"Well?" Her hand was trembling violently.
"Nothing. I don't know why I have allowed myself to talk on this subject. Loreen and I once made a compact never to give any opinion upon it. You see how I have kept it."
She had drawn her hand away and suddenly had become quite composed. I turned my attention toward Loreen, but she was looking out of the window and showed no intention of further pursuing the conversation. William had strolled out.
"Well," said I, "if ever a girl had reason for breaking such a compact you are certainly that girl. I could never have been as silent as you have been—that is, if I had any suspicions on so serious a subject. Why, your own good name is impugned—yours and that of every other person living in this lane."
"Miss Butterworth," she replied, "I have gone too far. Besides, you have misunderstood me. I have no more knowledge than anybody else as to the source of these terrible tragedies. I only know that an almost superhuman cunning lies at the bottom of so many unaccountable disappearances, a cunning so great that only a crazy person——"
"Ah," I murmured eagerly, "Mother Jane!"
She did not answer. Instantly I took a resolution.
"Lucetta," said I, "is Deacon Spear a rich man?"
Starting violently, she looked at me amazed.
"If he is, I should like to hazard the guess that he is the man who has held you in such thraldom for years."