Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts

ng - much as they had sat, evening after evening, for months. They had a clock, and by it they divided the hours into day

yard off the length, and this made the interior exactly square. Each of these bunks had two doors, with brass latches on the inner side; so that the owner, if he chose, could shut himself up and go

, and behind it when it opened, three hammocks were s

ut about eighteen inches beneath the spring of the roof there ran a line of small trap-doors with sliding panels, to admit the cold air, and below these the room was almost clear of smoke. A newcomer's eyes might have smarted, but these men stitched their clothes and read in comfort. To keep the up-draught steady they had plugged every chink and crevice in the match-boarding below the trap-doors

Cardiff; Long Ede, of Hayle, in Cornwall; Charles Silchester, otherwise The Snipe, of Ratcliff Highway or thereabout

and now and then he broke off to glance mildly at Faed and the Snipe, who were busy beside the fire with a greasy pack of cards; or to listen to the peevish grumbling of Lashman in the bunk below him. Lashman had taken to his bed six weeks before with scurvy, and complained incessantly; and though they hardly knew it, these complaints were wearing his comrades' nerves to fiddle-strings - doing the mischief that cold and bitter hard work and the cruel loneliness had hitherto failed to do. Long Ede lay stretc

eorge! Hang it

by the silence of the others. They were good seamen all, and

ulous than ever, cut into

. I'm just an encumbrance, and the sooner you're shut of me the better, says you. You

shoulder and laid his cards face downward. "Here

ean. Plucky deal you care a

he Snipe slipped an arm under the invalid's head

't he? Let him s

rkable Transactions of Europe, And discovering several Intrigues and Secrets of the Christian Courts (especially of that of France)," etc., etc. "Written originally in Arabick. Translated into Italian, and from thence into English by the Translator of the First Volume. The Eleventh Edition. London: Printed for G. Strahan, S. Ballard"- and a score of booksell

the thirteenth Antique made them commit, they stood still like Fools, gazing at one another: None daring to unmask, or speak a Word; for that would have put all the Spectators into a Disorder and Confusion. Cardinal Mazarini (who was the chief Contriver of these Entertainments, to divert the King from more serious Thoughts) stood close by the young Monarch, with the Scheme of the Ballet in his Hand. Knowing therefore that this Dance was to consist but of twelve Antiques, and taking notice that there were actually thirteen, he at first imputed it to som

m say he didn't mean it

of his hammock, jerked himself out, and

throat to show there's no bad blood, and that ye belave me." He took up a pannikin from the floor beside the bunk, pulled a hot iron from the fire, and stirred t

Faed dealing the cards and licking his thumb between each. Long Ede shifted from one cramped elbow to another

" the Snipe

acks of them each player guessed pretty shrewdly what the other held. Yet they went on playing nigh

an. What ails

hands to his thighs and s

side the do

r nothing," said Dav

listen! There

ear close to the jamb. The sound resembled breathing - or so he thought for a moment. Then it seemed rat

circle of the fire, their breath came from them in clouds. It trickled from them now i

Then the invalid's

rn. I warned you - I told you he wasn't deep enough. O Lord, have mercy . . .

Gaffer gently; and L

s ear to the door. "Leastways . . . we've had be

Take us the foxes, t

g. The snow was falling an hour back, and I dessay 'tis pretty thick outside. If 'tis a bear, we don't want him

chink, here . . . like a warm breath. It'

? Did it smel

smell nothing, to notice. Her

ently. All stared; and saw the latch move up, up . . . and f

these there had been no pressure. The men waited in a

shook his feet free of the rugs. His eyes searched for the Gaffer's face. But the old man had drawn back into the gloom of his

nd. Wait, if there's a chance of a shot. The trap wo

vered and grew vague to sight in the smoke-wreaths. "Heard anything more?" he asked. "Nothing since," answered the Snipe. With his shoulder Long Ede pushed up the trap. They saw his head framed in a panel of

lapping the door. Their breath tightened. They waited for the explosion of his gun. None came. The crunching bega

seen aught," Dav

atch. It did not move. After a while Cooney slipped off to his hammock; Faed to his bunk, alongside Lashman's. The Gaffer had picked up his book again. The Snipe laid a couple of logs on the blaze,

ick man's voic

Bill, out there! That was Bill trying to get in.

