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Never before had he been assailed on his own ground; it seemed as if the whole township now conspired to bait him. "Well" she remarked weakly, "I dunno's it does any hurt, so long as they can tell what they mean by it." Nicholas threw her a pitying glance. He scorned to waste eternal truth on one so dull. "Well," she went on, in desperation, "that ain't all, neither.
So brave and cheerful in your hard life!" He lifted her small brown hand, and kissed it. The feverish tension of his brain relaxed, and two large tears welled up in his eyes, and rolled down his cheeks. "Poor little girl!" he murmured weakly; "Poor little hard-working girl!"
Cecily's judgment would have been thought weakly charitable by all the rest of the family. Mr.
Channing welcomed them joyously, and then crumpled up in a heap and pitched forward into the arms of the captain. His head swung weakly from shoulder to shoulder. "I beg your pardon," he muttered, "I beg your pardon, captain, but your engine-room is too hot. I'm only a stoker and I know my place, sir, but I tell you, your engine-room is too hot. It's a burning hell, sir, it's a hell!"
When he came out of it what with the fall, and what with the long illness which had followed the effects of the accident he was not only crippled for life, but of health so delicate and weakly that he was no longer fit for outdoor labour and the hard life of a peasant. He was an only son of a widowed mother, and his sole mode of assisting her was a very precarious one.
"I don't know what you're torkin' about," he said weakly. "Well," said Keggs, "I haven't time to stand 'ere chatting with you. I must be going back to 'is lordship, to tell 'im of the 'orrid trick you played on him." A second spasm shook Albert to the core of his being. The double assault was too much for him. Betrayed by the body, the spirit yielded. "You wouldn't do that, Mr. Keggs!"
Then the unexpected happened. A still heavier club was swung. In the pause that ensued, the gambler, who had scented a speculation and formed a syndicate with several of his fellows, bid sixteen thousand dollars. "Seventeen thousand," Porportuk said weakly. "Eighteen thousand," said the king. Porportuk gathered his strength. "Twenty thousand." The syndicate dropped out.
He saw the rush of smoke which, in the rising storm, was ruthlessly swept from the mouth of a piece of upright stove-pipe, which in the now grey surroundings could just be distinguished. "But I thought there was a broad, open trail at Dougal's," he said, at last, after gazing for some moments at the tiny smoke-stack. "Maybe the road opens out here," answered Grey weakly. But it didn't.
The man waved his hand, and Prescott, turning at a sound, saw Muriel lean weakly against the side of the sleigh. The color had faded from her face, but her eyes were shining. "O Jack!" she said breathlessly. "Now everything will be put straight!"
They would not be able to take a step in New York but some one would point derisively at her. "It's impossible," she murmured weakly. "Why?" he persisted. "Give me time to consider," she pleaded. "I'll give you until to-morrow." With that, he released her, and went to light the lamps of the automobile. It was now quite dark, and it required skilful manoeuvring to find the right road.
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