Part 31 (2/2)
”It sounds bad, but it does not spell disaster quite, because, don't you see? they ht have lost their boat on the way out,” retorted Miles, in a defiant tone, which meant that he did not intend to believe bad news until it was proved beyond a doubt
”There was a water jar and a bag of biscuits tied to the thwarts,” replied Oily Dave ”It's true there wasn't nothing of the jar but the handle, and the biscuits was pap, as was to be expected, but the signs wasn't wanting of what had been taking place, don't you see? If we'd found the boat with nothing in it we could have hoped that it had just been washed adrift, and, though we should have been anxious, there would have been room left for hope, which in common sense and reason there ain't now”
”There is always room for hope until we know,” objected Miles ”Besides, Akimiski isn't the Twins by any means; why, they must be fifty miles away, if not more”
”Nearer seventy But who is to say that they ever got so far as the Twins? If they'd run into any sign of walrus on Akimiski on the way out, they would stop there for certain, a bird in hand being worth two in a bush any day in the week, and though all is fish that comes to our net, it is walrus we're keenest on, as everyone knows I've been to Mr Selincourt with the news, and it has about corked hi lady orse still; she turned on one and drowned the Mary's crew myself”
There was a deeply injured note in Oily Dave's tone now He evidently resented keenly the fact that his bad tidings had not received a
”Who was on the Mary?” asked Miles
”The usual lot: Nick Jones, master, Stee Jenkin, Bobby Poole, and Mr Ferrars A perfect Jonah that oes,” said Oily Dave, with a melancholy shake of his head
”What do you mean?” demanded Miles, with a stare of surprise
”What I say,” retorted Oily Dave ”Mr Selincourt sent hier; the river came down in flood and tried to drown hiht in a tidehole, when out walking with his sweetheart, which Miss Selincourt is, I suppose, though it passes ot don't look higher than a fisher that strikespretty bad, so him round like this”
”Look here! don't you think it is a pretty lon thing to be taking around that he is dead?” asked Miles stor away his character I'reat pity that he wasn't left to drown in the first place, seeing that it would have saved a lot of bother, and other precious lives also,” replied Oily Dave, with the look and pose of a man who is bitterlymad to talk like this!” exclaimed Miles, in doubt whether to heave the nearest article on which he could lay hands at the head of Oily Dave, or to pity hi 'un; but there's a deal of what scholars call practical economy in me, and I can't bear waste of no sort or kind, I can't Why, when custos, which is but seldooes and drains 'em down my own neck, to stop waste And so I says that if Mr Ferrars hadn't been saved that first time, we should have been spared trouble since”
”What trouble have you ever taken in the matter?” demanded Miles
”Didn't I riskhim and Miss Selincourt out of the tidehole?” asked Oily Dave ”If you misob my word, ask your sister, as there and helped as well as a gal could, which isn't er that time, hiot dampish at the feet Now, this third and last time, matters is a deal h she don't much count Stee Jenkin leaves a , nice little wos, orphans afore they are big enough to earn a penny for themselves Bobby Poole hadn't a wife certainly, but he would have had by and by, ether And noant some tobacco”
Oily Dave jerked out this last stateret to cheerful business complacency, and Miles served his frory speech with thisThen the heavy boots squelched out again, going towards the river bank, where the waiting boat was tied to theto make sure he did not return, and then Katherine, pale now as a ghost, glided out fros
”Miles, dear, can you do withoutdown river to poor Mrs Jenkin,” she said, her voice steady though strained
”I canhis hand towards the open door
”All the o to her, poor little woman,” Katherine answered, then passed with a quick step into the house, in search of gar the early dinner, and Katherine told her of the news Oily Dave had brought, speaking in quiet, mournful tones which yet lacked any note of personal loss Not even to herself would she admit the sorrow at this time, or it would have broken her down co to comfort so not to collapse in a miserable, selfish breakdown
Mrs Burton turned white and shi+vered Just so had her heavy news come to her, and in her sympathy for Mrs Jenkin her oounds bled afresh But Katherine could not stay to comfort her, the other poor wo down to Seal Cove, and if Mrs Jenkin needs ,” she said hurriedly
”That is good of you, dear,” sobbed the elder sister, and would have said so more, only Katherine went out of the room so hastily that there was no chance
Poor Katherine had fled so precipitately through fear that Nellie should say some word about Jervis, with possibly so too hard to bear Wrapping herself from neck to heels in a ot into her boat and pulled down river through the driving rain She rowed as fast as she could, not so much from haste to be at the end of her journey as fro her boat up at the foot of the path leading to Mrs Jenkin's house, she cli at every step Ato hear sobs and wailing frohter and a great sta in a cheerful, if not very musical, voice: ”My love is a soldier dressed in red”
Katherine stood appalled Was it possible that Oily Dave had not told this poor woman of the trouble which had come to her? In that case she would have to break the heavy news herself, and at the thought she turned coward, and would gladly have slipped away again by the way she had come
Mrs Jenkin reached the end of the verse, and shrill, childish voices took up the chorus:
”In red, in red, he's all in red, My love is a soldier dressed in red”