Now let us take the concrete incident.  Before that hypocritical thaw early in February, Jethro called upon Amos Cuthbert—­not so surly then as he has since become—­and talked about buying his wool when it should be duly cut, and permitted Amos to talk about the position of second selectman, for which some person or persons unknown to the jury had nominated him.  On his way down to the Four Corners, Jethro had merely pulled up his sleigh before Eben Williams’s house, which stood behind a huge snow bank and practically on the road.  Eben appeared at the door, a little dishevelled in hair and beard, for he had been sleeping.

“How be you, Jethro?” he said nervously.  Jethro nodded.

“Weather looks a mite soft.”

No answer.

“About that interest,” said Eben, plunging into the dread subject, “don’t know as I’m ready this month after all.”

“G-goin’ to town meetin’, Eben?”

“Wahn’t callatin’ to,” answered Eben.

“G-goin’ to town meetin’, Eben?”

Eben, puzzled and dismayed, ran his hand through his hair.

“Wahn’t callatin’ to—­but I kin—­I kin.”

“D-Democrat—­hain’t ye—­D-Democrat?”

“I kin be,” said Eben.  Then he looked at Jethro and added in a startled voice, “Don’t know but what I be—­Yes, I guess I be.”

“H-heerd the ticket?”

Yes, Eben had heard the ticket.  What man had not.  Some one has been most industrious, and most disinterested, in distributing that ticket.

“Hain’t a mite of hurry about the interest right now—­right now,” said Jethro.  “M-may be along the third week in March—­may be—­c-can t tell.”

And Jethro clucked to his horse, and drove away.  Eben Williams went back into his house and sat down with his head in his hands.  In about two hours, when his wife called him to fetch water, he set down the pail on the snow and stared across the next ridge at the eastern horizon, whitening after the sunset.

The third week in March was the week after town meeting!

“M-may be—­c-can’t tell,” repeated Eben to himself, unconsciously imitating Jethro’s stutter.  “Godfrey, I’ll hev to git that ticket straight from Amos.”

Yes, we may have our suspicions.  But how can we get a bill on this evidence?  There are some thirty other individuals in Coniston whose mortgages Jethro holds, from a horse to a house and farm.  It is not likely that they will tell Beacon Hatch, or us; that they are going to town meeting and vote for that fatherless ticket because Jethro Bass wishes them to do so.  And Jethro has never said that he wishes them to.  If so, where are your witnesses?  Have we not come back to our starting-point, even as Moses Hatch drove around in a circle..  And we have the advantage over Moses, for we suspect somebody, and he did not know whom to suspect.  Certainly not Jethro Bass, the man that lived under his nose and never said anything—­and had no right