“And where were you?”
“Never mind where I was. I was not with him, but about my own business. And I tell you, I no more laid a finger on him or his skiff than any one of you.”
“Where was it?”
“Close by Vogel islet!”
Erica started, and, in one moment’s flush of hope, told that Rolf had said, he should be safe at any time near Vogel islet. Hund caught at her words so eagerly as to make a favourable impression on all, who saw, what was indeed the truth, that he would have been glad to know that Rolf was alive. Their manner so changed towards Hund, that if Stiorna had been there, she would have triumphed. But the more they considered the case, the more improbable it seemed that Rolf should have escaped drowning.
“Mother, what do you think?” whispered the gentle Orga.
“I think, my dear, that we shall never forgive ourselves for letting Rolf go out in that old skiff.”
“Then you think,—you feel quite sure,—mother, that Nipen had nothing to do with it.”
“I feel confident, my dear, that there is no such being as Nipen.”
“Even after all that has happened?—after this, following upon Oddo’s prank that night?”