Jerry smiled. He had caught that note and it piqued his curiosity, so
with mountain secretiveness he became cryptic in his response. "Wa'al,
mebby we hain't tellin' all we knows--jest yit. Mebby we're kinderly
bidin' our time for a leetle spell."
It was not a comprehensive announcement. It was nine-tenths inspired
by a spirit of teasing gossip-hunger into fuller revealment, but it
happened to start a train of serious thought in the hearer.
Jase had recently returned from Coal City, and there he had talked with
men who were watching with alarm the possibilities of an impending
trial. The man who had shot his neighbor over a fence-line dispute was
to face his prosecutors at the next term of court, and if he talked too
much, large and portentous results might ensue.
The Commonwealth would know nothing of its potential leverage on the
accused unless Halloway, O'Keefe or Alexander broke silence, and it
followed that their silencing was highly important.
Through Jase's thoughts ran, in a threatening refrain, the words,
"Mebby hit won't be long now.
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