W. Riley

“ When men are the sport of circumstances they cry, “Who can control his fate?” When kindly breezes bring them into the haven where they would be they talk smoothly of Providence. Theologians and philosophers have disputed over the terms in all ages; but amidst the clash of argument one truth stands out clearly—that a man inevitably reaps what he sows. Within a month Maniwel had lost his money and Inman his life.
“It wor fated to be so,” said old Ambrose; but Jagger regarded it as an act of Providence. ”

“ If the sun was sluggish and ineffective no such fault could be found with the winds that whistled over the moors and in the chimneys of farm and cottage, for they were strong as wild horses, and biting as fine hail. Woe to the ears that were exposed to the full force of the blast upon the uplands, for they were seared as with hot irons! Yet who that was healthy and stout of heart; who that was moorland born, and was, with the ling and the cotton-grass part and parcel of the moor but felt his pulse beat to a quicker and more joyous rhythm as he fought the wind or leaned his back against it! ”

“ It is at a sudden bend in the hills that you come unawares upon the astonishing vision, but before you reach that point the landscape clothes itself in sack-cloth and throws ashes on its head as if it realised that the green pastures were to end in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and it must drape itself seemly. In winter especially there is a look of Sodom and Gomorrah about the place—a charred, lifeless look that is weird and depressing. On the one hand the slender stems of ash and hazel, rising grey from the grey hill-slope, seem as though some storm of fire had swept them. ”

“ Mawm furnished an illustration of both these facts. Baldwin Briggs had been a fixture in the village: a piece of grit hewn out of the side of their own bleak hills and therefore naturally rough and unyielding—even coarse. Nobody had cared for him very much, for there had been in his nature none of the kindliness that either begets or responds to kindliness; yet there had been no marked aversion on the part of his neighbours, who were aware that all sorts of natures like all sorts of rock enter into the composition of a world. ”

“ He had said nothing when Nancy spoke of the conference between her husband and the policeman because there had been nothing to say. Everybody knew that they were taking place, just as everybody knew that Jagger was suspected by the two of knowing more than any other living soul about the robbery. The suspicion was too ridiculous to afford him a moment’s uneasiness. Why should he worry when he had the confidence and goodwill of his neighbours, every one of whom scouted the notion of his dishonesty as a conceit that only the brain of an unfriendly foreigner could entertain? ”

“ How often she had climbed old Cawden by moonlight in Jagger’s company! She had never doubted that they would one day marry and live happily together; it had seemed as inevitable as that Gordale beck should merge its waters with the stream that flowed from the Cove, and when memory reproduced the vivid pictures of the past, flooding the shadows with excess of light, her spirits became tranquillised and she would smile. ”

“ Rather than eat so nauseous a dish of humble pie Nancy preferred to treat herself as a prisoner, and she flung up the window and let the cold night air blow upon her hot cheeks as she sat there, resting her elbows on the sill.
The breath of the uplands is tonic at all times; but on the wild moors of Mawm when winter grips the Pennines and forges its weapons of offence on the rocky heights, the tonic is that of iron and steel, a tonic that spurs and goads. ”

“ It was then that she learned how Jagger had punished Inman when he found him with Polly on the night Nancy’s baby was born. Hannah’s anger was burning fiercely and Nancy’s wrongs added fresh fuel to the flames. No sense of delicacy led her to hide anything from her friend; and when Nancy went home she understood why her husband hated her, and she became conscious of a change of spirit; of a strange exhilaration that left life no longer colourless or purposeless. ”

“ When, however, the shock developed into an earthquake: when Providence took the unwelcome shape of this foreigner, Inman; Mawm scowled and muttered. To be driven from the devil he knew to the deep sea he distrusted was an experience no man had bargained for; and when the devil was such a broken-spirited boggart as Baldwin, the villagers’ sympathies warmed towards the man who was bone of their bone; for after all there is a vast difference between a devil and a poor devil. ”

“ There was an air of distinction about her that other young women lacked—an air that had brought men to her side and kept them there even in the city where she had been spending a few weeks with her uncle’s family, and though she was rather sparely built, on the model of the moorwoman, she had none of Hannah’s angularities to destroy the symmetry of her figure, and her black hair and clear black eyes together with a straight, fine nose and expressive lips would have made her noticeable in any company and aroused admiration in most. Few women ever had their features in better control than she ”

“ It was only necessary to stay there in hiding until the other’s feet should be on that treacherous slope of loose shingle when he would be powerless to defend himself, and one or two shots would bring him headlong to the foot of the cliff with a broken neck. If he should not be dead it would be no hard task to lend nature a hand—almost as easy as to take away the treasure-trove before any other eye should see it—and the man’s death would lie at his own door. Men would ask why the silly fool should have climbed the Scar at night. And it would be Nancy who had sent him to his fate! ”

