"Quite true. But what do you conclude from its not having been?"
"That she who gied the shriek wor in the grasp o' somebody when she did it, an' wor silenced instant by bein' choked or smothered; same as they say's done by them scoundrels called garroters."
"You said nothing of this at the inquest?"
"No, I didn't, for several reasons. One, I wor so took by surprise, just home, an' hearin' what had happened. Besides, the crowner didn't question me on my feelin's--only about the facts o' the case. I answered all his questions, clear as I could remember, an' far's I then understood things; but not as I understand them now."
"Not a thing, Captain--only what I've been thinkin' o', by rememberin' a circumstance I'd forgot."
"Well, whiles I wor sittin' in the skiff that night, waitin' for you to come, I heerd a sound different from the hootin' o' them owls."
"The plashing o' oars. There wor sartin another boat about there besides this one."
"From above. It must ha' been that way. If't had been a boat gone up from below, I'd ha' noticed the stroke again across the strip o' island. But I didn't."
"Just so; an' for that reason I now believe it wor comin' down, an' stopped somewhere just outside the backwash."
An item of intelligence new to the Captain as it is significant. He recalls the hour--between two and three o'clock in the morning. What boat could have been there but his own? And if other, what its business?
"You're quite sure there was a boat, Wingate?" he asks, after a pause.
"The oars o' one--that I'm quite sure o'. An' where there's smoke, fire can't be far off. Yes, Captain, there wor a boat about there. I'm willin' to swear to it."
"Well, no; only some conjecter. First hearin' the oar, I wor under the idea it might be Dick Dempsey, out salmon-stealin'. But at the second plunge I could tell it wor no paddle, but a pair of regular oars. They gied but two or three strokes, an' then stopped suddintly; not as though the boat had been rowed back, but brought up against the bank, an' there layed."
"You don't think it was Dick and his coracle, then?"
"I'm sure it worn't the coracle, but ain't so sure about its not bein' him. 'Stead, from what happened that night, an's been a-happenin' ever since, I b'lieve he wor one o' the men in that boat."