Part 7 (1/2)

”I tell 'ee what, though. There's no rule of His Majesty's Service why I shouldn' stand by while you reads it aloud.”

”No, no,” said Nicky-Nan hastily. ”Here, hold hard a moment--Is it in Pamphlett's hand-writin' by any chance?”

The question wounded Lippity-Libby's feelings, and he showed it.

”As if I shouldn' ha' told you!” he protested, gently reproachful.

”Nor his clerk's?”

”What, Hendy?--Hendy makes all his long letters straight up an' down, while these be made with loops. The writin's sloped backwards too, with a rake on it, same as was fash'nable on some o' the tea-clippers in my young days, but now 'tis seldom carried 'nless by a few steam-yachts.”

”Well, hand me over the thing--I'll risk it,” said Nicky-Nan.

He took the missive and glanced at the address--”Mr N. Nanjivell, _Naval Reservist_, Polpier R.S.O., Cornwall.” The words ”_Naval Reservist_” underlined gave him a tremor. But it was too late to draw back. He broke open the envelope, drew forth the letter, unfolded it, and ran his eye hurriedly overleaf, seeking the signature.

”Why, 'tisn' signed!”

”Not signed?” echoed Lippity-Libby. ”That's as much as to say 'nonymous.” Suddenly he slapped his thigh. ”There now! O' course-- why, what a forgetful head is mine! And simme I knew that hand, too, all the while.”

”Eh?”

”Yes, to be sure--'tis the same that, up to two years ago, used to write an' send all the 'nonymous letters in Polpier. The old woman an' I, we tracked it down to one of two, an' both females. It lay between 'em, and I was for old Ann' Bunney--she bein' well known for a witch. But now that can't be, for the woman's gone to Satan these three months. . . . An' my missus gone too--poor tender heart--an'

lookin' down on me, that was rash enough to bet her sixpence on it, an' now no means to pay up.”

”Who was the other?” demanded Nicky-Nan, frowning over the letter, his face flus.h.i.+ng as he frowned.

”You're goin' to read it to me, ben't you?”

”d.a.m.ned if I do,” answered Nicky-Nan curtly. ”But I'd like to know who wrote it.”

”It don't stand with Government reggilations, as _I_ read 'em,” said Lippity-Libby, ”for a postman to be tellin' who wrote every 'nonymous letter he carries. . . . Well, I be wastin' time; but if you'll take my advice, Mr Nanjivell, and it isn' too late, you'll marry a woman.

She'll probably increase your comfort, and--I don't care who she is-- she'll work out another woman that writes 'nonymous. Like a stoat in a burrow she will, specially if she happens to take in was.h.i.+n' same as my lost Sarah did. She was shown a 'nonymous letter with 'Only charitable to warn' in it. Dang me, if she didn' go straight an'

turn up a complaint about 'One chemise torn in wash,' an' showed me how, though sloped different ways, the letters were alike, twiddles an' all, to the very daps. I wouldn' believe it at the time, the party bein' a female in good position. But my wife was certain of it, an' all the more because she never allowed to her last breath that the woman's s.h.i.+mmy had been torn at all. Well, so long!”

Nicky-Nan carried the letter indoors to his small, dark sitting-room, and there spelled it through painfully, holding the paper close up to the window-pane. It ran:--

Sunday, 2/8/14.

Mr N. Nanjivell.

Sir,--As an inhabitant of Polpier, born in the town and anxious for its good name, besides being a ratepayer and one that pays taxes to His Majesty, I was naterally concerned to-day at your not taking your place along with the other men that went off to fight for their country. I am given to understand that you were served with a paper, same as the rest, and the Customs Officer was put out by your not going. I don't wonder at it. Such want of pluck.

Its no good your saying you are not Abel. If you are Abel to be a Reservist and _draw pay_, you are Abel to Fight thats how I look at it. I would let you to know the Public doesnt pay money for gamey legs that go about taking all they can get until the Pinch comes.

Theres a good many things want looking into in Polpier, It has reached me that until the present sistem came in and put a stop to it you drew pay for years for drills that you never atended.

This is a time when as Lord Nelson said England expects every Man to Do his Duty. I think so bad of your case that I am writing by same post to the Custom House at Troy about it.

So I warn you as A Well-Wisher.

Nicky-Nan read this amiable missive through, and re-read it almost to the end before realising the menace of it. At the first perusal his mind was engaged with the mechanical task of deciphering the script and with speculating on its authors.h.i.+p. . . . He came to the end with no full grasp of the purport.