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Updated: May 13, 2025
She did not speak, but her eyes asked the one great question of her heart, and then, as the doctor's hard sour face softened and he smiled, Mrs Winthorpe uttered a piteous sigh and clasped her hands together in thankfulness to Heaven. "Then he is not very bad, doctor?" cried Dick joyfully.
Fen people from far and wide collected to see the gang, and to watch the surveyors, who, with measuring chain and staves and instruments, busied themselves marking out the direction in which the men were to cut; and these fen people shook their heads and shrugged their shoulders, while more than once, when Squire Winthorpe addressed one or the other, Dick noticed that they were always surly, and that some turned away without making any answer.
The result was that Squire Winthorpe invited him over to the old Priory to come and make a fishing, shooting, or collecting trip whenever he liked. "You are very hospitable, Mr Winthorpe," he said. "Oh, nonsense! Shame if we who bring you people down from London to do us good here in the fens, could not be a little civil."
"Oh, I say, mother, I am so hungry! Mayn't I have one baked potato?" "Surely you can wait, my boy, till our visitor comes," said Mrs Winthorpe quietly.
"Oh well, I wean't stick out," said the farmer rather sulkily; "but Dave's a rare good shot and one of us will hev to go home flat on his back before we get up to yon wood." "He will not dare to fire," said the squire firmly. "I do not agree with you, Mr Winthorpe," said Marston. "The man is desperate, and he will do anything now to escape."
A minute later he brought the boat alongside, at a point which was free from bushes, and where the bank was but two feet above the water's edge. "Now, Mr. Balderson, take Harper and Winthorpe, and make your way through the jungle as noiselessly as possible. It is probable that the path runs within fifty yards of this point, possibly it is only half a dozen.
Dick found, a short time after, that the news had been carried to the works at the drain, where Mr Marston was busy; and no sooner did that gentleman hear of the state of affairs than he hurried over to offer his sympathy to Mrs Winthorpe and Dick. "I little thought that your father was to be a victim," he said to the latter as soon as they were alone.
"Come, I say, let's know who it was. Here, shall I call father?" "No, no," cried Dick excitedly, "and I won't say a word. I cannot. It is impossible." "You are a strange lad, Dick Winthorpe," said the engineer, looking at them curiously. "Oh, but he will speak, Mr Marston! I can get him to," cried Tom. "Come, Dick, say who it was."
"Let's get home quick." They started on again, walking fast, but at the end of a minute Dick uttered a cry. "We're off the road, father. Water!" As he spoke he was ankle-deep, and in taking a step to catch his son's arm, Squire Winthorpe felt the water splash up around him. "Can you see the lights at the Priory, Dick?" he said sharply. "No, father." "We can't be off the path," said the squire.
John Marston was for going back to his lodgings near the outfall or gowt as it was termed; but the squire and Mrs Winthorpe would not hear of it, and to the boys' great delight, he stayed. He was an invalid, but the right kind of invalid to make a pleasant companion, for he loved the open air, and was never happier than when he was out with the boys and Dave or John Warren, somewhere in the fen.
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