'I tell you,' he said with an oath, 'I brought the money here.'
'You cannot prove it,' said De Witt; 'if you have any reasons for saying this, let us hear them.'
'I have no reasons,' answered the shepherd, 'but I know the truth all the same. I never have reasons, I do not want to have them, when I know a fact.'
'Did you shake the bag and make the money chink on the way?'
'I will not answer any more questions. If you suspect me to be the thief, say so to my face, and don't go ferriting and trapping to ketch me, and then go and lay it on me before a magistrate.'
'You had better go, Abraham. No one disputes your perfect honesty,' said Mehalah.
'But I will not go, if anyone suspects me.'
'We do not suspect you.'
'Then why do you ask questions? Who asks questions who don't want to lay a wickedness on one?'
'Go off to bed, Abraham,' said widow Sharland. 'We have met with a dreadful loss, and the Almighty knows how we are to come out of it.'