“No?” said Monjoy with a laugh. “Fit or not, I’ve got a hillside of ore to go at, and laid out the foundations of two furnaces, and got the fire-brick made and the stone to the spot and men just starting to work day and night. That was a ballad, if I remember; but never mind that. You’re out o’ health, Matthew; perhaps you’ve some trouble we know nothing of.”
“Finish your say.”
“Here’s Emmason going over to give Parker a neighbourly call. If all Emmason wants is to put up a show of zeal, we can manage that for him. An old die or two planted here and there won’t do any harm, and he can give Cope a search-warrant, all as fair as the day. That’ll amuse Cope in Horwick, and we’re not going to invite him this side of Wadsworth.”
“Have you finished?” Moon asked.
“Why, what ails you, Matthew?”
“Because if ye have, I’ll ask ye this: Who’s been watching Cope lately?”
“I’ve been watching something better worth while,” Monjoy returned.
“Maybe; but I’ll tell ye what I’ve seen, that won’t hurt ye to know. I said before yon’s mind was as ill-shapen as his body; listen: he’s a man-eater, and hyænas laugh like him. There’s no man’s blood in yon. He lets ye shoot your spittle at him, and laughs just the same. What was it he laughed at first in the ‘Pipes’? I see ye remember. I began to watch him after that, and I’ll back my own wits against Emmason’s clot o’ sized warps, for all the fancy-work. I’ve seen him licking round at ye all with his filthy eyes, choosing men to fit the white cap wi’ the black strings on and reckoning how many widows there’d be. Ay, I’ve seen his eyes feeding on that!—” He pointed suddenly to John Raikes’s great neck.
“What!” cried Raikes, with a hoarse oath, starting suddenly up, while his chair tumbled behind him.
“Ay, and he’s leered at Sally bringing in ale, and at Cicely, too, by God!—We’ve no grand new furnaces in Horwick, but there’s odds and ends to watch. They weighed him at the shearing: how many of us has he weighed, and measured the rope for, with his watch in his hand?”