Even I, who knew where 'twas, could scarcely see the 'Y'
mark on his cheek, for the paleness of death had taken out the colour of
the scar, and left his face as smooth and mellow-white as the alabaster
figures in Moonfleet church. His body was naked from the waist up, as he
had stripped for jumping from the brig, and we could see the great broad
chest and swelling muscles that had pulled him out of many a desperate
pass, and only failed him, for the first and last time so few hours ago.
They stood for a little while looking in silence at the old lander who
had run his last cargo on Moonfleet beach, and then they laid his arms
down by his side, and slung him in a sail, and carried him away. I walked
beside, and as we came down across the sea-meadows, the sun broke out and
we met little groups of schoolchildren making their way down to the beach
to see what was doing with the wreck. They stood aside to let us go by,
the boys pulling their caps and the girls dropping a curtsy, when they
knew that it was a poor drowned body passing; and as I saw the children I
thought I saw myself among them, and I was no more a man, but just come
out from Mr. Glennie's teaching in the old almshouse hall.
Thus we came to the Why Not? and there set him down. The inn had not
been let, as I learned afterwards, since Maskew died; and they had put
a fire in it last night for the first time, knowing that the brig would
be wrecked, and thinking that some might come off with their lives and
require tending.
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