This woman's little house was very convenient to that of Whitecraft, to whom she was very useful in a certain capacity.

She had now given up her trade of fortune-telling--a trade which, at that period, in consequence of the ignorance of the people, was very general in Ireland.

She was now more beneficially employed.

Fergus, therefore, confident in his disguise, resolved upon a bold and hazardous stroke.
He began to apprehend that if ever Tom Steeple, fool though he was, kept too much about the haunts and resorts of the Rapparee, that cunning scoundrel, who was an adept in all the various schemes and forms of detection, might take the alarm, and, aided probably by Whitecraft, make his escape out of the country.

At best, the fool could only assure him of his whereabouts; but he felt it necessary, in addition to this, to procure, if the matter were possible, such evidence of his guilt as might render his conviction of the robbery of the sheriff complete and certain.