"I am afraid he won't be, under the circumstances."
"Maybe not, but there is one thing that, under the same circumstances, he ought to be thankful for. That is, that you came when you did. You may not know it, but I had been tryin' to get those hens out of that garden for—for a year, I guess. It seems longer, but I presume likely it wasn't more than a year."
She laughed again. "No," she said, "I guess it wasn't more than that."
"Probably not. If it had been any longer, judgin' by the way they worked, they'd have dug out the underpinnin' and had the house down by this time. How did you happen to come? Did you hear the—er—broadsides?"
"Why, no, I—But that reminds me. Have you seen a tramp around here?"
"A tramp? What sort of a tramp?"
"I don't know. Elvira—I mean Miss Snowden—said he was a tall, dark man and Aurora thought he was rather thick-set and sandy. But they both agree that he was a dreadful, rough-looking creature who carried a big club and had a queer slouchy walk. And he came in this direction, so they thought."
"He did, eh? Humph! Odd I didn't see him. I've been here all the time. Where was he when they saw him first?"
"Over on our property. In the Fair Harbor grounds, I mean. He came out of the bushes, so Elvira and Aurora say, and spoke to them. Insulted them, Elvira says."
"Sho! Well, well! I wonder where he went."