Part 24 (2/2)
”I'd been down to the barn and out by the gate, looking around,” said Joe. There he paused.
”Yes; looking around,” encouraged the coroner, believing from the lad's appearance and slow manner that he had a dull fellow in hand. ”Now, what were you looking around for, Joe?”
”I had a kind of uneasy feeling, and I wanted to see if everything was safe,” said Joe.
”Afraid of horse-thieves, or something like that?”
”Something like that,” nodded Joe.
Mrs. Newbolt, sitting very straight-backed, held her lips tight, for she was impressed with the seriousness of the occasion. Now and then she nodded, as if confirming to herself some foregone conclusion.
”Isom had left me in charge of the place, and I didn't want him to come back and find anything gone,” Joe explained.
”I see,” said the coroner in a friendly way. ”Then what did you do?”
”I went back to the house and lit the lamp in the kitchen,” said Joe.
”How long was that before Isom came in?”
”Only a little while; ten or fifteen minutes, or maybe less.”
”And what did Isom say when he came in, Joe?”
”He said he'd kill me, he was in a temper,” Joe replied.
”You had no quarrel before he said that, Isom just burst right into the room and threatened to kill you, did he, Joe? Now, you're sure about that?”
”Yes, I'm perfectly sure.”
”What had you done to send Isom off into a temper that way?”
”I hadn't done a thing,” said Joe, meeting the coroner's gaze honestly.
The coroner asked him concerning his position in the room, what he was doing, and whether he had anything in his hands that excited Isom when he saw it.
”My hands were as empty as they are this minute,” said Joe, but not without a little color in his cheeks when he remembered how hot and small Ollie's hand had felt within his own.
”When did you first see this?” asked the coroner, holding up the sack with the burst corner which had lain on Isom's breast.
The ruptured corner had been tied with a string, and the sack bulged heavily in the coroner's hand.
”When Isom was lying on the floor after he was shot,” said Joe.
A movement of feet was audible through the room. People looked at each other, incredulity in their eyes. The coroner returned to the incidents which led up to the shooting snapping back to that phase of the inquiry suddenly, as if in the expectation of catching Joe off his guard.
”What did he threaten to kill you for?” he asked sharply.
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