_I_ didn't know. So I jest bellers and boo-hoos
some more. Things was getting past anything I
could see the way out of.

"He might of hung himself to one of the iron
rings in the jists above the forge," says another
woman. "He clumb onto the forge to tie the rope
to one of them rings, and he tied the other end
around his neck, and then he stepped off'n the forge.
Was that how he done it, Danny?"

I nodded. And then I bellered louder than ever.
I knowed Hank was down in that there cistern, a
corpse and a mighty wet corpse, all this time; but
they kind o' got me to thinking mebby he was hang-
ing out in the shop by the forge, too. And I guessed

I'd better stick to the shop story, not wanting to
say nothing about that cistern no sooner'n I could
help it.

Pretty soon one woman says, kind o' shivery:

"I don't want to have the job of opening the door
of that blacksmith shop the first one!"

And they all kind o' shivered then, and looked at
Elmira. They says to let some of the men open
it. And Mis' Alexander, she says she'll run home