He asked rather carelessly, Was it not the Vicar who had set the affair going in the first instance? He could recall hearing a mention of the boat as wanted, in the Vicar's address at the funeral of the two sailors. And, by-the-bye, was not Miss Pattison the sole survivor of the wreck which had first, perhaps, put it into the mind of the Vicar that a lifeboat ought to be had?
So composed and indifferent was the speaker's manner, that the Vicar began to question the truth of his own late surmise. He fell in, of course, with Mr. Willoughby's mood, and refrained from the faintest hint that he had ever supposed Mr. Willoughby to be the donor of the ninety pounds.
Yes, certainly, he said, he was glad to say that he had had a hand in first starting the motion—not that the people of Old Maxham had not in earlier years felt the need of a lifeboat, but only that they had failed to come to a point in the matter. Perhaps he had helped to bring them to a point. But once aroused, the people of the place had responded nobly to his appeal.
They were dear people, the Vicar said warmly, with a touch of boyish enthusiasm, at which the older man smiled with pleasure. The Vicar went on to say that he was proud of his people. And—yes, it was Miss Pattison who had had so remarkable an escape from drowning, and whose escape had partly made him think about a lifeboat.
Then, just as Mr. Willoughby was hoping to hear more about Mildred Pattison, the Vicar swerved off again to the subject of the lifeboat itself, and dashed into an eager explanation of its make and its merits.
He described the wonderful self-righting power of a lifeboat; the air-cases to which it owes its buoyancy; the tubes through which may escape any water shipped by the boat; the life-lines hanging outside, in readiness to be caught and clung to by any man overboard.
Then he congratulated himself and his Parish on the transporting carriage which had also been provided, by means of which the lifeboat could be quickly conveyed to the water's edge, and launched in heavy surf.
He had much also to say as to lesser equipments,—anchors, cables life-buoys, grapnels, rockets; and, above all, the cork lifebelts to be worn by the crew, the buoyant and flexible make of which had greatly delighted him.
"With one of those belts on, a man wearing heavy clothing may not only float safely, but may keep another person afloat also," he said. "It's a marvellous invention. One wonders how the world managed to get on before all these things were found out."
"Not quite such an amount of shipping in earlier times," suggested Mr. Willoughby.