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I caught him coming out of the wood with some pheasants and warned him he'd have to leave Bank-end if Jim knew." "Do you mean you promised not to tell Jim?" "I imagined he understood something like that. He is a powerful fellow, and carried a heavy stick. Still, my satisfying him doesn't bind you." "I don't know; perhaps it does bind me, in a way," Dick replied.
I was forced to let Mordaunt go, but my grounds for sparing him don't apply to Shanks." "You haven't even a stick and the fellow has a gun." "I've got my hands," said Jim. "If I can get hold of Tom Shanks, I won't need a gun. But I've no use for talking. Come along!" They made for a ridge of high ground that dropped to the marsh, and presently stopped outside the Bank-end Cottage.
Those fellows are what we call bad men." "I imagine we have been up against worse." "That's so. All the same, I wish you had been able to leave them alone." "I can't leave them alone, because the dyke must cross that corner of the creek. They're about the meanest whites I've met, and I certainly don't want them at Bank-end. I'd sooner they took the hundred pounds and quit." "How do they live?"
Although you have no claim to this place, I'll give you Bank-end, the garden, and if needful the small field. You and your son can make pretty good pay there if you like to work. If you'd sooner loaf and shoot, there's the creek and sands." "'T' lag geese follow marsh," Shanks insisted. Jim pondered and Jake studied the others.
"Dabbin's bad, but it's mine," said Shanks. "You canna put me oot." "I don't want to put you out; I want you to go. Anyhow, the dabbin isn't yours. You have no title to the ground and I understand have been warned off, but we won't bother about that. Bank-end cottage is dry and comfortable and you can have it for your lifetime." "I willun't gan." Jim turned to the younger man.
"It's possible he'll put you out of Bank-end cottage soon." "Do you ken that?" Shanks asked with a start. "I heard something of the kind. Dearham meant to let your father have the cottage, but said nothing about your getting it, and he's tired of you both. You are letting Bank-end go to ruin and people complain about your poaching." Shanks's sullen look changed to a savage frown.
However, I think I'd have got rid of Shanks, instead of sending him to Bank-end. The fellow's cunning and there's some ground for believing him revengeful." "It doesn't look as if he could injure me." "It might pay to watch him," Bernard rejoined. "Some time since, Jones, my gamekeeper, caught Tom Shanks and another netting partridges.
"I've got things ready and might have waited until to-morrow but the job's been bothering me and I want to put it over," he said. "Do you think I'm harsh?" "No," said Carrie, firmly. "Shanks is white trash and lives like a hog. They wouldn't have stood for him a month at our settlements. But how do you think he'll use Bank-end?" Jim smiled.
The dabbin must come down and when you're ready to move to Bank-end you can tell my teamster to take your household fixings along. If this doesn't meet the bill, I'll give you a hundred pounds and you can go where you like." Shanks said nothing and Jim went off. When they were out of hearing Jake remarked: "I allow you had to be firm, but I don't like it, Jim.
Shanks gave no sign that he meant to move, until one morning Jim's teamster asked: "Am I to gan t' dabbin and tak' a load to Bank-end?" Jim told him to go and turned to Jake. "That's fixed! I've been holding back for a day or two and now we can push ahead. The dabbin must come down before we stop to-night." In the evening, Jake and Carrie went with him across the marsh.
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