You two girls had me buried!" She heard his stick thumping.

Oh, what would they say?
What possible excuse could they make?
It sounded such an appallingly heartless thing to do.

Such a wicked advantage to take of a person because he happened to be helpless at the moment.

The other people seemed to treat it all as a matter of course.

They were strangers; they couldn't be expected to understand that father was the very last person for such a thing to happen to.