"My——" the third began, but left the sentence unfinished as he also started.
The fourth said nothing. He had too much handicap to make up.
When they had all gone, the four strangers stood and looked at one another in silence.
"Better have another nip and then move on," the man who had had the conversation with Cudlip remarked.
The host, who had gone to the door to watch the last of the residents disappear, turned back at the mention of business.
"They've swallowed everything bar the bottles," he exclaimed.
"Then we'll move on without the nip," the man said quietly.
As they started towards the door Cudlip interposed before them.
"Say, Misters, before you go," he said. "It's all square about that there alloovial, I take it?"
"Square?" one of the men replied. "Well, you needn't believe it. It's twenty miles over the ridge to the west, the place I mean, but don't you go there. You'll make your pile here, if you stop."