There is Sorrow on the Sea | Page 3

don't know to this day whether you wanted to leave
the room when you did, though 'twas about half after ten o'clock, later
than I ever saw you there before. But when my uncle come in from
Louth, and give you a touch on the shoulder, and said: 'To bed wi' you,
my lass,' you waited for a minute longer, glancin' round on all of us, at
last lookin' steady at Lancy; and he got up from his chair, and took off
his hat to you with a way he had. You didn't stay a second after that,
but went away straight, sayin' good-night to all of us, but Lancy was
the only one on his feet.
"Just as soon as the door was shut behind you, Lancy turned round to
the fire, and pushed the log with his feet in a way a man does when he's
think-in' a bit. And Faddo give a nasty laugh, and said:
"' Theer's a dainty sitovation. Theer's Mr. Thomas Doane, outlaw and
smuggler, and theer's Mr. Lancy Doane his brother, coast-guardsman.
Now, if them two should 'appen to meet on Lincolnshire coast, Lord,

theer's a sitovation for ye--Lord, theer's a cud to chew! 'Ere's one
gentleman wants to try 'is 'and at 'elpin' Prince Charlie, and when 'is Up
doesn't amount to anythink, what does the King on 'is throne say? He
says, "As for Thomas Doane, Esquire, aw've doone wi' 'im." And
theer's another gentleman, Mr. Lancy Doane, Esquire. He turns pious,
and says, "Aw'm goin' for a coast-guardsman." What does the King on
his throne say? 'E says, 'Theer's the man for me.'"
But aw says, "Aw've doone, aw've doone wi' Mr. Lancy Doane,
Esquire, and be damned to 'im!" He! he! Theer's a fancy sitovation for
ye. Mr. Thomas Doane, Esquire, smuggler and outlaw, an' Mr. Lancy
Doane, Esquire, coast-guardsman. Aw've doone. Ho! ho! That gits into
my crop.'
"I tell you these things, Cousin Fanny, because I'm doubtin' if you ever
heard them, or knew exactly how things stood that night. I never was a
friend of Lancy Doane, you understand, but it's only fair that the truth
be told about that quarrel, for like as not he wouldn't speak himself, and
your father was moving in and out; and, I take my oath, I wouldn't
believe Faddo and the others if they was to swear on the Bible. Not that
they didn't know the truth when they saw it, but they did love just to let
their fancy run. I'm livin' over all the things that happened that
night--livin' them over to-day, when everything's so quiet about me
here, so lonesome. I wanted to go over it all, bit by bit, and work it out
in my head, just as you and I used to do the puzzle games we played in
the sands. And maybe, when you're a long way off from things you
once lived, you can see them and understand them better. Out here,
where it's so lonely, and yet so good a place to live in, I seem to get the
hang o' the world better, and why some things are, and other things
aren't; and I thought it would pull at my heart to sit down and write you
a long letter, goin' over the whole business again; but it doesn't. I
suppose I feel as a judge does when he goes over a lot of evidence, and
sums it all up for the jury. I don't seem prejudiced one way or another.
But I'm not sure that I've got all the evidence to make me ken
everything; and that's what made me bitter wild the last time that I saw
you. Maybe you hadn't anything to tell me, and maybe you had, and
maybe, if you ever write to me out here, you'll tell me if there's

anything I don't know about them days.
"Well, I'll go back now to what happened when Faddo was speakin' at
my uncle's bar. Lancy Doane was standin' behind the settle, leanin' his
arms on it, and smokin' his pipe quiet. He waited patient till Faddo had
done, then he comes round the settle, puts his pipe up in the rack
between the rafters, and steps in front of Faddo. If ever the devil was in
a man's face, it looked out of Lancy Doane's that minute. Faddo had
touched him on the raw when he fetched out that about Tom Doane. All
of a sudden Lancy swings, and looks at the clock.
"'It's half-past ten, Jim Faddo,' said he, 'and aw've got an hour an' a half
to deal wi' you as a Lincolnshire lad. At twelve o'clock aw'm the
Gover'ment's, but till then aw'm Lancy Doane, free to strike or free to
let alone; to