A Dinner Of Herbs (32 page)

never seen in me

life afore, and ask her her name and what she’s doing here at this time of night!”

“Aye, sit down, Hal. Sit down.” Kale said, and the tone of her voice silenced his jesting.

He sat down, after pulling a chair towards the fire opposite where Mary Ellen was once again poking at

the ashes. And now, Kate, taking her seat to the side of Mary Ellen, put out her hand and placed it on

the girl’s head while she looked at Hal, saying, “The top and bottom of it is, she’s in a bit of trouble, an’

she was turned out of her job, and from her father’s house, an’ all.”

There was silence in the room; then not only did Kate look at him, but Mary Ellen too, as he repeated

quietly, “A bit of trouble... that kind of trouble?”

“Aye, Hal, that kind of trouble, as you say, that kind of trouble.”

He did not speak as he rose to his feet, nor whilst he stood for a moment staring down into Mary Ellen’s

fire lit face;

but then, going to the table, he brought his fist so hard down on the edge of it that the candle lamp

jumped and he had to thrust his hand out to steady it. And his voice a loud bark now, he said, “Damn

him to hell’s flames!” at the same time swinging round towards Mary Ellen who had

pulled herself to her

feet.

“The rotten bugger!” he said.

“And you’re nothin’ but a weak-minded silly little bitch to let him.”

Now she was yelling back at him, “Shut up! you. Shut up! You know nothing about it.

“Twasn’t his fault.”

“Oh, my God!” He put his two hands up to his head and ran his fingers through his hair, making it seem

to stand on end as he spoke now directly to Kate, crying, “Did you hear what she said?

Even the

simplest of them, that dotty one who goes round the market place laughing, if it had

happened to her even

she wouldn’t have said it wasn’t the man’s fault. God Almighty!” He now swung himself

round to face

Mary Ellen again.

“Have you been knocked silly, stupid or something’? You’re standin’ there tellin’ me that it was you

who took him down? You got him into the grass and had your way with him? He hadn’t a

chance. Oh,

you. You:

She had promised herself her crying was over, but once again the tears were running

down her face, and

the sight of them brought his head deep on to his chest and his voice muttering low now:

“I’m sorry,” he

said; “I’m sorry. But, oh God, Mary Ellen, to let that happen to you.

He wasn’t worth it. “ And he turned from her now, beating one fist into the palm of the other hand.

“If I had him here this minute I’d do for him. I would. I swear on it, I’d do for him.”

These words seemed to be a cue for Kate to take over once again, and she said, “Well

now, he’s not

here, so you can’t do for him. But I’ve some news for you. Talking of doing for anybody, they found

Feeler hanging on the quarry top this mornin’. You had gone to the town afore the news got about.”

She watched him straighten his back and take a deep breath; then turning fully to face her, he said, “I

could have told you that, Kate, and around towards dawn.”

“What d’you mean?”

“Just that I hung him there, or at least I saw that he did it himself.

I gave him two choices: either I do it and I’d do it slow, or he could do it himself and make a quick job

of it. “

When Mary Ellen made a sound as if she was going to be sick, they both turned towards

her, and Kate,

going quickly to her, pressed her down into a chair, saying, “Now, now. He had it comin’

to him.” But

Mary Ellen didn’t answer; she turned her gaze on to Hal and for a moment she didn’t see hiffl^as he was,

but his body seemed to fill the room, his eyes to look like pieces of glinting coal; and when he took a step

in her direction she shrank back against the chair.

“What are you cringing for? I only did what the authorities would have done if they had got him. But I

promised meselfthis right from the start, this was my due. Now I can breathe again.” He bent towards

her now, his face almost on a level with hers as he asked her, “Do you think he had any pity on me father

when he killed him and buried him?

All right, it could have been on Bannaman’s orders, but he did it. And how many others.

