Holgrave turned from the galleyman in silence, and, opening the large chest, took out his only spare clothinga suit of medley; and, as he offered it to the stranger, he looked at him with an earnestness which attracted the attention of the galleyman.
"Pollute not thy hand with the blood of the base," said Edith, grasping her son's arm"Judgment is mine, saith the Lord!""Your mother, my precious innocents. But look here, you shall ask me to supperit'll only be doing the decent thing by meand you shall tell me about them all at Odiamas used to be at Odiam, rather, for I reckon there's nobody but yourselves there now."
ONE:"It's from Rose," said Caro timidly.But Reuben did not take much notice of Rose, nor even of his little son. Now and then he would look at them together, sigh impatiently, then go out of the room.
THREE:"Oh, no, not yet," she said, "I cannot yet leave my babe. It was but yesterday my heart bounded at the thought of caressing my lovely boy; and to-daybut this witchthis murderess!" she continued, turning round, and elevating her voice; "what of her? Does she confess her guilt?"
THREE:Reuben at once laid out his wife's money to the best advantage. He bought twenty cows, good milkers, and started a dairy business in Rye. A shop was opened near the Landgate, which sold milk, butter, cream, and eggs from Odiam. He also tried to establish a milk-round in Rye, sending circulars to inns and private houses. He engaged a young woman to serve in the shop, and boys to drive his milk-carts. This meant a big expenditure, and almost all Rose's money was swallowed up by it.
He had become separated from the other searchers, and was alone on the west side of the Moor. The wind barked and howled, hurling itself upon him as he stood, beating his face with hail, which hissed into the dead tangles of the heather, while the stripped thorns yapped and rattled, and the bushes roared. So great was the tumult that he seemed to fall into it like a stone into a waveit passed over him, round him, seemed even to pass under him, he was hardly conscious of the solid ground. The blackness was impenetrable, save where his lantern stained it with a yellow smudge. He shouted, but his voice perished in the dinit seemed as if his whole man, sight, voice, hearing, and sensation, was blurring into the storm, as if Boarzell had swamped him at last, made him merely one of its hundred voices, mocking the manhood which had tried so much against its earth."And this is all!you refuse explanation! you do not even deny the authorship! Are you not aware, that he who could obtain access to the chamber now must necessarily be considered the robber of the child?"Chapter 14Chapter 8
