"
"And the murderers are--"
"Those who survived and profited by the murder, of course?"
"Jer-ri-choo-woo!" exploded Duff Salter. "Young man," he wrote
deliberately, "you have an idle tongue."
"Friend Salter, you are blind as well as deaf. Do you know Miss Podge
Byerly?"
"No. Do you?"
"She's common! Agnes Wilt uses her as a stool-pigeon. She fetches, and
carries, and flies by night. One of the school directors shoved her on
the public schools for intimate considerations. Perhaps you'll see him
about the house if you look sharp and late some night."
"Jer-rich-co! Jericho!"
Duff Salter was decidedly red in the face, and his grave gray eyes
looked both fierce and convicted. He _had_ seen a school director
visiting the house, but thought it natural enough that he should take a
kind interest in one of the youthful and pretty teachers. The deaf man
returned to his pencil and tablets.
"Do you know, Mr. Van de Lear, that what you are saying is indictable
language? It would have exposed you to death where I have lived."
The young man tossed his head recklessly. Duff Salter now saw that his
usually sallow face was flushed up to the roots of his long dry hair and
almost colorless whiskers, as if he had been drinking liquors.
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