"You're as good, however, for you was going to take my strick. The will was there, though I prevented the deed."
"I had to show the Band as I'd been here."
"Why did you come? What sense is there to it?"
Abel regarded Mr. Baggs doubtfully and did not reply.
"Just to show you're a bit out of the common, perhaps?"
Abel clutched at the suggestion. His eyes looked sideways slyly at Mr. Baggs. The ogre seemed inclined to talk, and through speech might come salvation, for he had acted rather than talked on previous occasions.
"We want to be different from common boys," said the marauder.
"Well, you are, for one, and there's no need to trouble in your case. You was born different, and different you've got to be. I suppose you've been told often enough who your father is?"
"Yes, I have."
"Small wonder then that you've got your knife into the world at large, I reckon. What thinking man, or boy, has not for that matter? So you're up against the laws and out for the liberties? Well, I don't quarrel with that. Only you're too young yet to understand what a lot you've got to grumble at. Some day you will."