"But who was your father?" insisted Smith gently.
"He said he was a lag," said the old man, "but I don't understand what that is. If Jack's mother was alive she could tell you."
"He must have been a prisoner," said Smith.
"Yes, a prisoner," said the old man; "he was, perhaps, taken in war, and escaped."
Smith shook his head.
"I mean he had committed a crime," said he.
"What is that?" asked the old man. "I don't know what that is."
And Smith could not tell him either.
"He did wrong," he suggested.
"Yes," cried the old man, brightening; "I heard him say he did that. I remember."