"Because he warn't there," said Gubblum.
Job lost all patience.
"Look here," he said, "if you're not hankering for a cold bath on a frosty morning, laal man, I don't know as you've got any call to say that again!"
"He warn't there," the "laal man" muttered doggedly.
The blacksmith had plunged his last heat into the water trough to cool, and a cloud of vapor filled the smithy.
"Lord A'mighty!" he said, laughing, "that's the way some folks go off—all of a hiss and a smoke."
"He warn't there," mumbled the peddler again, impervious to the homely similitude.
"How are you so certain sure?" said Dick of the Syke. "You warn't there yourself, I reckon."
"No; but I was somewhere else, and so was Paul Ritson. I slept at the Pack House in Kezzick night afore last, and he did the same."
"Did you see him there?" said the blacksmith.