Part 4 (2/2)

Elzevir looked at me uneasily as I caht I heard someone at the door,' I answered; 'did you not feel a cold wind as if it was open?'

'It is but the night is sharp, the spring sets in very chill; slip the bolt, and sit down again,' and he flung a fresh log on the fire, that sent a cloud of sparks crackling up the chimney and out into the roo at the door, and there ain let us take candle and go through the roohed and said, ”Twas but the wind that blew the door open,' but that I ht do as I pleased So I lit another candle, and was for starting on o alone'; and so ent all round the house together, and found not so hed the more e came back to the parlour ”Tis the cold has chilled thy heart andrascal of the Manor; fill lass of Ararat milk, and one for thyself, and let us to bed'

I had learned by this not to be afraid of the good liquor, and while we sat sipping it, Elzevir went on-

'There is a fortnight yet to run, and then you and I shall be cut adrift fro to see the doors of this house closed on me, where I and mine have lived a century or more, but I must see it Yet let us not be too cast down, but try to lad enough to hear him speak in this firht it had been for these days past that he must leave the Why Not?, and how it often made him ,' he said; 'I have been sick and tired of it this ood liquor and addle their silly pates to fillaway in Dorchester town that will give us bread to eat and beer to drink, even if the throws run still deuce-ace But we must seek a roof to shelter us when the Why Not? is shut, and 'tis best we leave this Moonfleet of ours for a season, till Maskew finds a rope's end long enough to hang hiht, alk out along the cliff to Worth, and take a look at a cottage there that Damen spoke about, with a walled orchard at the back, and fuchsia hedge in front-'tis near the Lobster Inn, and has a fine prospect of the sea; and if we live there, ill leave the vault alone awhile and use this Pyegrove's Hole for storehouse, till the watch is relaxed'

I did not answer, having s, and he tossed off his liquor, saying, 'Thou'rt tired; so let's to bed, for we shall get little sleep toht'

It was true that I was tired, and yet I could not get to sleep, but tossed and turned invexed that ere to leave Moonfleet Yet ht for Elzevir and the pain that it rief of leaving Moonfleet that so troubled h that was the only place I ever had known, and seemed to me then-as now-the only spot on earth fit to be lived in; but the real care and canker was that I was going away frorown fonder of her; and now that it was difficult to see her, I took the more pains to accomplish it, and met her sometimes in Manor Woods, and more than once, when Maskeay, had walked with her on Weatherbeech Hill So we bred up a boy-and-girl affection, and e ourselves to be true to one another, not knohat such silly words htthe doings of the contraband, and the Mohune vault and Blackbeard's locket, for I knew all was as safe with her as with ht froabled wing of the Manor House, and looked right out to sea; and one clear night, when our boat was co there, and next day told her of it And then she said that she would set a candle to burn before the panes on winter nights, and be a leading light for boats at sea And so she did, and others besidethat it was the attorney sitting up all night to pore over ledgers and add up his fortune

So this night as I lay awake I vexed and vexed o up nextto the Manor Woods and lie in wait for Grace, to tell her as up, and that ere going away to Worth

Next day, the 16th of April-a day I have had cause to remember all my life-I played truant from Mr Glennie, and by ten in the forenoon found myself in the woods

There was a little direen with burdocks in suh to hold one lying flat, and not so deep but that I could look over the lip of it and see the house without being seen Thither I went that day, and lay down in the dry leaves to wait and watch for Grace

The ht before had given way to sunlight that seemed war There was scarce a breath h I could see the clouds of white dust stalking up the road that clireen with buds, yet without leafage to keep the sunbealoith yellow king-cups So I lay there for a long, long while; and to make time pass quicker, took froain the parchment, which I had read times out of mind before, and knew indeed by heart

'The days of our age are threescore years and ten', and the rest

Nohenever I handled the locket, hts were turned to Mohune's treasure; and it was natural that it should be so, for the locket rehed athow simple I had been, and had hoped to find the place littered with dia packed in heaps And thus for the hundredth time I came to rack ht at last it must be buried in the churchyard, because of the talk of Blackbeard being seen on wild nights digging there for his treasure But then, I reasoned, that very like it was the contrabandiers who out the passage frohosts because they wrought at night And while I was busy with such thoughts, the door opened in the house below me, and out came Grace with a hood on her head and a basket for wild flowers in her hand

I watched to see which way she would walk; and as soon as she took the path that leads up Weatherbeech, h the dry brushwood to o that road except when Maskeay So there we h I shall not write here e said, because it was mostly silly stuff She spokethe Why Not?, and though she never said a word against her father, let rieved that ere leaving Moonfleet, and showed her grief in such pretty ways, as lad to see her sorry And from her I learned that Maskeas indeed absent froht The evening was so fine, he said (and this surprisedhow dark and cold it ith us), that he must needs walk round the policies; but about nine o'clock caot a sudden call to business, which would take him to Weymouth then and there So to saddle, and off he went on his hts to come

I know not why it was, but what she said of Maskew htful and silent, and she too must be back home lest the old servant that kept house for the away, and so we parted Then off I went through the woods and down the village street, but as I passedon the doorstep I bade her 'Good day', and was for running on to the Why Not?, for I was late enough already, but she calledin afor et it, and back she came and thrust into my hand a little prayer-book, which I had often seen about the parlour in past days, saying, 'Here is a Common Prayer which I had meant to send thee with thy clothes It was thy poor mother's, and I pray may some day be as precious a balm to thee as it once was to that Godly woave me the 'Good day', and I pocketed the little red leather book, which did indeed afterwards prove precious to h not in the way she meant, and ran down street to the Why Not?

That sah the village, climbed the down, and were at the brow by sunset We had started earlier than we fixed the night before, because word had co that the tide called Gulder would serve for the beaching of the Bonaventure at three instead of five 'Tis a strange thing the Gulder, and not even sailors can count closely with it; for on the Dorset coast the tide makes four times a day, tith the co shi+fty and uncertain as to ti

It was about seven o'clock ere at the top of the hill, and there were fifteen good et to hoar Head Dusk was upon us before we had walked half an hour; but when the night fell, it was not black as on the last evening, but a deep sort of blue, and the heat of the day did not die with the sun, but left the air still warhby a white stone here and there at the side of the path that ere nearing the cliff; for the Preventive men mark all the footpaths on the cliff ashed stones, so that one can pick up the ithout risk on a dark night A few minutes more, and we reached a broad piece of open sward, which I knew for the top of hoar Head

hoar Head is the highest of that line of cliffs, which stretches twenty hty fathoreat sheer of chalk, but falls not straight into the sea, for three parts down there is a lower ledge or terrace, called the under-cliff

'Twas to this ledge that ere bound; and though ere now straight above, I knee had a et down to it So on ent again, and found the bridle-path that slopes down through a deep dip in the cliff line; and e reached this under-ledge, I looked up at the sky, the night being clear, and guessed by the stars that 'twas pastonce been there for blackberries; for the bra sheltered every way but south, and open to the sun, grow the finest in all those parts

We were not alone, for I couldon the ground, and the dark shapes of the pack-horses showing larger in the di muttered in deep voices, and then all was still, so that one heard the browsing horses trying to crop soo I had helped to run, and I knewtired, and wishi+ng to rest till I anted So castwhen I saw soh the brambles, and Master Ratsey said, 'Well, Jack, so thou and Elzevir are leaving Moonfleet, and I fain would flit myself, but then ould be left to lead the old folk to their last homes, for dead do not bury their dead in these days'

I was half-asleep, and took little heed of what he said, putting him off with, 'That need not keep you, Master; they will find others to fill your place' Yet he would not lethis own voice