“And if he’s more sense than you give him credit for,” interrupted Jagger, in a voice that had grown even more bitter; “if he knows which side his bread’s buttered on, and takes me back with this Inman to be my boss, and the pair of ’em to force me to do their dirty work or else be called a thief, you’d have me swallow it?”
He set his teeth as he finished his inquiry, and kept his eyes fixed on his father’s; but the older man was unmoved.
“There’s nobody can force you to do dirty work,” he said, “and if Nancy ’ud want you to do it, then t’ pearl isn’t worth t’ price ’at’s asked for it. But I’d like to think better o’ t’ lass. Her father was a queer ’un, but straight; and if you don’t use t’ file where you should use t’ plane I think you’d smooth things out. If you can’t—well, t’ straight road is t’ only right road. You may sell all you have to buy t’ pearl, but you may neither borrow nor steal. Right’s right, Sundays and week-days and t’ year through.”
Jagger removed his eyes and the tense look left his face. For a while he did not speak and the father was also silent. Then he said:
“I’ll try to see her to-morrow. She’ll be going to Betty Walker’s and I can meet her as she comes down t’ Cove road. But she’s a temper of her own and I bet a dollar we fratch.”
Something not unlike a sigh, but with a touch of impatience in it, escaped Maniwel’s lips.
“If you meet her wi’ your prickles out you might as well stop at home,” he said. “Turn ’em inside so as they’ll check your tongue, and then you’ll maybe win through.”
CHAPTER IX
IN WHICH ONE LOVER WALKS OUT AND ANOTHER
WALKS IN
PURE is the air on Mawm moor, charged with the virtues of the sea and the strength of the hills! and pure are the streams that fill the runnels and tinkle their accompaniment to the music of the breeze as it sweeps the strings of bent grass and reed!