They were all three standing now; and Aunt Martha, attracted by the unusual sound of their voices, had come to see if anything was wrong, and stood listening in the doorway. The old man spoke slowly, but with terrible emphasis.
“It is sacrilege. It is not only ignoring the rights o’ the living, it is violating the rights o’ the dead. [No better deed could be done by any one than to pull their accursed stakes from the ground and fling ’em, one and all, into the water of the brook!]”
He walked slowly across the porch and into the house; but before he had gone half-way through the kitchen he turned and came back to the door.
“Dannie,” he asked, “what kind of a lookin’ man was the engineer?”
“A short man, Gran’pap, with black eyes an’ hair.”
The old man gave a sigh of relief, but he was not yet quite satisfied.
“Was there only one of ’em?” he asked.
“Why, there was another engineer at the other instrument.”