Mrs. Abel and you three days before he died. That were
eighteen months after he'd buried Shepherd Toller. Of course, he'd ha'
got into trouble if they'd knowed what he'd done. But he weren't afraid,
and he used to say to me, 'Don't you bother, missis. They can't do
nothing to you when I'm gone. Let 'em say what they like; you and me
knows as I've done no wrong. There's only one thing as I can't bear to
think on. And that's shootin' the old dog.'"

SNARLEY BOB'S INVISIBLE COMPANION

Whether Snarley Bob was mad or sane is a question which the reader, ere
now, has probably answered for himself. If he thinks him mad, his
conclusion will repeat the view held, during his lifetime, by many of
Snarley's equals and by some of his betters. In support of the opposite
opinion, I will only say that he was sane enough to hold his tongue in
general about certain matters, which, had he freely talked of them,
would have been regarded as strong evidence of insanity.

The chief of these was his intercourse with the Invisible
Companion--invisible to all save Snarley Bob. That designation, however,
is not Snarley's, but my own; and I use it because I do not wish to
commit myself to the identification of this personage with any
individual, historical or imaginary. Snarley generally called him "the
Shepherd"; sometimes, "the Master"; and he used no other name.

With this "Master" Snarley claimed to be on terms of intimacy which go
beyond the utmost reaches of authentic mysticism. Whether the being in
question was a figment of the brain or a real inhabitant of time and
space, let the reader, once more, decide for himself. Some being there
was, at all events, of whose companionship Snarley was aware under
circumstances which are not usually associated with such matters.

There is much in this connection that must needs remain obscure. The
only witness who could have cleared those obscurities away has long been
beyond the reach of summons. To none else than Mrs. Abel was Snarley
ever known to open free communication on the subject.

He spoke now and then of a dim, far-off time when he had been a
"Methody." But he had shown scant perseverance in the road which, strait
and narrow though it be, has now become easy to trace, being well marked
by the tread of countless bleeding feet. Instead of continuing therein,
he had "leapt over the wall" into the surrounding waste, and struck out,
by a path of his own devising, for the land of Beula