"There is no secrecy in this world or in the others, and there are no tricks: there is Knowledge, but no person can learn more than his head is ready to welcome. That is why robbery is infantile and of no importance."
"It fills the stomach," replied Patsy cunningly.
"The stomach has to be filled," said Caeltia. "Its filling is a necessity superior to any proprietarial right or disciplinary ethic, and its problem is difficult only for children; it is filled by the air and the wind, the rain and the clay, and the tiny lives that move in the clay. There is but one property worth stealing; it is never missed by its owners, although every person who has that property offers it to all men from his gentle hands."
"You're trying to talk like Finaun," said Patsy gloomily.
They walked then in silence for ten minutes. Every vestige of impishness had fled from Mac Cann; he was a miserable man; his vanity was hurt and he was frightened, and this extraordinary combination of moods plunged him to a depression so profound that he could not climb therefrom without assistance.
Said Caeltia to him after a little:
"There is a thing I would like to see done, my friend."
Mac Cann's reply came sagging as he hauled his limp ideas from those pits.
"What's that, your honour?"
"I would like to see the money thrown into this ditch as we go by."