"Yes, there can. Gloine escaped. His uncle, the rich old yeoman at Smeardon, bought him off."
"No money will buy Anthony off. Besides, where is the money to come from?"
"You have some. Fogg let off Gloine, and he will let Anthony off if he be paid a sufficient sum. If he was a rascal in small game, he will be rascal in great."
"I do not care to have Tony escape; I owe him a grudge. Besides, and that is just as well, his father is not here; what money the old fellow has is hidden in some corner or other, where I cannot find it, unless it has been carried off by those vultures, those rats."
"If this is not available you must help."
"I! pshaw! I cannot, and I will not."
"You can; you have a large sum at your disposal."
Fox turned mottled in face. He stared at his sister with an uneasy look in his eye.
"What makes you suppose that?" he said. "It is a folly; it is not true. I am poor as the yellow clay of North Devon. No small sum would serve, and I have but a couple of groats and a crown in my pouch."
"You have the money; you yourself admitted it, two minutes ago. You said that if you could find the money Squire Cleverdon had laid by, you would be able to make up the rest."