“Perhaps,” she answered. “He’s been off all morning. But there are lots of other mocking birds, you know.”
Many and varying were the emotions which reflected themselves in Virginia’s face as she heard of the dangers they had been through. She almost shed tears over the attack of the jaguar, as she called it.
“I didn’t know there were any left around here,” she said. “They are the most dangerous, treacherous animals in the world.”
But when she was questioned about the house in the woods, she pressed her lips together into a thin line of determination and was silent for a moment.
“Did you know there was such a house, with a path connecting directly with your place, Virginia?” asked Billie in her usual direct, honest way that was sometimes embarrassing.
“Oh, yes,” answered the girl, “but the person who lived there is—is dead now.”
“Was he a hermit?” demanded Nancy.
“Yes, something like it.”
“How interesting,” put in Elinor. “And did you really know him?”
“I have seen him,” answered Virginia guardedly.