“ The road itself, hemmed in by loosely-built limestone walls, is little better than a cart-track, and runs out upon the moor when it reaches the last gaunt farm, a mile or two farther on. The hills on the left are loftier, but no less kindly in their sober green homespun, and the brook that tumbles over its rocky bed and roars beneath the bridge is not more boisterous than many another moorland stream. ”

“ Baldwin’s name figured high up in the list of creditors; and the outlook in his case was dark as the realisable assets were small, and it seemed likely that they would be absorbed in their entirety by the expense of collection.
Although Maniwel was naturally magnanimous, and less ready than most to attribute selfish motives to Inman, he was too shrewd an observer to overlook the evidences of duplicity that multiplied as the days went by; for it is a mistake to suppose that a large heart can be indulged only at the expense of a small brain. ”

“ Unemotional themselves, the villagers were favourably disposed towards a man who could “sup his gruel and say nowt.” The more fickle remembered that Baldwin had always been a cross-grained and surly fellow, and told themselves that he might have given Inman more cause for resentment than outsiders could be aware of. It was with Inman as with Gordel, when thin watery mists soften the cragged outlines and veil its threatening features—he was no longer “fearsome” and forbidding: he was even attractive in his own way. ”

“ It was towards one of these that Jagger hurried with a fierce anger at his heart that made him oblivious of everything except his mission, and even that was obscured by the deeper purpose of punishment.
Of punishment—not revenge. Nancy lay dying, perhaps by this time was already dead; and the man who ought to have been at hand in the emergency: the man whose quick brain might have suggested something, however impossible or futile: the father of the child who was to lose its mother; was indulging in an amour with another woman—a child whose hair until a few months ago was hanging down her back. ”

“ It was characteristic of the man that in the course of his reflections it never once crossed his mind that his policy had been mistaken. Far-sighted as he thought himself, he was incapable of understanding how the loyalty of a woman like Nancy would have kept her from abusing her husband’s confidences, if they had been offered her, however distasteful his projects might have been to her judgment and heart. He was naturally secretive and distrustful; and like all men who scheme only for themselves, suspicious of everybody. ”

“ Life is full of very pleasant things if you know where to look. Ben’s dead and done for, and Swithin ’ud do better to get back to his work instead of standing blubbering and cursing over a carcass. Every dog has his day, and Ben ended his nobly, though I daresay the sheep ’ud have come off all right if he’d left her alone. It was Jagger’s fault—I beg pardon, I mean Robin’s. He had his fun out of her, and what does it matter to him if he drove her crazy so long as he saved his own skin? Did you see how he crept away? All the same I suppose he’ll get Ben’s job. ”

“ The difficulty he had never yet surmounted was how to hurt his enemy in a vital spot and escape injury himself; but he never lost hope. His attempt to throw suspicion for the theft of the money on Jagger had influenced nobody except Stalker, who was a gullible fool. That, too, would have hit Nancy hard; would have wounded her pride as well as her heart, but prudence suggested that it would be best henceforth to imitate the police and let the matter drop. There would, however, be other openings. Life was long and full of snares, into which the wariest old bird might run. ”

“ The fight had not been in progress a minute before Polly covered her eyes with her hands and ran away screaming. They were both strong and powerful men; and if Jagger had attacked in the heat of his anger it might have gone badly with him, for Inman’s passion never suffered him to lose his self-control. Now, however, the one was no whit cooler than the other, and the result was not long in doubt. No boxer or wrestler on the moor could stand up to Jagger Drake with any hope of success. Every native for miles round knew it ”

“ He keeps his head in all weathers, and naught moves him. He’s a pauper compared wi’ Baldwin; but to listen to him you’d think he was a millionaire, like Mr. Harris. ‘As having nothing, yet possessing all things.’ His face fair lit up when he read it.”
Jagger’s lip curled and he spoke impatiently. “It’s a fad he’s got into his head and it’s turned him soft. You ask grannie what she thinks about it! With notions like his no man could make his way—always bending his back for someone else to climb up on his shoulders. ”

“ He’s the dad of all for cunning and mischief, and if he finds you at that game he’ll make you smart for it. It’s no woman’s work, this. Jack Pearce has promised to share wi’ me, so it’ll not come that hard on either of us to lose a night’s sleep now and then. Leave it to us, and get your rest. I’m sorry he’s who he is, Nancy; but I won’t have you dragged into it.”
“Listen, Jagger!” said Nancy earnestly. “He’s got Stalker on his side and they’ve always their heads together. Stalker’s soft as putty and James keeps him oiled and shapes him as he likes. ”

