“I wish you’d get tired talking about brothers-in-law all the time,” she said, severely. “Don’t forget that you are a brother-in-law yourself, Joe Sikes. You are a brother-in-law to two men and—”
“What are you trying to do, Serepty Grimes? Insult me? Make a mortal enemy out of me? For two cents I’d refuse to drink a mouthful of your coffee. And what’s more—”
“Look out yonder, Joe—in the swamp,” she broke in, pointing through the fringe of trees. “There’s a crowd—”
“Serepty!” he cried bleakly. “They—they have found something out yonder. I feel it in my bones. The corpus delicti. I guess I won’t have any coffee. I’ll just mosey out there and see what’s happened.”
“Wait a minute. Isn’t that Silas Link coming across the swamp?”
He groaned. “If it is, he’ll never get here. He’s too old and fat to be hurryin’ like that. He’ll drop dead. He’s got a weak heart.”
“Sit down, Joe,” she said suddenly, after a quick look at his paling face.
“I guess maybe I’d better,” he said weakly. “Just for a second or two. My legs seem sort of wobbly and—”
“Don’t sit down yet,” she cried. “Wait till we get to the steps. You’ll break a hip or something if you sit down—”
“Ain’t your legs sort of weak and—”