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The men were polite again; but one boat leaked badly, another had been pulled up for the carpenter to insert a new strake, a third was too heavy, the owner of a fourth could not leave his business it wouldn't pay him! At length I patched up a bargain with an old fisherman named Udy or rather Old Tom Udy, to distinguish him from his son, who was Young Tom.
"Here, Bill Udy," he said to the old labourer who had just come down the ladder, "catch hold of my hat an' carry en fore to porch. I keep forgettin' I'm in church, an' then on he goes." The building stood half a mile from the sea, surrounded by the rolling towans and rabbit burrows, and a few lichen-spotted tombstones slanting inland.
He had been up at the vicarage drinking hot grog with the parson and the rescued men, when Sim Udy ran up with news of the fresh disaster; and his first business on descending to the Cove had been to pack Ruby and Mary Jane off to bed with a sound rating. The parson was a remarkable man, and looked it, just now, in spite of the red handkerchief that bound his hat down over his ears.
Late one afternoon, Taffy was lying in one of his favourite nooks in the lee of the towans, when he heard voices and looked up. And there sat the old gentleman gazing down on him from horseback, with Bill Udy at his side. The Squire was in hunting dress. "What be doin' down there?" he asked. "Praying?" "No, sir." "I wish you would. I wish you'd pray for me.
To tell the truth, I was beginning to feel the want of it, and of course I began on the first topic of local interest the burglary. "'The odd thing to me, said I, 'is that you seem to have no particular suspicions. "'I'd rather you didn' talk of it, said Old Tom Udy. 'I got my living to get, and 'tis a day's journey to Bodmin. Tho' you musn' think, he added, 'that we bear any gridge.
Without in the least knowing what prompted her, she bent a little further forward and asked "What is your name, young man?" "William Udy, ma'am." "Do you mind breaking off work for a moment and stepping up here?" "Cert'nly, ma'am." William Udy laid down his shovel at once. A shiver of fear went through the young widow. Why had she asked him up?
Still he struck out, and, oddly enough, found himself calling to his comrade to hold tight. When Sim Udy and Elias Sweetland dashed in from the shore and swam to the rescue, they found the pair clinging to the line, and at a standstill. And when the four were helped through the breakers to firm earth, Zeb tottered two steps forward and dropped in a swoon, burying his face in the sand.
As has happened before now to women, her very weakness saved her in extremity. William Udy, clambering heavily over the ship's side, found her leaning against the deck-house, with a face as white as the painted boards against which her palm rested. "What be I to do, ma'am?" he inquired, after a pause, and then added slowly, "Beggin' your pardon, but be you taken unwell?"
"Thank you, Old Zeb; I'll be careful to draw my curtains," said she, answering sarcasm with scorn, and turning on her heel. The old man stooped to lift the sailor again. "Better clog your pretty ears wi' wax," he called after her, "when the kiss-i'-the-ring begins! Well-a-fine! What a teasin' armful is woman, afore the first-born comes! Hey, Sim Udy? Speak up, you that have fifteen to feed."
Anyway, 'twas revealed to me just now in a dream that I stood on the lawn at Bodmin Priory, and peeped in at the Priory window. An' there in the long hall sat all the saints together at a big table covered with red baize and plotted against us. There was St. Petroc in the chair, with St. Guron by his side, an' St. Neot, St. Udy, St. Teath, St. Keverne, St. Wen, St. Probus, St. Enodar, St.
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