CHAPTER 12
A FUNERAL
How he lies in his rights of a man!
Death has done all death can--_Browning_
We stood for a moment holding one another's hands; then Ratsey spoke.
'John, these two months have changed thee from boy to man. Thou wast a
child when I turned that morning as we went up Hoar Head with the
pack-horses, and looked back on thee and Elzevir below, and Maskew lying
on the ground. 'Twas a sorry business, and has broken up the finest gang
that ever ran a cargo, besides driving thee and Elzevir to hide in caves
and dens of the earth. Thou shouldst have come with us that morn; not
have stayed behind. The work was too rough for boys: the skipper should
have piped the reefing-hands.'
It was true enough, or seemed to me true then, for I felt much cast down;
but only said, 'Nay, Master Ratsey, where Master Block stays, there I
must stay too, and where he goes I follow.'
Then I sat down upon the bed in the corner, feeling my leg began to ache;
and the storm, which had lulled for a few minutes, came up again all the
fiercer with wilder gusts and showers of spray and rain driving into the
cave from seaward. So I was scarce sat down when in came a roaring blast,
filling even our corner with cold, wet air, that quenched the weakling
candle flame.
'God save us, what a night!' Ratsey cried.
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