"Ever since the day he gave you away as a bride. And a nervous, blushing, tender-hearted little bride you were, too!"
Again Magnus shuffled in his chair and made noises in his throat.
"I remember it so well because it was the same year that your father's big barn was burnt down, and his cousin Jorgen was found dead in the Chasm. What a sensation that made! What inquiries! What examining witnesses! Your predecessor had something on his hands in those days, Sheriff."
The Sheriff muttered some commonplace and Magnus kicked at the smouldering wood in the stove.
"Suspicion actually fell upon your father, you remember, and because he had been drinking and was such an ungovernable man when he was drunk----"
"Oh, for the Lord's sake let's have done with this," cried Magnus.
"Magnus Stephenson," protested the Pastor, "if we are in trouble let us behave like God's rational creatures----"
"Rational hell!" growled Magnus, whereupon the Sheriff, to avoid further friction, closed his book with a bang, saying he had finished and was ready to go.
Magnus sat quiet while the Sheriff--a sharp-featured man with the eyes of a ferret--put on his snow-shoes and cloak, and then with a tremor in his voice and a somber fire in his eyes he turned and said:
"Is it all over, sir?"