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I do not think a word was spoken all the way. Krok held the lantern for my mother's feet. Uncle George walked close behind her, and at times before her, in the descent, and helped her down, and so we came at last to the s.h.i.+ngle and crunched over it to the boat.
Krok put down his lantern on a rock, and he and Uncle George got in and pulled out to the lugger which was anch.o.r.ed about twenty yards out.
They came back presently, and lifted out the body and laid it gently on the stones, and Krok brought his lantern. My mother's face was very white and pinched as she knelt down beside it, and at first sight she started and looked quickly up at Uncle George as though in doubt or denial. And presently Uncle George bent down and with his hand lifted the moustache back from the dead man's mouth, and my mother gazed into the dark face and said quietly, "It is he," then she seized my grandfather's arm suddenly and turned away. They were stumbling over the rough stones when Krok ran after them with the lantern and came back in the dark.
We laid the body in the boat again, and Krok lifted in some great round stones, and we rowed out to the black loom of the lugger. Uncle George lit his own lantern, and by its dim light Krok set to work preparing my father's body for its last journey.
Whether he was simply anxious to get done with the business, or whether he felt a gloomy satisfaction in performing these last rites for a man whom he had always hated for his treatment of my mother, I do not know. But he certainly went about it with a grim earnestness which was not very far removed from enjoyment.
He stripped the mizzen-mast of its sail, and Uncle George said no word against it. If Krok had required the lugger itself as a coffin he would not have said him nay.
He wrapped the body carefully in the sail, with great smooth stones from the beach, and with some rope and his knife he sewed it all tightly together, and pulled each knot home with a jerk that was meant to be final, and his hairy old face was crumpled into a frown as he worked.
We ran swiftly up Great Russel under the strong west wind, until, by the longer swing of the seas, we knew we were free of the rocks and islands north of Herm.
Then Uncle George turned her nose to the wind, and under the slatting sail, with bared heads, we committed to the seas the body of him who had wrought such mischief upon them and in some of our lives.
"Dieu merci!" said Uncle George, as the long white figure slipped from our hands and plunged down through the black waters. Then he clapped on his cap and turned the helm, and the lugger went bounding back quicker than she had come, for she and we were lightened of our loads.
We ran back round Brecqhou into Havre Gosselin, and climbed the ladders and went to our homes.
Uncle George and my mother were married just a month after our little Phil was born, and I learned again, from the look on my mother's face, that a woman's age is counted not by years but by that which the years have brought her.
They have been very happy. There is only one happier household on the Island, and that is ours at Beaumanoir, for it is full of the sound of children's voices, and the patter of little feet.
THE FORTY MEN OF SERCQ IN THE YEAR 1800
EAST SIDE
No. Name of House. Tenant.
1. Le Fort Thomas Hamon.
2. Le Grand Fort Jean Le Feuvre.
3. La Tour Amice Le Couteur (Senechal).
4. La Genetiere Philippe Guille.
5. La Rade Thomas Mauger.
6. La Ville Roussel Pierre Le Feuvre.
7. La Ville Roussel Abraham De Carteret.
8. La Ville Roussel Jean Vaudin.
9. La Ville Roussel Philippe Guille.
10. La Ville Roussel Jean Drillot.
11. Le Carrefour Elie Guille.
12. La Valette de Bas Elie Guille.
13. La Valette Robert De Carteret.
14. Vaux de Creux Pierre Le Pelley (Seigneur).
15. La Friponnerie Martin Le Masurier.
16. La Colinette Jean Falle.
17. Le Manoir Pierre Le Pelley (Seigneur).
18. La Vauroque Thomas De Carteret.
19. La Forge Thomas De Carteret.
20. La Pomme du Chien Pierre Le Pelley (Seigneur).
21. Dixcart Thomas G.o.dfray.
22. Grand Dixcart Henri Le Masurier.
23. Pet.i.t Dixcart Eliza Poidestre.
24. La Jaspellerie William Le Masurier.
25. Clos Bourel Abraham Guille.
PEt.i.t SERCQ
26. La Sablonnerie Philippe Guille.
27. La Moussie Nicholas Mollet.
28. La Friponnerie Philippe Baker.
WEST SIDE
PEt.i.t SERCQ
29. Du Vallerie Jean Hamon.
30. La Pipetterie Helier Baker.
SERCQ
31. Dos d'Ane Abraham Guille.
32. Beauregard Philippe Slowley.
33. Beauregard Pierre Le Masurier.
34. Le Vieux Port Philippe Tanquerel.
35. Le Port Edouard Vaudin.
36. La Moignerie Jean Le Feuvre.
37. La Rondelrie Thomas Mauger.
38. La Moinerie Abraham Baker.
39. L'Ecluse William De Carteret.
40. La Seigneurie Pierre Le Pelley.
And for the purposes of this story--
Belfontaine Philip Carre.
Beaumanoir Peter Le Marchant (Jeanne Falla).
_Printed by_ MORRISON & GIBB LIMITED, _Edinburgh_
Ill.u.s.trations:
