United States or Niger ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Not even his supper had lifted the cloud from Jigger's face, and Stafford had left the lad trying to compose a letter to the mother of the dead man, who had been an especial favourite with the trumpeter from the slums. Stafford was roused from his reflections by the grinding, rumbling sound of a train. He turned his face towards the railway line.
But all the same he didn't like poor old 'Jigger' Adams being left there didn't see how he could go home and face old 'Jigger's' missus and tell her he'd come away and left 'Jigger' lying in the mud of a mangel-wurzel field. Blest if he wouldn't have a try when they were going to give Jigger a lift back.
"There ain't any manner of use going into something we ain't got the whole straight of." "What you talking about the straight of?" "Yep, the straight of. Don't you see anything funny about this jigger's offer?" "Looks like a fair proposition to me. Fifty per shore listens well." "As if that's all of it." "Well, what's a li'l fussin' round with Baldy Barbee and the Anvil folks?"
Beefy Wilson and Jem Duffy between them found Jigger's body and brought it as far as the dressing station. Behind the trenches Beefy's company and Jem's section took different roads, and the two old friends parted with a casual 'S' long' and 'See you again sometime. Duffy had two hours' sleep in a sopping wet roofless house, about three miles behind the firing line.
"I will come," he said to Krool, but Jasmine's curiosity was roused. "Won't you see her here?" she asked. Stafford nodded assent, and presently Krool showed the girl into the room. For an instant she stood embarrassed and confused, then she addressed herself to Stafford. "I'm Lou Jigger's sister," she said, with white lips. "I come to ask if you'd go to him.
As she yielded to him the puzzle-box, which she had refused to the nurse, she said: "And pray who sets the example? I am a very imitative person. Besides, I asked Mr. Mappin about the broth, so it's all right; and Jigger will want the puzzle-box when you are not here," she added, quizzically. "Diversion or continuity?" he asked, with a laugh, as she held the bowl of soup to Jigger's lips.
I know of what stuff you are, how you had the soul and body of one of the most credulous and wonderful women in the world in your hands, and you went scavenging. From Al'mah to the flower-girl! ... I think I should like to kill you myself for what you tried to do to Jigger's sister; and if it wasn't here" he handled the little steel weapon with an eager fondness "I think I'd do it.
In the great hall whose windows looked out on a lovely, sunny valley still as green as summer, the rest of the house-party were gathered, and Jigger's visitors were at once surrounded.
I said that, though you deserved shooting, it would only bring scandal to Rudyard Byng's honourable wife, who had been insulted by the lover of Al'mah and the would-be betrayer of an honest girl of Jigger's sister.... Yes, you may well start.
When everything was clear, when there was no doubt, when I knew he had tried to hurt little Jigger's sister, when he had made up his mind to go abroad, then, I killed him. Then I killed him." Jasmine's cheek was white as Al'mah's apron; but she did not shrink.
Word Of The Day