IN WHICH WE TAKE LEAVE OF THE MEN OF MAWM
WHETHER it was fate or providence that led Maniwel Drake to risk his
savings in order to procure for his enemy a few weeks liberty, who shall
determine? 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.
Inman came home, to the surprise of his wife, who had not believed that
his pride would suffer him to face his neighbours; and in the language
that was current “brazzened it out.” His features were impassive, and
there was a stern repelling look in his eyes that made men chary of
seeking his company. He had no doubt formed his plans from the first,
but he masked his intentions with guile and succeeded in disarming
suspicion. With the men of Mawm it was in his favour that he paid no
lip-service to the Drakes for the kindness they had done him, and
avoided all communication with them.
His business seemed to occupy all his thoughts; and the arrangements he
made for its continuance during the three years his lawyer told him he
might expect to be away lacked nothing in completeness. He sat for hours
with Nancy and Frank, looking into accounts and discussing possibilities
with something like subdued zest; but he never once referred to the
subject of his arrest and the circumstances that had led up to it; and
Nancy told herself that the silence was portentous. She took the
precaution to bolt her bedroom door at night and slept little.
Several weeks before his liberty was to end he disappeared in
circumstances that made pursuit impossible—that made even his flight
doubtful.
It was a cold April day, fitfully bright, with frequent showers of
sleet. Towards the middle of the afternoon the wind brought up great
banks of leaden cloud which discharged themselves in snow. Before
nightfall a blizzard was raging with a severity that even Mawm found
exceptional, and for eighteen hours there was no cessation of its fury.
Huge drifts, in some cases ten feet deep, made the roads impassable, and
the farmers’ faces were clouded, for scores of ewes had perished in the
storm together with their lambs, and foxes were busy in the poultry
houses.
Inman was seen in the street before the snow came, and not until his
dead body was found a fortnight later was it known for certain that he
had planned an escape. He had pledged his word not to leave the village,
and Stalker’s successor was supposed to keep an observant eye on him;
but there had been no definition of boundaries, so that there was always
the possibility that he had been cut off by the storm and had found
shelter in some upland farm with which there was no present means of
communication.
Maniwel cherished no such hope. “He’s gone, lad,” he said to Jagger, and
his son nodded.
“It can’t be helped,” he replied.
A farmer, seeking his dead sheep, found him when the thaw came, in a
shallow depression not two yards deep, into which he had stumbled as he
walked, doubtless with his head bent to the challenge of the rising
gale, across the moor.
There he had lain, stunned and with a broken leg, less than twenty feet
from the path by which he had entered Mawm a year and a half before, and
there death had overtaken him. On his body was the evidence of his
intention—notes and gold to a large amount which he had brought from
their hiding-place, and with which, no doubt, he had hoped to start life
afresh.
The village of Mawm has still the carpenter’s shop, and the business is
prosperous in a moderate way. Baldwin Briggs has an interest in it, but
the name upon the sign-board is “Drake and Son.” Little new machinery
has been added, for though capital was not entirely lacking the Drakes
have the conservatism of the Yorkshire countryman, and are afraid of
moving too fast. They have “made brass” but not piled it up very high;
yet there is enough and a little to spare, and Nancy Drake is satisfied.
She has two children, sturdy boys both of them, who are the pride of
their grandfather’s heart, and a husband who grows more like his father
every day. So Swithin says, and now that Ambrose, like grannie, sleeps
lower down the valley there is no greater authority in Mawm.
Hannah and her father occupy the old home, and there is a rumour in the
village that Jack Pearce would like to share it with them, or
alternatively to take Hannah to one of his providing.
Baldwin and Keturah, too, are in familiar quarters. Nancy was glad to
get away when Jagger married her, and he rented a good, square house
across the stream where there is a garden for the children.
Baldwin has aged very much, and his temper is still occasionally raspy,
but if he gives trouble it is only Keturah who knows it, and she is
certainly no more fretful than before; indeed, there are those who
assert that the fountain of her tears is almost dry.
Fate or Providence? “I was against it at t’ time,” says Jagger. “It
seemed like a fool’s trick, and it was a lot o’ brass to lose; but it
was a providence for all that.”
Nancy says nothing.
THE END
TRANSCRIBER NOTES
Obvious misspelled words and printer errors have been corrected. Where
more than one spelling occurs, the majority used word was applied but
archaic spellings, if used, were maintained. Author's consistent use of
“my-sen” versus Yorkshire use of “mi sen” has been maintained.
Inconsistencies in punctuation have been maintained.
The author’s use of contractions has been maintained with spaces removed
where appropriate to conform to Yorkshire dialect: “for ’t” to “for’t”,
“on ’t” to “on’t”, “in ’t” to “in’t”, “to ’t” to “to’t”, “of ’t” to
“of’t”, “t’ other” to “t’other”, “more ’n” to “more’n”, wi’ ’t to wi’t
and all “’ll” contractions have been joined including “’at ’ll” to
“’at’ll”.
Italics are represented thus _italics_ and bold thus =bold=.