Part 95 (2/2)
she added, flas.h.i.+ng at himself.
”The woman's not to trust, sir,” snuffled the constable. ”She's only an infidel, anyway. I've heard tell of her saying she didn't believe the whale swallowed Jonah.”
”That's the diff'rance between us, then,” said Nancy; ”for there's some of you Manx ones would believe if Jonah swallowed the whale.”
The staircase door opened at the back of Nancy, and Pete stepped into the room. ”What's this, friends?” he asked, in a careworn voice.
Caesar stepped forward with a yellow envelope in his hand. ”What's _that_, sir?” he answered.
Pete took the envelope and opened it.
”That's your letter back to you through the dead letter office, isn't it?” said Caesar.
”Well?” said Pete.
”There's n.o.body of that name in that place, is there!” said Caesar.
”Well?” said Pete again.
”Letters from England don't come through Peel, but your first letter had the Peel postmark, hadn't it?”
”Well?”
”Parcels from England don't come through Port St. Mary, but your parcel was stamped in Port St. Mary, wasn't it?”
”Anything else?”
”The handwriting inside the letter wasn't your own handwriting, was it?
The address on the outside of the parcel wasn't your own address--no?”
”Is that all?”
”Enough to be going on, I'm thinking.”
”What about Uncle Joe?” said Black Tom, with another giggle.
”Your mistress is not in Liverpool. You don't know where she is. She has gone the way of all sinners,” said Caesar.
”Is that what you're coming to tell me?” said Pete.
”No; we're coming to tell you,” said Caesar, ”that, as a notorious loose liver, we must be putting her out of cla.s.s. And we're coming to call on yourself to look to your own salvation. You've deceaved us, Mr.
Quilliam. You've grieved the Spirit of the Lord,” with another ”glime” in the direction of Black Tom; ”you've brought contempt on the fellows.h.i.+p that counts you for one of the fold. You've given the light of your countenance to the path of an evildoer, and you've brought down the head of a child of G.o.d with sorrow to the grave.”
Caesar was moved by his self-satisfied piety, and began to make' noises in his nostrils. ”Let us lay the case before the Lord,” he said; and he went down on his knees and prayed--
”Our brother has deceived us, O Lord, but we forgive him freely. Forgive Thou also his trespa.s.ses, so that at the last he escape h.e.l.l-fire. Count not Thy handmaid for a daughter of Belial, wherever she is this day. May it be good for her to be cut off from the body of the righteous. Grant that she feel this mercy in her carnal body before her eternal soul be called to everlasting judgment. Lord, strengthen Thy servant. Let not his natural affections be as the snare of the fowler unto his feet.
Though it grieve him sore, even to tears and tribulation, help him to pluck out the gourd that groweth in his own bosom----”
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