Watts, but, jumping Jerusha, everybody else had thought of that before they did. That’s the first rule up here when anything goes wrong. Suspect Ezra. He’s a good deal of a pill, Ezra is, and I don’t put much past him in the way of meanness, but I can’t say as I held him accountable for the drought last year or for my horses having pink eye this spring. I’ve got a leaning toward proof, and there ain’t a ghost of proof against Ezra in this barn business—except just his general cussedness and that he thinks he’s got a grudge against the Valley folks—but I’m kind of afraid some of the young fellows’ll handle him rough, without asking for proof, if this barn burning keeps up. When Nick Bullard and Lem Tollerton and that crowd get a drink or two aboard, they don’t set much store by law and order. I kind of figure that this would be a healthy time for Ezra to visit somewheres without waiting to be invited.”
“You don’t mean that they’d really harm him?” Archibald said incredulously.
“Well, as I said, there’s just a few of the boys that ain’t strong on law and order, when they’re full of liquor ’n’ animal spirits ’n’ have what they’d call a good cause. Of course the rest of us would stop them if we got wind of their deviltry in time, but we generally don’t and then when it’s over there’s nobody wants to run them down and jail them because everybody knows their families and neighbors are with them. Last time they made trouble they beat up a peddler that had been cheating all the women. Can’t say he didn’t deserve a licking, but the boys overdid it and got considerable of a scare themselves. Thought they’d killed the fellow.
“Ma and I took him in and nursed him up and turned him out all right. He did talk some about suing for assault and all that, but, shucks, how’d he know who to sue? The boys wore masks. He was some scared too, and so he went off as soon as he was able—and glad to go. Glad to have him go, we were. You’ve got to do you’re duty, but I must say I ain’t strong on Samaritaning when the hurt party’s as low down a skunk as that peddler was.
“The boys ain’t been taking any law into their hands since that, but the whole neighborhood’s so stirred up over this fire-bug—”
“Stop borrowing trouble, Pa,” Mrs. Neal interrupted. “Nice idea of his neighbors you’ll be giving Mr. Archibald. You’re getting as nervous as a tadpole over this barn business.”
“Too nervous to put up a pair of horses for me, if I send for them?” inquired Archibald laughingly, but Mr. Neal’s face was serious as he answered.
“At your own risk. I’ll be glad to take them but you’d better insure them.”
Archibald met Mrs. Benderby for the first time that night. She was sitting on the porch as he and Peg turned in at the gate, and, rising from her chair, came forward to meet them.