“Hush!” she cried. “Name no names! What I know I do know, but ’twouldn’t be no good to your court lawyers; they would but laugh at an old woman’s dreams.... But for yourself ... ah, for yourself, young master, let be—let be, I tell ’ee!” And, reaching out suddenly, she seized his arm and shook it so that he wondered at the strength of her aged fingers. “Let be!” she repeated, her voice sinking to a pleading whisper. “The Downs hereaways has many secrets, an’ who be you t’ expect to learn what they bean’t nowise willin’ to tell? So ha’ done, young sir, you bean’t old enough to die yet awhile——”
“To die?” repeated Sir John, startled by her tone and the fixed intensity of her look.
“Die!” She nodded. “Them as seeks murderers seeks death, for Murder will murder to hide murder.”
“And you think that in attempting to solve this mystery I run a certain danger, Penelope?”
“I know it!” she answered.
“None the less, I feel I must attempt it ... the poor girl vanished, you’ll remember, and was never heard of more.”
“An’ never will be!”
“And,” said he, frowning, “there may be other such hateful doings.”
“For sure!” She nodded again. “Hundreds—thousands, ’till the world grows better!”
“Shall I succeed in this quest?”