"Tst—tst!" she began, testily. "Haven't you got over that yet? One Jew the less in the world! What is it to trouble about? Be a man—come, be a man! See, this is how I got rid of him."
As she spoke, Mrs. Higgs suddenly dropped Dudley's arm, which she had been clutching tenaciously, and hobbling away from him at an unusual rate of speed for her, she went back to the door, turned the key in the lock, and then withdrew it and dropped it into her pocket. This action Dudley was too much absorbed to notice.
Then she made her way at her usual pace, leaning heavily on the stout stick she was never without, toward the corner where the heap of lumber lay, on the left-hand side of what had once been the fireplace. Here she stooped, lifted a couple of bricks and a broken box-lid from the floor, and then easily raised the board on which they had stood, and beckoned to Dudley to come nearer. He did so, slowly, and with evident reluctance.
"Look here," said she, pointing down to the space where the board had been. "Look down. Don't be afraid," she added, in a jeering tone. "There's nothing there to frighten you. See for yourself."
Dudley stooped, and looking through the small opening available, saw that there was a space hollowed out underneath.
"And you put him there—under the boards?" said Dudley, in a low voice. "But it was in the water that the body was found—in the river outside."
"Why, yes, so it was," said the old woman, slowly, as she lifted the board out of its place altogether, and displacing also the one next to it, descended through the opening she had made.
Dudley watched her with fascinated eyes. Apparently the space below was not very deep, for she had only disappeared as far as the knees down-ward, and then knelt down, and for a moment was lost to sight altogether. She appeared to be struggling with something, and Dudley, consumed with horror, took a step back as he watched.
Presently she looked up. Her face was in shadow, but he could see that she was panting, as if with some great exertion.
"Get back! Stand in the middle of the room there, if you're afraid," said she, mockingly. "Right out of my reach, mind, where I can't get at you."