Stories with a Vengeance — page 28: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

24: the tunnel, a silence blent with impene- trable darkness, telling of no progress, |. telling of no fruition, harbouring no hope. It was darksome, noisome, loathsome. There was no wholesomeness or good in it. It seemed to swallow up the useful waters of the canal, and give nothing back in re- turn but the chill sense of. barren gloom and threats of issues too dire to front. Between Mary and Will the conversation had gradually slackened as the twilight gathered. It had strayed away from ther personal affairs, and be to concern itself with the neighbours and the village of Bancroft, the nearest one to the lock, two miles to the eastward, and towards which the tunnel went. “TI. was at the smith’s to-day,” said Ryland, “down in Bancroft, getting some work done.” The girl started, and looked at him. ' “ At Eben Dray’s ?” she said, with a look of disquiet on her face. oo, He nodded his head. “ And you saw Tom Brindley, the smith’s striker P’ — Again he nodded his head. He was wondering what caused the strange look in Mary’s face. He had never seen anything like it there before. “1 don’t like Tom Brindley,” she said. ““Why ? What’s wrong with him, girl ?” sald he. . She tossed her head and coloured slightly. “TI don’t want to makeany harm between him and you, Will,” she said; ‘“ but I wish he would keep himself more to himself.” “Oh, I see!” said Will, with an amused laugh. ‘He has been making love to youP Then I shall have to be jealous of him ?” “Making love to me!” she cried, scorn- fully. ‘“Nothe. I should like to see him try. But he has been impudent.” _ “What ! impudent to you ?—impudent to my Mary? Then I shall have to thrash him, and, by heavens, I will when I meet him! What has he said to you, Mary ?” “Oh, you must not take any notice, Will! It was only his ignorance.” “What did he say?” asked the other, hotly. ‘Tell me what he said.” “Promise me first, Will, not to notice it.” “No, You tell me what he said. I’m the man, and must decide whether I shall notice it or not.” ‘‘He—he met me in the lane over the hill, down by the byre——” The girl paused, and looked down in- tently at the black, motionless water at her feet, | “ And what?” demanded Ryland, firmly. Google ‘depths of the tunnel. AT THE TUNNEL’S MOUTH. ‘ And asked me for a kiss,” she said. “Was that all P” “That was all.” For a while Ryland looked intently into the water without speaking. He shifted the weight of his body first to one leg, then to the other. He cleared his throat softly, and then, as though he thought this might _ | be taken as a sign of mildness, he cleared his throat in a loud and threatening man- ner. At last he spoke. “Vl tell you what I shall do, Mary. When next 1 meet Brindley Pll say to him, ‘ Mary Menton is going to be my wife. You let. her alone, or I shall have something to do with you!’ What noise is that P” A loud sound had come to them from the For some time back the breathing and footfall of a horse had been audible to them in the tunnel. Now and then the voice of the boy who drove the horse had also been heard, and all along the slight wash of the water divided by the bow of the barge, and flung in little wavelets against the invisible sides of the tunnel, At the loud noisé both had sud- denly turned round, and looked into the impenetrable darkness behind. After a moment she answered, “It must be a dunnage plank, that fell from the gunwale into the hold of an empty barge.” In a few minutes the horse and boy be- came visible in the mouth of the tunnel, and a little later on, the bow of the barge. Daylight had now almost faded, and it was with some difficulty that, just before the barge emerged from under the arch, the accustomed eye of Mary could dis- tinguish which it was. At last, however, it emerged into the little harbour at the mouth of the tunnel. The skipper called out a pleasant greeting to the young girl, and she greeted him back by name. . Two men formed the crew of the barge. Three men stood aft on the cuddy. Suddenly Mary seized young Ryland by the arm, and whispered, “Uome away, Will—come away !” . He glanced at her uneasily for a second, and then fixed his eyes intently on the three men. ‘¢ Oh,” he cried, “ there’s Tom Brindley! You run and tell your father there’s an empty barge to be locked down. I may as well talk to Tom Brindley now. You had better keep indoors.” She clung to him. “No, no; come away! Come away with me to our place! I am afraid to leave you here! Come, Will!” “T will not go!” he said,sternly. “1am able to take care of myself against him. Do as I tell you—go! Go at once!” Sg ll > a JOO S CO)