It had just occurred to Mr.Snell, the landlord--he being, as he observed, a man accustomed to put two and two together--to connect with the tinder-box, which, as deputy-constable, he himself had had the honourable distinction of finding, certain recollections of a pedlar who had called to drink at the house about a month before, and had actually stated that he carried a tinder-box about with him to light his pipe.

Here, surely, was a clue to be followed out.

And as memory, when duly impregnated with ascertained facts, is sometimes surprisingly fertile, Mr.Snell gradually recovered a vivid impression of the effect produced on him by the pedlar's countenance and conversation.

He had a "look with his eye" which fell unpleasantly on Mr.Snell's sensitive organism.

To be sure, he didn't say anything particular--no, except that about the tinder-box--but it isn't what a man says, it's the way he says it.