I went round to the front of the house. To do this I found myself crossing that little waste of choked hydrangeas and foxgloves, and I stood still for a moment surveying the wreckage of the garden my mother had created. I glanced up quickly at the grey, watchful house and then remembered that she had not been able to see her garden. Her window was round the front. It caught my eye as soon as I turned the corner as though it had been waiting for me to appear.- It was a little dormer window high up in the slope of the roof. Its dim eye was disfigured by the iron bars. I could picture my mother's white, forlorn face peering down hour after hour, day after day.
The mist swirled, lifted and showed me the black granite of Botallack head across the mine workings. Then it closed down again in a damp veil. I went on, past the front door. Then I stopped and went back to gaze up at the faded lettering that showed through the flaking paint above the lintel. Nearne. That had been her maiden name. James Nearne might be her father. She might have named me after her father.
The old lettering fascinated me. But at length I was interrupted by the sound of voices. They were muffled and distant, yet when I turned I could see the short, round figure of Friar already emerging from the mist and quite close to me. He was coming up the track from the mine workings and he was followed by the taller figure of Slim Matthews.
'You have been working already?' I asked.
'Yep,' Friar replied. 'Since ruddy 'alf past five. An' a fat lot o' good it done us. The bleeding trucks ain't turned up.'
'What trucks?' I asked.
'Never you mind,' he answered. 'But the bastards shoulda bin 'ere at six.' His face looked tired and was filmed with a grey dust.
We had breakfast then. Nobody spoke during the meal. Friar and Slim seemed lost in their own thoughts. At length I said, 'When will I be able to have a look at the mine?'
'Dunno,' Friar replied. 'The Capting's gorn ter Penzance ter see aba't the trucks.'
'It won't do any good,' Slim said quietly. 'They've got scared.'