Ortho started and then stared. “Me! My Lord, what next! Me steal that . . . well, I be damned! Think I’d turn toby and rob my own family, do you? Pick my right pocket to fill my left? God’s wrath, you’re a sweet brother!”
“I do think so, anyhow,” said Eli doggedly.
“How? Why?”
“ ’Cos King Herne can do his own buying and because on the night mother was robbed you were out.”
Ortho laughed again. “Smart as a gauger, aren’t you? Well, now I’ll tell you. William John let me have the horses on trust, and as for being out, I’m out most every night. I’d been to Churchtown. I’ve got a sweetheart there, if you must know. So now, young clever!”
Eli shrugged his shoulders and turned away.
“Don’t you believe me?” Ortho called.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“ ’Cos ’tis well known William John Prowse wouldn’t trust his father with a turnip, and that Polly mare hadn’t brought you two miles from Gwithian. She’d come three times that distance and hard. She was as wet as an eel; I felt her.”