He turned back his shirt at the neck
and rolled up his sleeves."
"I don't see how he could do it!" grandmother kept saying.
Otto misunderstood her. "Why, mam, it was simple enough; he pulled the
trigger with his big toe. He layed over on his side and put the end of the
barrel in his mouth, then he drew up one foot and felt for the trigger. He
found it all right!"
"Maybe he did," said Jake grimly. "There's something mighty queer about
it."
"Now what do you mean, Jake?" grandmother asked sharply.
"Well, mam, I found Krajiek's axe under the manger, and I picks it up and
carries it over to the corpse, and I take my oath it just fit the gash in
the front of the old man's face. That there Krajiek had been sneakin'
round, pale and quiet, and when he seen me examinin' the axe, he begun
whimperin', 'My God, man, don't do that!' 'I reckon I'm a-goin' to look
into this,' says I. Then he begun to squeal like a rat and run about
wringin' his hands. 'They'll hang me!' says he. 'My God, they'll hang me
sure!'"
Fuchs spoke up impatiently. "Krajiek's gone silly, Jake, and so have you.
The old man would n't have made all them preparations for Krajiek to
murder him, would he? It don't hang together. The gun was right beside him
when Ambrosch found him."
"Krajiek could 'a' put it there, could n't he?" Jake demanded.
Grandmother broke in excitedly: "See here, Jake Marpole, don't you go
trying to add murder to suicide.
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