The White Peacock Part 3

The tall meadow-sweet was in bud along the tiny beach and we walked knee-deep among it, watching the foamy race of the ripples and the whitening of the willows on the far sh.o.r.e. At the place where Nethermere narrows to the upper end, and receives the brook from Strelley, the wood sweeps down and stands with its feet washed round with waters. We broke our way along the sh.o.r.e, crus.h.i.+ng the sharp-scented wild mint, whose odour checks the breath, and examining here and there among the marshy places ragged nests of water-fowl, now deserted. Some slim young lap-wings started at our approach, and sped lightly from us, their necks outstretched in straining fear of that which could not hurt them. One, two, fled cheeping into cover of the wood; almost instantly they coursed back again to where we stood, to dart off from us at an angle, in an ecstasy of bewilderment and terror.

"What has frightened the crazy little things?" asked Lettie.

"I don't know. They've cheek enough sometimes; then they go whining, skelping off from a fancy as if they had a snake under their wings."

Lettie however paid small attention to my eloquence. She pushed aside an elder bush, which graciously showered down upon her myriad crumbs from its flowers like slices of bread, and bathed her in a medicinal scent. I followed her, taking my dose, and was startled to hear her sudden, "Oh, Cyril!"

On the bank before us lay a black cat, both hindpaws torn and b.l.o.o.d.y in a trap. It had no doubt been bounding forward after its prey when it was caught. It was gaunt and wild; no wonder it frightened the poor lap-wings into cheeping hysteria. It glared at us fiercely, growling low.

"How cruel-oh, how cruel!" cried Lettie, shuddering.

I wrapped my cap and Lettie's scarf over my hands and bent to open the trap. The cat struck with her teeth, tearing the cloth convulsively.

When it was free, it sprang away with one bound, and fell panting, watching us.

I wrapped the creature in my jacket, and picked her up, murmuring:

"Poor Mrs. Nickie Ben-we always prophesied it of you."

"What will you do with it?" asked Lettie.

"It is one of the Strelley Mill cats," said I, "and so I'll take her home."

The poor animal moved and murmured and I carried her, but we brought her home. They stared, on seeing me enter the kitchen coatless, carrying a strange bundle, while Lettie followed me.

"I have brought poor Mrs. Nickie Ben," said I, unfolding my burden.

"Oh, what a shame!" cried Emily, putting out her hand to touch the cat, but drawing quickly back, like the pee-wits.

"This is how they all go," said the mother.

"I wish keepers had to sit two or three days with their bare ankles in a trap," said Mollie in vindictive tones.

We laid the poor brute on the rug, and gave it warm milk. It drank very little, being too feeble, Mollie, full of anger, fetched Mr. Nickie Ben, another fine black cat, to survey his crippled mate. Mr. Nickie Ben looked, shrugged his sleek shoulders, and walked away with high steps.

There was a general feminine outcry on masculine callousness.

George came in for hot water. He exclaimed in surprise on seeing us, and his eyes became animated.

"Look at Mrs. Nickie Ben," cried Mollie. He dropped on his knees on the rug and lifted the wounded paws.

"Broken," said he.

"How awful!" said Emily, shuddering violently, and leaving the room.

"Both?" I asked.

"Only one-look!"

"You are hurting her!" cried Lettie.

"It's no good," said he.

Mollie and the mother hurried out of the kitchen into the parlour.

"What are you going to do?" asked Lettie.

"Put her out of her misery," he replied, taking up the poor cat. We followed him into the barn.

"The quickest way," said he, "is to swing her round and knock her head against the wall."

"You make me sick," exclaimed Lettie.

"I'll drown her then," he said with a smile. We watched him morbidly, as he took a length of twine and fastened a noose round the animal's neck, and near it an iron goose; he kept a long piece of cord attached to the goose.

"You're not coming, are you?" said he. Lettie looked at him; she had grown rather white.

"It'll make you sick," he said. She did not answer, but followed him across the yard to the garden. On the bank of the lower mill-pond he turned again to us and said:

"Now for it!-you are chief mourners." As neither of us replied, he smiled, and dropped the poor writhing cat into the water, saying, "Good-bye, Mrs. Nickie Ben."

We waited on the bank some time. He eyed us curiously.

"Cyril," said Lettie quietly, "isn't it cruel?-isn't it awful?"

I had nothing to say.

"Do you mean me?" asked George.

"Not you in particular-everything! If we move the blood rises in our heel-prints."

He looked at her seriously, with dark eyes.

"I had to drown her out of mercy," said he, fastening the cord he held to an ash-pole. Then he went to get a spade, and with it, he dug a grave in the old black earth.

"If," said he, "the poor old cat had made a prettier corpse, you'd have thrown violets on her."

He had struck the spade into the ground, and hauled up the cat and the iron goose.

"Well," he said, surveying the hideous object, "haven't her good looks gone! She was a fine cat."

"Bury it and have done," Lettie replied.

He did so asking: "Shall you have bad dreams after it?"

"Dreams do not trouble me," she answered, turning away.

We went indoors, into the parlour, where Emily sat by a window, biting her finger. The room was long and not very high; there was a great rough beam across the ceiling. On the mantel-piece, and in the fireplace, and over the piano were wild flowers and fresh leaves plentifully scattered; the room was cool with the scent of the woods.

"Has he done it?" asked Emily-"and did you watch him? If I had seen it I should have hated the sight of him, and I'd rather have touched a maggot than him."