God alone

knows, because, besides Les Carter, how many others had they done for? Likely they

didn’t stick to

these parts, but roamed wide. So don’t become weak bellied because I’ve done a justice.

“ He

straightened up now and turned to Kate, saying, “ They never found the money my da

was supposed to

steal, did they Kate? “

“No, never a penny.”

“Well’—his voice had a light note to it now ‘there’s some justice left in the world,

because I found it, at

least Feeler did. He must have come upon it looking for a hideout, because if he’d known of it afore it

wouldn’t have been there now. And ‘tis strange how it came about. Do you know he was

on our

doorstep all along, all these months. He’s been not five minutes walk from here. And

there was me

ridin’ miles away lookin’ for him.

But the night afore last I was takin’ a short cut with me pony across the moor, because I was due to go

into me shift, an’ there, in the distance, I saw what was like a whiff of mist risin’ out of the ground. I went

over to have a closer look. It was just on dark and I found I was standing near the end of the blocked

up tunnel. You know, you told me they came up against a snag with one of the first

tunnels they made to

take away the smell, and in later times they cut through it when they dug the quarry out.

Anyway, I

traced the mound back right to the top of the quarry where I guessed the entrance was.

And I was

about to make me way down the bank when I saw a parcel hidden in the scrub.

Somebody was

supplying him with food, likely his wife or daughter. So, I gave me self the pleasure of takin’ it to him.

Being crafty, he had lit his fire at the far end of the tunnel, a good fifty yards in, but his stores and this He

now darted round the table and, lifting up the sack, dropped it at Kate’s feet, and

repeating, “And this

was just inside.” He now tipped the sack upside down, and there spewed on to the floor small clinking

bags and the big black bag which was now in two pieces. And pointing a trembling finger downwards, he

said, “He had each of those bags of sovereigns arrayed like soldiers, spaced along the wall. They had all

been opened and ^counted and tied up again except one, and it had four sovereigns less than the others

in it.... Well, he must have seen the light of me lantern, and I had to go in and drag him forward. But even

until his last breath he kept denying that he had known where the money was. He must

have had it

stacked away all these years but dipped into it lately.”

“He hadn’t. He hadn’t.”

They both looked to where Mary Ellen was standing, gasping as if she had just come

running into the

house. And she gabbled now, “He knew nothin’ about it. Not ... not where it was. I... I put it there.”

“You put it there?” Hal was standing in front of her, close to her, and when he went to put his hand on

her arm, she thrust him from her.

And now flopping back into the chair, she said, “I found the bag in the bog the dry

summer. Your father

must have thrown it into the bushes when they chased him. That’s how I’ve worked it out since. And it

fell into the bog and sank, and when it dried up, the bog, I saw the handle sticking out.

Twas’—she gave

her head a shake before going on “ twas on the Sunday you and Roddy had your first row and rolled

fighting on the grass. I had come across the tunnel when I was blaeberrying, and so I . I put it in there,

and I was going to tell Roddy, but I got vexed with him. I was afraid to tell me da

because he had

forbidden me to go near the bog. Anyway, in a short time I forgot about it. But I’ve

thought about it

now and again over the years. It got more difficult to tell because they would ask . the authorities, why I

hadn’t brought it to light afore now. “

Her head now drooped onto her chest, and when she raised it again, both Kate and Hal

were seated

opposite to her, staring at her in amazement. And it was Kate who said, “All these years, girl, you’ve

kept this to yourself. Don’t... don’t you realize it would have cleared Hal’s father if you had brought it out

into the open?”

“I... I didn’t link it up with your father.” She was looking straight at Hal.

“Only in after years did I realize what that little man was looking for.” She stopped now and closed her

eyes for a moment while she recalled what had happened to the little man, and who had

caused it to

happen, and she seemed to have difficulty in going on, for her voice was low and her

words disjointed as

she said, “It went out... out of my mind for years. Me... me da always said money caused trouble; I

didn’t want to cause trouble. And then when I began to put two and two together, I was too frightened

to mention it. Anyway, the damage was done. Both you and Roddy, I thought, had got

over losing your

fathers. And you, Kate’—she was nodding wildly now at Kate ‘you were always saying,

let the dead

bury the dead. So I didn’t bring it up. Anyway I wonder somebody didn’t come across it afore now.

