“Oh, it has, eh? Why?”
“'Cause—'cause—Ask him if he's sure?”
Again Abner did not wait. “Course I'm sure,” he replied. “I told Isaiah Chase—yes, and I told that young-one, too—that I looked at the clock just afore I looked out of the window and see the critter in the very act. Yes, and Con see him too.”
Mary-'Gusta stamped her foot in triumph. “Then it wasn't David,” she said. “It wasn't David at all. 'Twas somebody else's cat, Mr. Bacheldor.”
“Somebody else's nothin'! Don't you suppose I know—”
“Hold on! Heave to, Ab. Mary-'Gusta, how do you know 'twasn't our cat?”
“'Cause—'cause David was with me from four o'clock till most five; that's how. He was in the—in our house with me. So,” triumphantly, “he couldn't have been anywhere else, could he?”
Con and his father both began a protest, but Shadrach cut it short.
“Keep still, for mercy sakes,” he ordered. “This ain't Shoutin' Methodist camp meetin'. Let's get soundin's here. Now, Mary-'Gusta, you say the cat was with you from four till five; you're sure of that?”
“Yes, sir. I know because Mr. Chase had gone out and we knew he wouldn't be back until five 'cause he said he wouldn't. So we looked at the clock before we went in.”