“You did not tie it properly.”
“Yes, I did, lad, so don’t go saying such a word as that. I made that rope fast round him quite proper.”
“No, or it wouldn’t have come untied. And you boasted as you did! Why, you’ve murdered him. Oh, Sam, Sam, Sam!”
“Will you be quiet?” cried the man, who was trembling visibly. “Don’t you turn again’ me. You were in the business, too. You helped, my lad; and if I murdered him, you were as bad as me.”
“It’s too cruel—too cruel!” groaned Joe.
“And you turning again’ me like that!” cried Hardock. “You shouldn’t run back from your mate in a job, my lad,” said the man, excitedly. “I tied him up in the reg’lar, proper knot, and you calls me a murderer. Just what his father would say to me if I give him a chance. It’s a shame!”
“We trusted you, both of us, because you were a man, and we thought you knew what was right!”
“And so I did know what was right, and did what was right; that there rope wouldn’t have never come undone if he hadn’t touched it. He must have got fiddling it about and undone it hissen. It warn’t no doing o’ mine!”
“Shame! Oh, you miserable coward!” cried Joe, starting to his feet now in his indignant anger.
“Mizzable coward! Oh, come, I like that!” cried Hardock. “Who’s a coward?”