"Oh," he murmured, totally unconvinced, "I thought you might have got a scare. Folks somehow are afraid of that old place, it's so big and ghost-like. I don't think you would find any one in this village who would sleep there all night."
"A pleasing preparation for my rest to-night," I grimly laughed. "Dangers on the road and ghosts in the house. Happily I don't believe in the latter."
The gesture he made showed incredulity. He had ceased rapping with the key or even to show any wish to join his assistant. All his thoughts for the moment seemed to be concentrated on me.
"You don't know little Rob," he inquired, "the crippled lad who lives at the head of the lane?"
"No," I said; "I haven't been in town a day yet, but I mean to know Rob and his sister too. Two cripples in one family rouse my interest."
He did not say why he had spoken of the child, but began tapping with his key again.
"And you are sure you saw nothing?" he whispered. "Lots of things can happen in a lonely road like that."
"Not if everybody is as afraid to enter it as you say your villagers are," I retorted.
But he didn't yield a jot.
"Some folks don't mind present dangers," said he. "Spirits——"