“ I prefer to be my own messenger when I have any news, good or ill, to share with my neighbours, and what I have to tell you is altogether good. I have been married whilst I was away, and have just brought my bride home with me. She has bid me leave this sovereign with you, Albert, so that the company may drink her health—the health of Nancy Inman, lately Nancy Clegg. ”

“ When he left his shake-down in the parlour the next morning he found the doctor drinking a cup of tea in the kitchen. The old man’s eyes were tired and he looked weary; but his voice was cheery as he said:
“I must get away for a few hours. There are others who must be seen; but though your wife isn’t out of the wood yet, we have not worked all night for nothing. I’ll be round again at noon.”
“I’m much obliged to you,” said Inman calmly. “I wouldn’t have her die for the world. I want her to get well and strong—aye, by Jove, and to have her feelings. ”

“ For a while Baldwin did little more than watch him; and though he had schooled himself in the art of concealing his satisfaction those who knew him would have judged by the way he at length turned to his own task that he was well pleased with the skill and industry of his new hand. Inman needed no instruction and no prodding. Jagger Drake himself was not more skilful and was incomparably slower. The master had to acknowledge to himself that no man he had ever employed had framed so well on such short acquaintance as this mysterious newcomer from nowhere ”

“ It was Jagger’s misfortune to have been born with a weight on his spirits which it was as difficult to dislodge as the Old Man of the Sea from the shoulders of Sindbad—it is not only the sins of parents that are visited on the children: often it is their sorrows. Like Naaman the Syrian, Jagger combined with many excellencies one outstanding defect—he was a good workman, skilful, painstaking and conscientious, and he was a creditable member of the community ”

“ But let Nature do her utmost—spread her glories like a peacock,—a man’s thoughts may curtain his senses and stifle every emotion except that which is uppermost, so that the hills may clap their hands never so loudly and he will be deaf as the dead to their music. Inman’s thoughts were not of yellow sunlight but of yellow gold; and though he was devising traps as he walked along the road with his eyes on the ground, they were certainly not intended to catch sunbeams. Beyond the curt statement that he was going to Airlee on the firm’s business he had given his wife no explanation of his journey ”

“ She rose with alacrity, drew down the blind and lit the candle, after which she went up to the door and secured it on the inside with the bolt Inman had fixed as a measure of precaution when he had brought home Nancy’s money. A smile was in her eyes but her mouth was determined. “What a clever fool he is!” she said to herself; “and how thoughtful of him to send Keturah away. Every plan he makes fails!” ”

“ You had only to enter the cottage to discover at once where Hannah’s energies found their outlet and justification. If her house was no cleaner than the houses of her neighbours it was to their credit and not to her disparagement. Not all the women of Mawm made pretensions of godliness but there were few who did not worship at the shrine of cleanliness, and with no mere lip-service—were they not Yorkshire folk and moor-folk? ”

“ He might have added that the punishment was likely to be self-administered; a man cannot spur himself fiercely and constantly and escape wounds!
Inman’s success so far had been quick and gratifying, but he was not satisfied, and the greatest obstacles in the path of his contentment were the Drakes—father and son. The old man he disliked not because he was a competitor (for competition was in the nature of things and not to be avoided) , but because of his air of cheerful assurance, because of his frank, fearless eye and the reproach of his unfailing goodwill. ”

“ Although Nancy told herself with suspicious reiteration that Inman was obnoxious to her it was in reality an evil hour for Jagger’s prospects of early marriage when Nancy set the two men side by side and took their measures. On the physical side there was not much to choose. Jagger was as fine an animal as Inman; more agile if less weighty—“the spotted panther and the tusked boar” might figure them. Intellectually, the balance swayed heavily on Inman’s side, for Jagger had none of his father’s alertness and would have made a poor show in a duel of words with the towns-man. ”

“ CHAPTER XV IN WHICH THE VILLAGERS DISCUSS THE DISASTER NEVER had an unfortunate business man more alert and resourceful adviser than Baldwin found in Inman at this crisis. Promptly, yet with no lessening of deference—nay, with a greater show of it—the mate became captain of the ship and held the helm with a master’s hand. In the inn and elsewhere Inman made light of the disaster. It was hard luck, he admitted; but when a man had plenty left, and had always lived and was content to live, as if he had nothing, there was no need to make a fuss about the loss of a thousand or two. ”