"I says that I don't want no woman round me for all time," he repeated.
The third man raised his right shoulder at that; but sank into a heap again, working more assiduously. The slight trembling of his body was the only evidence he gave that he had heard Crabbe's words. Snip, snip, snip! went the bits of gold into the kettle, until Eli spoke again.
"Ye can't tell me that ye ain't goin' never to get married, Lem?"
Crabbe lifted his hooked arm viciously. "I ain't said nothin' like that. I says as how Scraggy can keep away from my scow."
"Don't she never come here no more?" asked Eli in disbelief.
"Nope, not after them three beatin's I give her. She kept a comin', and I had to wallop her. I'd do it again if she snoops 'bout here."
"Ye beat her up well, didn't ye, Lem? And she telled Mammy that yer brat were drowned one night in the river. Were it, Lem?"
There was an expectant pause between his first and last questions, and Lem waited almost as long before he grunted: "Yep."
"Did ye throw it in when ye was drunk?"
"Nope, he jest fell in--that's all."
"I guess that last beatin' ye give Scraggy made her batty. Mam says that she ain't no more sense than her cat."
"Let her keep to hum then, and she won't get beat. I don't do no runnin' after her!"
Again there came a space of time during which Eli and Lem worked in silence. From far away in the city there came the sound of the fire whistle, followed by the ringing of bells. But not one of the men ceased his clipping to satisfy any curiosity he might have had.
Suddenly Lem Crabbe spoke louder than he had before that evening.
"Women ain't no good, nohow! They don't love no men, and men don't love them. What's the good of havin' 'em round to feed and to bother a feller 'bout drinkin' an' things? Less a man sees of 'em the better!"
The third man, Silent Lon Cronk, sunk lower at his work, even more fiercely flattening the gemless rings under the pressers. After a few moments he laid down his tools and began to stretch his long legs, scraping into a cup the bits of gold from his lap.
"I've been goin' to ask ye fellers somethin' for a long time. Might as well now as any other night, eh?"