The Dead Alive | Page 7

boys and their father. The old
man has an aggravating way, Mr. Lefrank--a nasty way, as we do call
it--of taking John Jago's part. Do speak to him about it when you get
the chance. The main blame of the quarrel between Silas and John the
other day lies at his door, as I think. I don't want to excuse Silas, either.
It was brutal of him--though he is Ambrose's brother--to strike John,
who is the smaller and weaker man of the two. But it was worse than
brutal in John, sir, to out with his knife and try to stab Silas. Oh, he did
it! If Silas had not caught the knife in his hand (his hand's awfully cut, I
can tell you; I dressed it myself), it might have ended, for anything I
know, in murder--"
She stopped as the word passed her lips, looked back over her shoulder,
and started violently.
I looked where my companion was looking. The dark figure of a man
was standing, watching us, in the shadow of the elm-tree. I rose directly
to approach him. Naomi recovered her self-possession, and checked me
before I could interfere.

"Who are you?" she asked, turning sharply toward the stranger. "What
do you want there?"
The man stepped out from the shadow into the moonlight, and stood
revealed to us as John Jago.
"I hope I am not intruding?" he said, looking hard at me.
"What do you want?" Naomi repeated.
"I don't wish to disturb you, or to disturb this gentleman," he proceeded.
"When you are quite at leisure, Miss Naomi, you would be doing me a
favor if you would permit me to say a few words to you in private."
He spoke with the most scrupulous politeness; trying, and trying vainly,
to conceal some strong agitation which was in possession of him. His
wild brown eyes--wilder than ever in the moonlight--rested entreatingly,
with a strange underlying expression of despair, on Naomi's face. His
hands, clasped lightly in front of him, trembled incessantly. Little as I
liked the man, he did really impress me as a pitiable object at that
moment.
"Do you mean that you want to speak to me to-night?" Naomi asked, in
undisguised surprise.
"Yes, miss, if you please, at your leisure and at Mr. Lefrank's."
Naomi hesitated.
"Won't it keep till to-morrow?" she said.
"I shall be away on farm business to-morrow, miss, for the whole day.
Please to give me a few minutes this evening." He advanced a step
toward her; his voice faltered, and dropped timidly to a whisper. "I
really have something to say to you, Miss Naomi. It would be a
kindness on your part--a very, very great kindness--if you will let me
say it before I rest to-night."
I rose again to resign my place to him. Once more Naomi checked me.

"No," she said. "Don't stir." She addressed John Jago very reluctantly:
"If you are so much in earnest about it, Mr. John, I suppose it must be. I
can't guess what you can possibly have to say to me which cannot be
said before a third person. However, it wouldn't be civil, I suppose, to
say 'No' in my place. You know it's my business to wind up the
hall-clock at ten every night. If you choose to come and help me, the
chances are that we shall have the hall to ourselves. Will that do?"
"Not in the hall, miss, if you will excuse me."
"Not in the hall!"
"And not in the house either, if I may make so bold."
"What do you mean?" She turned impatiently, and appealed to me. "Do
you understand him?"
John Jago signed to me imploringly to let him answer for himself.
"Bear with me, Miss Naomi," he said. "I think I can make you
understand me. There are eyes on the watch, and ears on the watch, in
the house; and there are some footsteps--I won't say whose--so soft,
that no person can hear them."
The last allusion evidently made itself understood. Naomi stopped him
before he could say more.
"Well, where is it to be?" she asked, resignedly. "Will the garden do,
Mr. John?"
"Thank you kindly, miss; the garden will do." He pointed to a
gravel-walk beyond us, bathed in the full flood of the moonlight.
"There," he said, "where we can see all round us, and be sure that
nobody is listening. At ten o'clock." He paused, and addressed himself
to me. "I beg to apologize, sir, for intruding myself on your
conversation. Please to excuse me."
His eyes rested with a last anxious, pleading look on Naomi's face. He

bowed to us, and melted away into the shadow of the tree. The distant
sound of a door closed softly came to us through the