"Unquestionably. They are elderly men who have been employed at the 'Hundred' all their lives, and who bear excellent characters. Zack is the local colored Baptist preacher, and Zeb is an assistant field overseer. Impossible to suspect either, let alone both."
"Wouldn't they knock off for dinner at noon? Go to their cabins, I mean."
"Ordinarily, yes. But on Tuesday Mandy, Zack's wife, went to Calverton, and didn't return until late in the evening, or afternoon, as you would say. Accordingly she made up pail dinners for both Zack and Zeb, the latter being a boarder in their family. The men ate their food in the shadow of the osage hedge directly opposite the terrace; Effingham saw them and told me so."
"You seem to have covered the ground pretty thoroughly," I observed approvingly.
"And for good reasons, too," remarked the doctor. "For if I really believed the circumstances warranted the step it would be my duty to communicate my suspicions to the coroner."
"Then you haven't done so!" I was surprised and doubtless my voice showed it.
"No," assented Marcy deliberately. "In the first place I was determined to keep every
[Note: There was a misprint here in the book. Instead of the end of this paragraph, the preceding paragraph was duplicated.]
I started; I fancied that I had caught just the faintest suggestion of a sigh. Let me explain that the great room was in darkness except for the circle of yellow light cast by the shaded lamp that stood on a table at my right. I listened intently, but I could hear nothing more.