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Updated: May 4, 2025
"Here!" sounded the voice of Bill, very faint in the darkness. "Here! fetch along the light, quick!" "Wot's it?" "Casks." "Casks?" "Kegs, then. I ought to know," responded Bill plaintively, "seeing as I pretty near broke my leg on one!" Mr. Jope peered forward, holding the light high. In the middle of the cellar stood the quarter-puncheon and around it a whole regiment of small barrels.
"What's scandalous?" He pointed with his finger. "Rotten as touch"; and he pensively drew out an enormous clasp-knife. "A man ought to be fined for treating human life so careless. See here!" He drove the knife at a selected spot, and the blade sank in to the hilt. From the interior, prompt on the stroke, arose a faint scream. "Sure-ly I know that voice?" said Mr. Jope.
Adams darkly, pointing with his chisel. A fine fragrance of rum permeated the store. Mr. Jope advanced, and peered into the staved cask. "Gone?" he exclaimed, and gazed around blankly. Bill Adams nodded. "But where? . . . You don't say he's dissolved?" "It ain't the usual way o' rum. An' it is rum?" Bill appealed to the Parson. "By the smell, undoubtedly." "I tell you what's happened.
Then," mused Mr. Adams, after a pause, "maybe there ain't no real ghosts neither, but he invented the whole thing." "Maybe. What d'ye say to steppin' down an' fetchin' up another mugful o' liquor?" "I say," answered Mr. Adams slowly, "as how I won't." "Toss for it," suggested Mr. Jope. "You refuse? Very well, then, I must go. Only I thought better of ye, Bill I did indeed."
You notice I didn't specify no time; and being inclined for a v'yage just then, I tramped it down to Falmouth and shipped aboard the Marlborough, Post Office Packet, for Lisbon." "And you've been dodging at sea ever since," said I severely. "If you'd only seen that boy!" protested Mr. Jope.
"I haven't the pleasure of your acquaintance, sir," he began politely, addressing Mr. George, "and by the look of 'ee, you must date from before my time. But speakin' as one man to another, how do you get along with that boy?" The door was slammed in our faces. Mr. Jope and I regarded one another. "Ben," said I, "it's urgent, or I wouldn't leave you. I must start at once for Minden Cottage."
Adams drew a long breath. "I shouldn' wonder," he said. "Turnin' 'em wi' their faces to the wall 'd look too marked," mused Mr. Jope. "But a few tex o' Scripture along the walls might ease things down a bit." "Wot about the hold?" Mr. Adams suggested. "The cellar, you mean. Let's have a look."
"I I beg your pardon," put in the barber, edging away a pace. "Bill was enchanted. Hark to him in the store, there, knockin' away at the chisel." "But there's some misunderstanding," the little man protested earnestly. "I understood it was to be a shave." "You can shave him, too, if you like." "If I th thought you were s serious " "Have some more brandy." Mr. Jope pulled out and proffered a flask.
My friend outside goes by the name of Bill Adams; an' you'll find him livelier than he looks. Everyone does. But I forgot; you ha'n't seen him yet, and he can't come in, havin' to look after the cask." "The ca " Miss Elizabeth had almost repeated the word, but managed to check herself. "You ought to consult someone about it, at your age," said Mr. Jope solicitously. "Yes, the cask.
"She didn't leave it," he answered. "It left her. The Hospital's scat." "Eh?" "Bust sold up come to an end. Scougall's retired on the donations. He feathered his nest. And Miss Plinlimmon's gone down into Cornwall to live with a Major Brooks a kind of relation of hers, so far as I can make out. They tell me she've come into money." I had a question on my lips, but Mr. Jope interrupted.
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