I believe you've known it all
along."
"I say allowin' it is, you haven't any right to say Charlie took
this money from the Orham bank. You can't prove any such thing."
"Aw, be still! Prove--prove nothin'. When a cat and a sasser of
milk's shut up together and the milk's gone, you don't need proof
to know where it's gone, do you? Don't talk to me about proof, Jed
Winslow. Put a thief alongside of money and anybody knows what'll
happen. Why, YOU know what's happened yourself. You know darn
well Charlie Phillips has stole the money that's gone from the
bank. Down inside you you're sartin sure of it; and I don't want
any better proof of THAT than just your face, Shavin's."
This time Jed did not attempt to contradict. Instead he tried a
new hazard.
"Phin," he pleaded, "don't be too hard. Just think of what'll
happen if you come out with that--that wild-goose yarn of yours.
Think of Maud, poor girl. You haven't got anything against her,
have you?"
"Yes, I have. She's stuck-up and nose in the air and looks at me
as if I was some sort of--of a bug she wouldn't want to step on for
fear of mussin' up her shoes. I never did like her, blast her.
But leavin' that all to one side, she's Sam Hunniwell's young-one
and that's enough for me."
"But she's his only child, Phin."
"Good enough! I had a boy; he was an only child, too, you'll
remember.
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