It's about this here--" "That'll do, now, Alf! Not another word out of you!" commanded Anderson direfully.
"But, dern you, Anderson," exploded Alf, "I've got to tell you--" But Anderson held up a hand.
"Don't swear in the presence of the dead," he said solemnly.

"You're drunk, Alf; go home!" And Alf, news and all was hustled from the schoolhouse by a self-appointed committee of ten.
"Now, we'll search fer the body," announced Anderson.

"Git out of the way, Bud!" "I ain't standin' on it," protested twelve-year-old Bud Long.
"Well, you're standin' mighty near them blood-stains an'-- " "Yes, 'n ain't blood a part of the body ?" rasped Isaac Porter scornfully; whereupon Bud faded into the outer rim.
"First we'll look down cellar," said Mr.Crow.

"Where's the cellar at ?" "There ain't none," replied Elon Jones.
"What?
No cellar?
Well, where in thunder did they hide the body, then ?" "There's an attic," ventured Joe Perkins.
A searching party headed by Anderson Crow shinned up the ladder to the low garret.

No trace of a body was to be found, and the searchers came down rather thankfully.