“I might ha’ made it worser still.”
“You could not--now. Oh, what will become of you, and what of your poor wife and little ones?”
“For me, as Jan Tottle said, there’s the gallows; and I reckon for my Jane and the childer, there’s the grave.”
“If you had not fired the rick, Roger!”
“I tell you I might ha’ done worse than that, and now been a free man.”
“I cannot see that.”
“Put your hand down by my right thigh. Do you feel nothing there, hanging to the strap round my waist?”
Kate felt a string and a knife, a large knife, as she groped.
“Do you mean this, Roger?”
“Yes, I does. As Jan Tottle wor a-wrastlin’ wi’ me here in this boat, and trying to overmaster me, the thought came into my head as I might easy take my knife and run it in under his ribs and pierce his heart. Had I done that, he’d ha’ falled dead here, and I’d a’ gotten scot-free away.”