“Go on, girl. Does that twister want oiling? Feed it, woman, feed it,” said Cæsar.
“His father should have been Dempster before him,” said John, the clerk. “Would have been too, only he went crooked when he married on yonder woman. She's through though, and what more natural——”
The rope stopped again, and Kate's voice, hard and thick, came from the farther end of it. “His mother being dead, eh?”
“It was the mother that done for the father, anyway,” said the clerk.
“Consequently,” said Kate, “he is to praise God that his mother is gone!”
“That girl wants a doctor,” muttered Jonaique.
“The man couldn't drag the woman up after him,” began the clerk. “It's always the way——”
“Just that,” said Kate, with bitter irony.
“Of coorse, I'm not for saying it was the woman's fault entirely——”
“Don't apologise for her,” said Kate. “She's gone and forgotten, and that being so, her son has now a chance of being Deemster.”