Abe knew this was said in derision, but he muttered:
“I won’t have anybody calling me Hunchy no more. Don’t you forget that!”
Felicia was clinging to the cripple now, and he could feel her trembling. He put one of his long arms about her and sought to reassure her by a firm pressure.
“If I hasn’t offended your highness,” said the man who had asked the question, “perhaps you tells me now where this Dick Merriwell is?”
“Don’t tell him, Abe!” whispered the girl. “They are bad men. I’m afraid of them.”
“I wist you could tell me,” said the boy. “I’d like ter find him myself.”
“Then he is somewhere yereabouts?”
“Don’t tell!” breathed Felicia again.
“I dunno ’bout that,” said Abe. “Mebbe he is two hundred miles away now. I dunno.”
“Ef he is so fur, however is it you expects ter find him in a hurry?”