For a moment I had almost been tempted to believe that the stones were Hayle's property, and that these two men were conducting their crusade with the intention of robbing him of them.

Yet, on maturer reflection, this did not fit in.
There was the fact that they had certainly been mutilated as they described, and also their hatred of Hayle to be weighed in one balance, while Hayle's manifest fear of them could be set in the other.
"If I am not mistaken that is your step, Mr.Fairfax," said the blind man, stopping suddenly in his walk, and turning his sightless face in my direction.

"It's wonderful how the loss of one's sight sharpens one's ears.

I suppose you met Margaret on the road." "I met Miss Kitwater in the churchyard," I replied.
"A very good meeting-place," he chuckled sardonically.

"It's where most of us meet each other sooner or later.