"I know no secrets or signs, Father John, and I don't belong to any society."
"Then, if you don't, you can have nothing to bind you. Is it true that you were rash enough, mad enough, to speak to these men about murdering Keegan? Tell me; have you a plan made to murder Keegan? Have you had such a crime in your thoughts?"
It had been in his thoughts all day: what answer should he make? should he lie, and deny it all? or should he confess it all, just as it was?
"If you'll not tell me, I must, for Mr. Keegan's sake, take some step to secure his safety. Come, Thady, come; you know it's not by threats I wish to guide you; you know I love you. I know well enough your patient industry—your want of selfishness. I know, if you have for a moment thought of this crime, you have now repented it: tell me how far you have gone, and if you are in danger;—if you have done that which was very, very wicked. I will still try and screen you from the effects of a sin, which I am sure was not premeditated. Is there any plot to murder Keegan?"
"There is not."
"As you are a living man, there's none?"
"There is not."
"What were you saying about Keegan, then, to those men yesterday?"
"I don't know what I said—I don't know I said anything; they were threatening him, if he came on Drumleesh for rent; if they have a plot, I don't know it."
"But, Thady, are you to join them again? do you mean again to renew your revellings of last night? have you agreed to see them again?"