Papa slammed up the phone and rushed back over to Ned and Black Idd.
"Ned, me and Doctor Elton think you'd better leave! Get clean away from Drake Eye Springs, quick as you can! Go hide out somewhere, Ned!"
"Mister Jodie, you wants me to hide on 'count of that squirrel?"
"The squirrel? Ned, did you stuff that squirrel in Mister Ward's coat pocket?"
"Yes, suh. I puts him there so's hit'd 'pear like Mister Ward was just a-huntin'."
"Did you kill him?"
"Well, yes, suh, and no, suh! I shoots the fox squirrel, but I ain't for sho' that hit was me what kill Mister Ward."
"What do you mean, you 'ain't for sure'?"
"See, Mister Jodie, hit was like this: Sunday, just awhile 'fore sundown, me and Little Stray was walkin' 'cross the cornfield, lookin' for rabbits. Sylvie, she was with us. You knows Sylvie, Mister Jodie. She was sniffin'—"
"Yeah, I know all about the dog. But what about Ward?"