"Bill don't touch a drop." Her face was very red, maybe from the stove. "Bill said the buck was the biggest deer he'd ever seen. He went right by Bill, and disappeared, right in broad daylight. Bill looked for tracks after he was gone, and there weren't any."
She wet her lips and went back to the stove.
"I wouldn't worry, Mrs. Boody," Robinson said.
She looked up then with frantic eyes.
"It isn't Bill, out there on the road, dead?"
He went swiftly to her and put one hand on her shoulder.
"I wouldn't lie to you. It wasn't him."
She seemed to relax for the first time since last night.
"I guess you're telling the truth. I wish Bill would come home, though. They used to say that anyone who saw the phantom buck was getting ready for an early death."