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Our Short Story. J ,'CAPTAIN'…

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Our Short Story. J 'CAPTAIN' JOPE i BY I By S. BARI NG-GOULD. (Continued^ "Mus. W-ebber looked at her daughter, but the latter flared up And said: I re- fuse; your offer is impertinent. It were you as killed my father and Joe." It were a terrible unfortunate acci- dent," said the capiain." And there's no use cryin' over spilt milk. What can't be cu.red must be endured." I positively refuse," exclaimed Patience, her brown eyes flasiiing fire. I ain't so sure about it bein' all an acci- dent." Oh, you'm wiser than ten men on a jury and the crowner. That's news. I'll give you ten days to think it over. It's allowed a woman to change her mind." If you give me ten years I'll never change. Well-w-ell, you'll think better of it." Never." Now, look here. I knowed a chap called Bill Pengelly, he was working in Wheal Yean, and he corned on a nugget of gold and didn't know whatt it was, took it for mundic, and chucked iit away. That was worth a couple o' tins o' tin. Don't you be like Bill Pengelly. I be that nugget o' gold, and don't you refuse to take me." You—you gold; you're a base mundic murderer, you be." Take care what you say, Patty. If ever I came upon so perverse and foolish a pair o' females-I hope I may be blowed up next blasting o' the rock. You've no more brains than a jacksnipe amd no more heart than a long-cripple (snake)." Then he departed. He went to the mine. changed his garments and assumed his underground garb, red as rubble, put on his mining cap, with a lump of clay in front of it, and a taUow candle stuck in the clay, and was let down the shaft. But scarcely had he been down ten minutes before he was out of the adit and was shruting to be drawn up. The wind- lass was turned and hI) regained the sur- face, shaking like a leak and his face white "s his candle. "Oh, Jim! said he, as he seated him- self on a heap of refuse, I've been that terrible scared—I hadn't gone a fatham alonn: the adit when I seed 'em both." Seed who, cap'n ? "Seed Sam Webber and Joe Caunter, sure as I'm here, both a standin' afore me and waving of me back." U It your fancy, cajp'n." u It warn't. fancy. I seed 'em quite plain." Go and get a drop o' brandy and steady your nerves." Well. if us had but a wire rope as now, and not a cable, when they poor chaps went down, this 'ud never ha\ e happened. I'll go and have some brandy to steady me." Jeremiah Jope retired. When 1 e was gone, the man, Jim Friend, shook his head. I baint so sure as he hadn't a hand in it," said he. "They do say [1$ he'd had words wi' Webber and Caunter about the little Patty. Maybe it's his conscience makes a coward of him." Captain Jope did not venture to des- cend again for three days, and when he did he had fortified himself with a stiff gla&s of spirits. Nevertheless, he was un- easy, and his hands shook as he laid hold of-the rope. He noticed that the other adventurers looked askance at him. Jim Friend had told the story, and a good deal of suspicion attached to him. Again, lie had not been underground many min- utes before his calls were heard to be hauled up. Again he came to the surface quaking and half fainting with terror. "I seed 'em again, when I got along the adit, wavin' of me back. I'll never go under- ground in this here mine, never, was his exclamation as ho wiped the cold sweat from his brow. He kept his word. He sold his share in Wheal Consort and left the moor and tfie county, and, it was 6aid, had into the adjoining county and was en- gaged in mining operations there, but exactly where was not known. Those working on Wheal Consort were finally convinced that the accidental death of the two men was not accidental, but due to fouLplay. As to Patience Webber and her mother, they left the moor and were lost 6ight of. Wheal Consort proved a successful venture, and those who worked on it were held to have shared ten thousand pounds between them. At last the lode was worked out and the mir* was aban- doned. The workings may still be seen, and the shaft is now half-filled in. The adventurers dispersed, some to risk their savings in other mining undertakings, some to settle down in villages on their savings. Jope never-throve. Wherever he went he found it impossible to go underground. So soon as he left daylight, into whatso- ever pit he entered, so surely was he met by the spectres of the murdered men. He was obliged to abandon mining work and to pick up a precarious existence above the surface as a dowser with a divining-rod. Five and twenty years had elapsed when Jope settled down in his native village in a little cottage a single man, old and decrepit, and very poor. He was afflicted with shaking fits. And it was noticed that his lamp never was allowed, if he cottld help it, to go out all night long. From his window a ray of yellow light always, after dark, shone forth into the street of the village. As it so happened, Patience lived in the same parish. She was married to a small farmer, a man who, having been a labourer with a small garden, by indualtry had worked his way up and now rented some 60 acres and was doing well on them. Patience Lillicrap, as her name was, as a married woman, was no longer the erraceful, willowy figure she once had been, but had become a stout, course woman, much troubled with erysipelas that some- times broke out over her face, sometim.e6 over her arms. Whenever she and Jope met his eyes rested on her with an uioo. of hate and resentment, when she would toss her head, curl her lip, and mutter some word of scorn. They did uot speak to each other, and, indeed, avojded each other as much as possible- Captain Jope had a younges brother who visited him occasionally, and who was thought to help him to liv by smart quarterly subventions. The old man finally fell into a mortal sickaeas, and hi6 brother Thomas came to see him. Hitherto Jeremiah had al- ways stoutly maintained his innoeehce in the matter of the death of two men, Webber and Caunter. But when he knew that he had not many weeks to live, he epoko out to hia brother and confessed what he had done. Thomas told all after the death of Jeremiah—not before. Said the dying captain" to his brother: Tom, I want you to swear to mia on the Bible that you'll do something for me. When I've gone you go to Patienoe Lillierap and tell her that it ie lIue I cut the cord, and that was how her lather and lover met their deaths. I wouldn't allow it before, and, njuid you, Tom. I wouldn't allow it now, but that I fion/t fancy being haunted by their ghosts after I leave this world and be worreted in the next by them as 1 have been worreted in this. Whenever it ie dark I eeee them, one on this and the ether on that side of me, and they never tMMPe&z&e, an4 that is what has brought, the shakes upon me, and that is why I must always at night have a light burn- ing, for I don't see them save in the dark. And to think-to think that it is all along of that woman, Patience, that this has come upon me, and that she has spoiled my life. Why, them fellows as worked with me at Wheal Consort made ten thousand pounds, and I lost my share all along of Patty. And I might ha' made { pots of money wi' mining elsew here, but was ever plagued wi' them two spectres j as wouldn't allow me to go underground, and I was baulked in all my undertak- ings, and all along of Patty (H The old man screamed with rage. All along o' that woman as is as fat as an old sow and has the arysipelas! To think that she she have blotted and spoiled my whole life. Ifs cruel, -shameful to think of, and I wouldn't let her know the truth now, but that I must have her forgiveness, or else them ghosts will not let me have peace in the world to come, but be worreting me there as they have been worreting me here. It's through no love of her, mind you, that I say this now and hid you tell her. It's to afford myself peace. Drat the woman that ever she should ha' caused me to commit the crime—and she fat as a pig and troubled wi' arysipelas." Accordingly, after the death and burial' of Jope, the brother Thomas visited Mrs. 'I Lillicrap and related what Jeremiah has said, and asked for her forgiveness. Lawk said she, I forgive him, sure l enough. If I'd married Joe Gaunter I should ha' been only a poor miner's wife, and now I've got Harry Lillicrap and five cows, a nice little farm and seven pigs, weighing twenty score each, at sevenpence halfpenny a pound. Why of course I for- give him." The End.

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