Brent was too much occupied with his own thoughts to heed the break in the young man's reply.
"You have been at St. Mary's for some days?" he asked.
"A week yesterday, your Excellency."
"And spent much time on the wharf?"
"The better part of every day, overlooking first the unloading of the tobacco, and then the getting aboard of the farm implements and household stuff I am to carry back to Romney."
"Hm! Perhaps, then, you were witness to the—the unpleasantness that fell out betwixt Captain Ingle and Reuben Early."
"Ay, sir—I saw the blow struck."
"Of your kindness, tell me how it all fell out. The village folk are so hot over the matter 'tis passing hard to get a clear story from any of them. Was Richard Ingle drunk or sober?"
"Why, not fully the one or the other, I should say; but more as one who has been in his cups overnight and is at odds with the world next morning."