The Obstacle Race | Page 6

man grown from that
night on. She begged him to look after the babies, and he promised her
he would. And then she just lay holding his hand till she died. He

seemed dazed-like when they told him she were gone, and just went
straight out without a word. No one ever saw young Dick break down
after that. He's got a will like steel."
"And the horrible husband?" asked Juliet, now thoroughly interested in
Mrs. Rickett's favourite tragedy.
"I were coming to him," said Mrs. Rickett, with obvious relish. "The
husband stayed at The Three Tuns till closing time, then he went out
roaring drunk, took the cliff-path by mistake, and went over the cliff in
the dark. The tide was up, and he was drowned. And a great pity it
didn't happen a little bit sooner, says I! The nasty coarse hulking brute!
I'd have learned him a thing or two if he'd belonged to me." Again,
vindictively, Mrs. Rickett wiped her eyes. "Believe me, miss, there's no
martyrdom so bad as getting married to the wrong man. I've seen it
once and again, and I knows."
"I quite agree with you," said Juliet. "But tell me some more! Who took
the poor babies?"
"Oh, Mrs. Cross at the lodge took them. Mr. Fielding provided for 'em,
and he helped young Dick along too. He's been very good to them
always. He had young Jack trained, and now he's his chauffeur and
making a very good living. The worst of Jack is, he ain't over steady,
got too much of his father in him to please me. He's always after some
girl--two or three at a time sometimes. No harm in the lad, I daresay.
But he's wild, you know. Dick finds him rather a handful very often.
Robin can't abide him, which perhaps isn't much to be wondered at,
seeing as it was mostly Jack's fault that he is such a poor cripple. He
was always sickly. It's often the way with twins, you know. All the
strength goes to one. But he always had to do what Jack did as a little
one, and Jack led him into all sorts of mischief, till one day when they
were about ten they went off bird's-nesting along the cliffs High Shale
Point way, and only Jack come back late at night to say his brother had
gone over the cliff. Dick tore off with some of the chaps from the shore.
It were dark and windy, and they all said it was no use, but Dick
insisted upon going down the face of the cliff on a rope to find him.
And find him at last he did on a ledge about a hundred feet down. He

was so badly hurt that he thought he'd broke his back, and he didn't
dare move him till morning, but just stayed there with him all night
long. Oh, it was a dreadful business." A large tear splashed unchecked
on to Mrs. Rickett's apron. "An ill-fated family, as you might say. They
got 'em up in the morning o' course, but poor little Robin was very bad.
He was on his back for nearly a year after, and then, when he began to
get about again, them humps came and he grew crooked. Mr. Fielding
were away at the time, hunting somewhere in the wilds of Africa, and
when he came home he were shocked to see the lad. He had the very
best doctors in the land to see him, but they all said there was nothing
to be done. The spine had got twisted, or something of that nature, and
he'd begun to have queer giddy fits too as made 'em say the brain were
affected, which it really weren't, miss, for he's as sane as you or me,
only simple you know, just a bit simple. They said, all of 'em, as how
he'd never live to grow up. He'd get them abscies at the base of the
skull, and they'd reach his brain and he'd go raving mad and die. And
the squire--that's Mr. Fielding--was all for putting him away there and
then. But Dick, he'd nursed him all through, and he wouldn't hear of it.
'The boy's mine,' he says, 'and I'm going to look after him.' Mr. Fielding
was very cross with him, but that didn't make no difference. You see,
Dick had got fond of him, and as for Robin, why, he just worshipped
Dick. So there it was left, and Dick gave up all his prospects to keep
the boy with him. He were reading for the law, you see, but he gave it
all up and turned schoolmaster, so as he could live here and take care of
young Robin."
"Turned schoolmaster!" Juliet repeated