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Updated: June 26, 2025
Polwhele had crossed over by a waterman's boat two hours before, packed the coach as full as it would hold, and stepped into the Ferry Inn for a dish of tea. "And glad I am to be across the river in good time," she told the landlady; "for by the look of the sky there's a thunderstorm coming."
"Carry on as we are for about ten minutes," said Charron to his mate, Sam Polwhele; "that will give us period to eat our pork. Come, then, my good friend, let us do it."
Polwhele. "There's my parcels, now I packed 'em in the Highflyer most careful, and I'm sure Jim the Guard would be equally careful in handing them out you know the sort of man he is: and yet I find a good dozen of them plastered in mud, and my new Moldavia cap, that I gave twenty-three shillings for only last Tuesday, pounded to a jelly, quite as if someone had flung it on the road and danced on it!"
Scudamore shuddered, and drew back a little, and then stole a glance round the corner. He saw a thick smoke, and a figure prostrate, and another tied up in a long white robe, waving a pan of burning stuff in one hand and a bottle in the other, and plainly conjuring Polwhele to keep off. Then the latter returned, quite complacently.
Parson Polwhele was taken aback for the moment by reason that he'd pretty nigh kissed the fellow by accident; and before he could recover, Jim the Guard leans out over the darkness, and, says he, speaking down: "Very sorry, Parson, but your missus wasn't taken very well t'other side of St. Germans, and we've been forced to leave her 'pon the road."
"But what was it that upset you?" he asked, as they started again. Mrs. Polwhele laid her cheek to his shoulder and sobbed aloud; and so by degrees let out her story. "But, my love, the thing's impossible!" cried Parson Polwhele. "There's no Frenchman in Cornwall at this moment, unless maybe 'tis the Guernsey merchant or some poor wretch of a prisoner escaped from the hulks in the Hamoaze."
Sharl, sat alongside, talking low and trying to coax him back to a good temper: but Mrs. Polwhele missed taking notice of this. She hadn't seen the gentlemen arrive, by reason that, being timid of thunder, at the very first peal she'd run upstair, and crawled under one of the bed-ties: and there she bided until the chambermaid brought word that the sky was clear and the coach waiting.
And the Highflyer that had been delayed three-quarters of an hour rattled off at a gallop, with all on board in the worst of tempers. When they reached Falmouth which was not till after ten o'clock at night and drew up at the "Crown and Anchor," the first man to hail them was old Parson Polwhele, standing there under the lamp in the entry and taking snuff to keep himself awake.
The strain and hardship had not, however, been without effect on the constructors. Two of the Engineer subalterns Polwhele and Cator out of the eight concerned in the laying of the Dongola and the Desert railways had died. Their places were eagerly filled by others. The completion of the line was accelerated by nearly a month through the fortunate discovery of water.
"Oh oh oh!" squealed a voice inside the church. "Whatever was that," cries Arch'laus Spry, giving a jump. They both stared at the porch. "Oh oh oh!" squealed the voice again. "It certainly comes from inside," said Arch'laus Spry. "It's Mrs. Polwhele!" said my grandfather; "and by the noise of it she's having hysterics."
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