Weasel McCarthy’s killing and concealed body become a turning point in the flock’s understanding of the secret surrounding George: the discovery establishes that McCarthy did not die naturally, while later sheep infer that George’s knowledge had made him dangerous to older humans. The evidence identifies the body and hints at a wider human conspiracy, but does not establish who killed McCarthy or what precisely happened to him.

Discovery Beneath the Stones

As Melmoth and the others worked at the slope, pebbles shifted and a large body emerged. Melmoth stepped back to avoid the falling stones. The corpse’s limbs lay at odd angles; once the second leg, thin torso, arms, and face came into view, the butcher recognized Weasel McCarthy. The dogs sniffed curiously at the body, while Melmoth, exhausted and silent, made no attempt to escape.

George bent over McCarthy and concluded that the death was not natural. Ham acknowledged the discovery but stayed back, then suggested fetching the police. The exchange marks the change from uncovering an unexplained presence in the stones to recognizing a possible crime. The body’s concealment had kept that death out of sight; its exposure made it impossible to treat as an ordinary passing.

George’s Suspicion

When the butcher explained that people had suddenly begun talking about McCarthy after ignoring him for weeks, George struck his forehead—a gesture associated with his moments of insight. He concluded that the people involved were not just one or two individuals, but all of them. The butcher did not understand whom George meant, and the scene offers no confirmation of the accusation or identification of the people he suspects. His reaction nevertheless gives the discovery a broader reach: McCarthy’s death appears bound up with a secret shared beyond the dead man himself.

The Secret and Its Consequences

Later, Miss Maple reasoned that children had learned to fear George from older humans, although he had never hurt anyone. In her account, George threatened those adults because he knew the secret. That interpretation connects the hidden body and the sudden attention surrounding McCarthy to George’s own danger, without resolving the precise link between the two deaths or naming McCarthy’s killer.

The episode therefore offers both a concrete revelation and an unresolved pattern. McCarthy is identified, and George recognizes signs of unnatural death; beyond that, the evidence remains partial. The body’s emergence exposes the violence beneath a long period of silence, while the sheep’s later reasoning suggests that the secret—not merely the corpse—continued to threaten those who knew it.