I pray you tell me where he is. Is, he well again?' They got up
and stared at one another and at me, when I named Elzevir Block, and then
I knew the one that spoke for Master Ratsey only greyer than he was.
'Who are you?' he cried, 'who talk of Elzevir Block.'
'Do you not know me, Master Ratsey?' and I looked full in his face. 'I am
John Trenchard, who left you so long ago. I pray you tell me where is
Master Block?'
Master Ratsey looked as if he had seen a ghost, and was struck dumb at
first: but then ran up and shook me by the hand so warmly that I fell
back again on my pillow, while he poured out questions in a flood. How
had I fared, where had I been, whence had I come? until I stopped him,
saying: 'Softly, kind friend, and I will answer; only tell me first,
where is Master Elzevir?'
'Nay, that I cannot say,' he answered, 'for never a soul has set eyes on
Elzevir since that summer morning we put thee and him ashore at Newport.'
'Oh, fool me not!' I cried out, chafing at his excuses; 'I am not
wandering now. 'Twas Elzevir that saved me in the surf last night. 'Twas
he that landed with me.'
There was a look of sad amaze that came on Ratsey's face when I said
that; a look that woke in me an awful surmise. 'What!' cried he, 'was
that Master Elzevir that dragged thee through the surf?'
'Ay, 'twas he landed with me, 'twas he landed with me,' I said; trying,
as it were, to make true by repeating that which I feared was not the
truth.
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