Jean Merle was a heretic.
When he was spoken to he would speak, but he never addressed himself to any one.

He was not a native-born Swiss, and he did not seek naturalization, or claim any right in the canton.

He did not seek permission to marry or to build a house, but as he was skilful and industrious and thrifty, a man in the prime of life, the commune left him alone.
He seemed to have taken it as a self-imposed task that he should have the charge of the granite cross, erected over the man whose death he had witnessed.

He was recognized in Engelberg as the man who had spent the last hours with the buried Englishman, but no suspicion attached to him.
So careful was he of the monument that it was generally rumored he received a sum of money yearly for keeping it in order.

No doubt the friends of the rich Englishman, who had erected so handsome a stone to his memory, made it worth the man's while to attend to it.