All solutions of mysteries have their possibilities in the absence of proof.

No trace of Abel Edwards had been found in the woodland where he had been working, and no trace of him for miles around.

The search had been thorough.

Other ponds of less evil repute had also been dragged, and the little river which ran through the village, and two brooks of considerable importance in the spring.

If Able Edwards had taken his own life, the conclusion was inevitable that his body must lie in the pond, which had always been reported unfathomable, and might be, after all.
"The way I look at it is this," said Simon Basset one night in the village store.