d right-about-face, and stood now, poi

for the love

-night. I can't sleep. It's Bill, I tell yer.

sh it, you white-livered swine! Hush it, or by

losed his book and leaned

Sir. Not

ba

and b

he third time that n

farther over the ledge, a

ven disturbed. Neither beast nor man, but only God, can break up the hard ea

fraid of himself, and the way his mind had been running for the last forty-eight hours upon green fields and visions of spring. As he put it to himself, something inside his head was melting. Biblical texts chattered within him like running brooks, and as they fleeted he could almost smell the blown meadow-scent. "Take us the foxes, the little foxes . . . for our vines have tender grapes . . . A fountain of gardens, a well of

moon. He could see for miles. Bear or fox, no living creature was in sight. But who could tell what might be hiding behind any one of a th

ere was a bear, after all, behind one of the hummocks, and a shot, or the chance of one,

hummock, not five hundred yards

ner, and from the eaves to the drift piled there. The drift was frozen solid, but for a

picked himself up, and unstrapping one, took a step into the bright mo

o, three, four - many footprints: prints of a naked human foot: right

is fingers in them; touched the frozen blood. The snow before th

, he was mad for certain! He ran like a madman - floundering, slipping, plunging in his clumsy moccasins. "Take us the foxes, the little foxes . . . My beloved p

yards maybe, and then stopped

s. The footprints - those which pointed towards the hut and those which pointed away from it - lay close together; and he knelt before each, breaking fresh snow over the hollows and carefully hiding the blood. And now a great happines

n were weakening fast; their wits and courage coming down at the end with a rush. Faed and Long Ede were the only two to be depended on for a day. The Gaffer liked Long Ede, who was a religious man. Indeed he had a growing suspicion that Long Ede, in spite of some amiable

ned. "Go you up to the roof. The lad must be frozen." The Snipe climbed the ladder, pushed open the trap, and came back, reporting that Long Ede was nowhere to be seen. The old man slipped a jumper over his suits of clothing - alre

. . .Here, bea

dy covered out of sight by the powdery snow which ran and trickled incessantly - trickled between his lo

and beat his hands and feet, and kneaded and rubbed him. A sigh fluttered on his lips: something between a

e?" It was the

voice broke off, but

un would not be due for a week or two yet: how many weeks he could not

ok the hut. His gaze wandered over their bowed forms -"The Gaffer, David Faed, Dan Cooney, the Snipe, and - and George Lashman in his bunk, of course - and me." But, then, who was the seventh? He began to count. "There's myself - Lashman, in his bunk - David Faed, the Gaffer, the Snipe, Dan Cooney . . . One, two, three, four - well, but that made seven. Then who was the seventh? Was it George who had crawled out of bed and was kneeling there? Decidedly there were five kneeling. No: there was George, plain enou

caught sight of Long Ede's face. While the others fetched th

Ye've se

Long Ede

? Speak low -

his lips, and his face grew full of awe u

said he; and was turning to go, when Long Ed

count . . ."

fer muttered to his beard as he mo

ed to complain, and, unless their eyes played them a trick, had taken a turn for the better. "I declare, if I don't feel like pitching to sing!" the Snipe announced on the second evening, as much to his own wonder as to theirs. "Then w

e went about with a dazed look in his eyes. He was counting, coun

, Long Ede had scarcely uttered a word. But towards

the roof still. It will be froze pretty stiff by this. You might nip up and see

t shut it again without speakin

e roof - a cry that fetched them all trembling, ch

oys! - t

anchor, Long Ede told the Gaffer his story. "It was a hall - a hallu - what d'ye call it, I reckon. I was crazed, eh?" The Gaffer's eyes wandered from a brambling hopping about the lichen-

believe the Lord sent a mi

doubt it was meant just for you and me, and the rest were