"O, nonsense! who should want to kill you?"
"I donno," replied Mr. Fairfield, hastily, and in a tone which implied that he knew very well who intended to kill him, but he did not wish to name the person. "If I hadn't been as tough as an old black-fish, it would have killed me, as sure as fate; that's the whole truth on't!"
"But who could have set such a trap?" persisted Dock.
"You didn't—did you?" added the old man, innocently.
"Of course I didn't. You don't think I'd do such a thing as that," said Dock, laughing.
"My wife didn't—did she?"
"Massy sakes! What's got into your head, Nathan?" interposed the old lady. "Goodness knows I didn't do no sech thing."
Mrs. Fairfield was a simple-minded woman, and she did not comprehend that her disabled lord was only reasoning by an interrogatory and inductive method.
"Certainly Mrs. Fairfield didn't meddle with the plank," added Dock.
"'Twan't Mr. Watson—was it? nor the Watson gal, nuther?"