"Ain't that what they call it? I ain't no doctor."
"Mr. Lessing happens to be a student of chemistry, not a medical
student, so if anyone's been trying to get round you with bogy tales
they're talking nonsense. I'm surprised at a man of your education,
Mr. Johnson, listening to such absurdities!"
"Then what does he shut himself up for, with a lamp you can see two
miles off, unless he's up to suthin' he don't want folks to know?"
"Probably because he doesn't want a pack of ignoramuses meddling with
his affairs."
"Well, that's what they say, and there's folks as believes it," he
said sullenly. "An' as fur his walkin' in the woods, I ain't tellin'
you anything but what's so. He was seen the same night as Jake
Menning got killed goin' down Dutchman's Hill. It was Jakey's
half-brother as seen him, an' Aaron ain't one to be tellin' lies.
No, sir! An' if Doctor Lennox was here now he would tell you the
same, for he was called out to see a sick child at the Bend that same
night and it was him as found Jake Menning there the next mornin'."
"Do you know you're saying things you might get into trouble over?" I
asked sternly.
"Oh, I ain't sayin' he had no hand in it," he returned promptly.
"Everyone knows Jakey got killed through bein' too drunk to look whar
he was goin'!"