“Who are you?” I repeated. “Where do you live?”
But though his mouth moved, as though he replied, no sound escaped him.
I spoke again, but he only laughed wildly, his thin fingers twitching.
“Ho! ho! ho!” he ejaculated, pointing back to the neglected garden.
“I wonder what he means!” exclaimed Jack.
“Why, I believe he’s an idiot!” I remarked.
“He has every appearance of one,” declared my companion, who then addressed him, with the same negative result.
Again the weird, repulsive youth pointed back to the garden, and, laughing hideously, uttered some words in gibberish which were quite unintelligible.
“If we remain here chattering, the constable will find us,” I remarked, so we all three went forth into the street, the ugly hunchback walking at my side, quite tractable and quiet.
Presently, unable to gather a single intelligible sentence from him, Jack and I resolved to leave him, and afterwards follow him and ascertain where he lived.