Moonfleet | Page 4

dead body, and some said they had looked through the window at
night and seen the father trying to wash the blood-matting out of the
boy's yellow hair, and heard him groaning and talking to the lifeless
clay as if it could understand. Anyhow, there had been little drinking in
the inn since that time, for Block grew more and more silent and
morose. He had never courted customers, and now he scowled on any
that came, so that men looked on the Why Not? as a blighted spot, and
went to drink at the Three Choughs at Ringstave.
My heart was in my mouth when Ratsey lifted the latch and led me into
the inn parlour. It was a low sanded room with no light except a fire of
seawood on the hearth, burning clear and lambent with blue salt flames.
There were tables at each end of the room, and wooden-seated chairs
round the walls, and at the trestle table by the chimney sat Elzevir
Block smoking a long pipe and looking at the fire. He was a man of
fifty, with a shock of grizzled hair, a broad but not unkindly face of
regular features, bushy eyebrows, and the finest forehead that I ever
saw. His frame was thick-set, and still immensely strong; indeed, the
countryside was full of tales of his strange prowess or endurance.
Blocks had been landlords at the Why Not? father and son for years,
but Elzevir's mother came from the Low Countries, and that was how

he got his outland name and could speak Dutch. Few men knew much
of him, and folks often wondered how it was he kept the Why Not? on
so little custom as went that way. Yet he never seemed to lack for
money; and if people loved to tell stories of his strength, they would
speak also of widows helped, and sick comforted with unknown gifts,
and hint that some of them came from Elzevir Block for all he was so
grim and silent.
He turned round and got up as we came in, and my fears led me to
think that his face darkened when he saw me.
'What does this boy want?' he said to Ratsey sharply.
'He wants the same as I want, and that's a glass of Ararat milk to keep
out autumn chills,' the sexton answered, drawing another chair up to the
trestle-table.
'Cows' milk is best for children such as he,' was Elzevir's answer, as he
took two shining brass candlesticks from the mantel-board, set them on
the table, and lit the candles with a burning chip from the hearth.
'John is no child; he is the same age as David, and comes from helping
me to finish David's headstone. 'Tis finished now, barring the paint
upon the ships, and, please God, by Monday night we will have it set
fair and square in the churchyard, and then the poor lad may rest in
peace, knowing he has above him Master Ratsey's best handiwork, and
the parson's verses to set forth how shamefully he came to his end.'
I thought that Elzevir softened a little as Ratsey spoke of his son, and
he said, 'Ay, David rests in peace. 'Tis they that brought him to his end
that shall not rest in peace when their time comes. And it may come
sooner than they think,' he added, speaking more to himself than to us. I
knew that he meant Mr. Maskew, and recollected that some had warned
the magistrate that he had better keep out of Elzevir's way, for there
was no knowing what a desperate man might do. And yet the two had
met since in the village street, and nothing worse come of it than a
scowling look from Block.

'Tush, man!' broke in the sexton, 'it was the foulest deed ever man did;
but let not thy mind brood on it, nor think how thou mayest get thyself
avenged. Leave that to Providence; for He whose wisdom lets such
things be done, will surely see they meet their due reward. "Vengeance
is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord".' And he took his hat off and hung
it on a peg.
Block did not answer, but set three glasses on the table, and then took
out from a cupboard a little round long-necked bottle, from which he
poured out a glass for Ratsey and himself. Then he half-filled the third,
and pushed it along the table to me, saying, 'There, take it, lad, if thou
wilt; 'twill do thee no good, but may do thee no harm.'
Ratsey raised his glass almost before it was filled. He sniffed the liquor
and smacked his lips. 'O rare milk of Ararat!' he said, 'it is sweet and
strong, and sets the