The wife maun be a witch!" John Duff stared at the man with his mouth open, and for half a minute all were dumb.

The thing was incredible, yet hardly to be controverted.

The woman was gone, the raft was gone, and something strange that might be the two together had been observed about the time, as near as they could judge, when she ceased to be observed in the house.

Had the farmer noted the change in the level of the whisky in his bottle, he might have been surer of it--except indeed the doubt had then arisen whether they might not rather find her at the foot of the stair when the water subsided.
Mr.Duff said the luck changed with the return of Snowball; his sister said, with the departure of the beggar-wife.

Before dark the rain had ceased, and it became evident that the water had not risen for the last half-hour.