Joseph Smith Fletcher

Ravensdene Court Joseph Smith Fletcher

It was very evident to Claigue and myself, interested spectators, that the new-comer's announcement, sudden and unexpected as it was, had had the instantaneous effect of making Quick forget his beef and his rum. Indeed, although he was only half-way through its contents, he pushed his plate away from him as if food were just then nauseous to him; his right hand lifted itself in an arresting, commanding gesture, and he turned a startled eye on the speaker, looking him through and through as if in angry doubt of what he had just said. "What's that?" he snapped out. "What says you? Say it again-no, I'll say it for you-to make sure that my ears ain't deceiving me! You met a man-hereabouts-what asked you if you knew where there was graves with a certain name on 'em? And that name was-Netherfield? Did you say that?-I asks you serious?" The drover, or shepherd, or whatever he was, looked from Quick to me and then to Claigue, and smiled, as if he wondered at Quick's intensity of manner. "You've got it all right, mister," he answered. "That's just what I did say. A stranger chap, he was-never seen him in these parts before."