you--ortern't--to let--that sheriff--thar--shoot my--dog--until the Dillons
answers what I axed--" the boy's passionate cry rang against the green walls
and out the opening and across the river--

"WHAR'S WHIZZER?"

The boy startled the crowd and the old Squire himself, who turned quickly to
the Dillons.

"Well, whar is Whizzer?"

Nobody answered.

"He ain't been seen, Squire, sence the evenin' afore the night o' the
killin'!" Chad's statement seemed to be true. Not a voice contradicted.

"An' I want to know if Daws seed signs o' killin' on Jack's head when he
jumped the fence, why them same signs didn't show when he got home."

Poor Chad! Here old Tad Dillon raised his hand.

"Axe the Turners, Squire," he said, and as the school-master on the outskirts
shrank, as though he meant to leave the crowd, the old man's quick eye caught
the movement and he added:

"Axe the school-teacher!"

Every eye turned with the Squire's to the master, whose face was strangely
serious straightway.