“I sent him! I don’t know the man.”
“Dat’s mons’us ’culiar, seh—he said yo sont ’im. He com’d ’torrectly arfter yo lef! Him an’ a’nudder man, seh—I didn’t know the nudder man, hows’ever.”
“What did they want?” Croyden asked. 244
“Dey sed yo warn dem to look over all de place, seh, an’ see what repairs wuz necessary, and fix dem. Dey wuz heah a’most two hours, I s’pose.”
“This is most extraordinary!” Croyden exclaimed. “Do you mean they were in this house for two hours?”
“Yass, seh.”
“What were they doing?”
“’Zaminin the furniture everywhere. I didn’t stays wid em, seh—I knows Mistah Snyder well; he’s bin heah off’n to wuk befo’ yo cum, seh. But I seed dem gwine th’oo de drawers, an’ poundin on the floohs, seh. Dey went down to de cellar, too, seh, an wuz dyar quite a while.”
“Are you sure it was Snyder?” Croyden asked.
“Sut’n’y! seh, don’t you t’inks I knows ’im? I knows ’im from de time he wuz so high.”