"And you've heard, too, probably, the man who murdered him escaped from Auburn a little while ago?"
Tess wanted to say "No," but she feared a long explanation would follow which might trouble Daddy and the wee man in the garret, so she acquiesced by bowing her head. "I guess he were the man Daddy were talkin' 'bout, weren't he, Daddy?"
She turned toward her father, but his red lids were closed, and he was breathing heavily.
"Daddy goes to sleep awful easy!" she excused to all three. Then she told Waldstricker, "Yep, Daddy said the man broke out o' jail."
The man she spoke to looked keenly at her.
"The officers feel pretty sure he'll make his way down the lake side," he explained, "eventually landing among his own people."
A flash of the brown eyes and a quick stiffening of the supple body under the red curls expressed the girl's resentment at the slur implied in the speaker's statement.
"Among us squatters, I s'pose ye mean?" demanded Tess, belligerently.
"Yes," nodded the elder, with a contemptuous smile at the angry young face.
Tess hated that tone in people's voices when they talked about squatters.