hing. This had been Silas's testimony, though he
clutched strongly at the idea of the pedlar's being the culprit, if
only because it gave him a definite image of a whereabout for his gold
after it had been taken away from its hiding-place: he could see it now
in the pedlar's box. But it was observed with some irritation in the
village, that anybody but a "blind creatur" like Marner would have seen
the man prowling about, for how came he to leave his tinder-box in the
ditch close by, if he hadn't been lingering there? Doubtless, he had
made his observations when he saw Marner at the door. Anybody might
know--and only look at him--that the weaver was a half-crazy miser. It
was a wonder the pedlar hadn't murdered him; men of that sort, with
rings in their ears, had been known for murderers often and often;
there had been one tried at the 'sizes, not so long ago but what there
were people living who remembered it.

Godfrey Cass, indeed, entering the Rainbow during one of Mr. Snell's
frequently repeated recitals of his testimony, had treated it lightly,
stating that he himself had bought a pen-knife of the pedlar, and
thought him a merry grinning fellow enough; it was all nonsense, he
said, about the man's evil looks. But this was spoken of in the
village as the random talk of youth, "as if it was only Mr. Snell who
had seen something odd about the pedlar!" On the contrary, there were
at least half-a-dozen who were ready to go before Justice Malam, and
give in much more striking testimony than any the landlord could
furnish. It was to be hoped Mr. Godfrey would not go to Tarley and
throw cold water on what Mr. Snell said there, and so prevent the
justice from drawing up a warrant. He was suspected of intending this,
when, after mid-day, he was seen setting off on horseback in the
direction of Tarley.

But by this time Godfrey's interest in the robbery had faded before his
growing anxiety about Dunstan and Wildfire, and he was going, not to
Tarley, but to Batherley, unable to rest in uncertainty about them any
longer. The possibility that Dunstan had played him the ugly trick of
riding away with Wildfire, to return at the end of a month, when he had
gambled away or otherwise squandered the price of the horse, was a fear
that urged itself upon him more, even, than the thought of an
accidental injury; and now that the dance at Mrs. Osgood's was past, he
was irritated with himself that he had trusted his horse to Duns