“A giant or a prophet,” he said. “It’s all one when you’re starving. Another foodless day and you’d have been eating sandwiches off my little mound of earth.”
“But what is the reason of all this business, Feargus?” asked Billie. “Have you been getting into mischief?”
“It’s the Duke of Kilkenty,” he said. “I should think you might have guessed that much right away. Because I have a grudge against him, and good reason for it, too, I’m suspected of having helped kidnap the little boy. So I just concluded I’d lie low for a while and keep out of the clutches of the law.”
“But you are entirely innocent!” exclaimed Billie.
“Yes, but they think I know something.”
She looked at him searchingly, recalling the night when they had seen the campers in the glen.
“You don’t want to answer questions?” suggested Elinor.
“Exactly.”
“Then you do know something?” they demanded in whispers.
“What I know I am not ashamed to know. There is nothing wrong in what has been done——”