with all his ears, heard what followed quite clearly.

"It ain't for me to spread ill tales after what I've told you, eh? But
the Colonel's death was a reg'lar tragedy, 'twas, and some there were who
said that 'is widder wasn't exactly sorry. 'E were a melancholy cove for
any young woman to 'ave to live with. But there, as my old mother used to
say, 'any old barn-door can keep out the draught!'"

The younger man looked up:--"What sort o' tragedy?" he asked.

"The Colonel pizened 'isself, and the question was--did 'e do it o'
purpose? Some said yes, and some said no. I was in it by a manner of
speaking."

"You was in it?"

The boy left off working, and gazed at the other eagerly:--"D'you mean
you saw him do it?"

"I was the first to see 'im in his agony--I calls that being in it. And
I was called upon to give evidence at the inquest held on the corpse."

The man looked round him furtively as he spoke. The little boy sitting by
the back door of the house caused him no concern, but he did not want
what he said to be overheard by the two new maid-servants who had arrived
at The Trellis House that morning.

"There's always a lot of talk when folks die sudden," he went on, in a
sententious tone. "It was as plain as the nose on your face that the
Colonel, poor chap, 'ad 'ad what they called shell-shock. I'd heard 'im