“Twas likely ‘cos of the falls the hairns didn’t go there.”

“Oh, Mary Ellen.” Hal’s tone was quiet and soft and the fact that he wasn’t going to go for her made

her see him in a different light. But only for a moment, for he said now, “Well, you did one good thing

anyway: keeping your tongue quiet, you’ve given me a little fortune to start a new life.”

‘ You’re not goin’ to keep it? “

“I’m not goin’ to keep it? What do you think I’m gona do with it?”

“Well’—she looked from him to Kate, then back to him again ‘give it to the owners. It

was the money

for the pay.”

“Look, Mary Ellen’—his tone was recognizable again ‘what would happen if the morrow

mornin’ I went

down to that office and said, there’s the money that you accused me da of takin’ over

thirteen years

since. You know what would happen? They would say, thank you very much, Mr.

Roystan, and that

would be that. It would go into the company and would be swallowed up like a drop in

the ocean. Do

you know what that company’s worth. The Greenwich Hospital lot? Millions. Millions

and millions, to

the guess; they don’t know the extent of their own wealth, they’ve got their fingers in so many pies. You

must think me a dud, Mary Ellen.”

“Tisn’t your money.”

“Tis my money.” He was standing over her now.

“Every rotten sovereign of it is my money: I starved as a lad; I was hounded; Kate here was my only

friend; some of them would have lynched me at that time, because they had to wait for

their pay till

another assignment was sent through. I tell you. I’ve earned every penny of that two

hundred and

twenty-one sovereigns. No, Mary Ellen, that money is gona get me out of that hell hole.

I’m no longer

goin’ to be a smelter.” Now he thumbed his chest as he added, “Already I can feel a

tightening here;

it’s been worse since I got the knife in me ribs. Oh, no, no, it’s not gona get me; I’ve had enough.

There’s a little farm I’ve got me eye on. I think I’ve had me eye on it for years. Like one does on seeing

a mirage down the pit: if something drops on your head an’ you’re not completely

knocked out you see

things. Twice it happened to me as a lad and twice I saw the same thing, a great open sky with a house

in the middle of it. Well, there’s open land enough there and a little well-built house in the middle of it.

And the old Douglas couple are on their last legs. It hasn’t come up on the market yet, an’

of course it’s

rented, but the way things are at the moment on the land, I don’t think there’ll be many after it when they

go. “

“But lad,” Kate interrupted his flow, ‘won’t they wonder where you got the money? “

“No, Kate, no. I’m a wily one at bottom. I’ve thought everything out and it’s fitted in beautifully.

Remember when I had to go to the company to be compensated, you remember? You

were the only

one I told what I got, twentyone pounds, two shillings, equal to me da’s full year’s pay.

And you would

have thought they were giving me silver nuggets from a year’s lead draining. Well, when I got back, as

you can imagine, there was a lot of the men chippin’ me. No one asks you outright, you know, Kate,

just hints, and so I hinted back and helped them with their guessing. In the end they were guessing into

hundreds and I’ve let them go on guessing. I must have been forearmed in a way.”

“But the company’ll know what they gave you, lad, and that that amount wouldn’t set

you up on your

feet and stock a farm.”

“I’m away ahead of you, Kate, I’m away ahead of you. I’ve got it all worked out. I have always saved

up and with the help of the seven pounds that old Abel left me, and not having a wife’—

he slanted his

eyes towards Mary Ellen ‘nor chick nor child on the side to support, I can go to the bank an’ say, “

There’s forty pounds; I v/ant to rent a farm. Would you let me have a loan to add to it to buy stock? “