He knew no more about it than you did."
"I didn't know anything about it."
"Well, neither did he, and he's not the kind to run away."
"Aw, well--I done my best. You'll remember that, Nance. You know what
the Sark men are. He'd be safest away. You tell him I say so," and he
pouched his discounted piece of evidence and turned and went, leaving
Nance with a heavy heart.
For, as Peter said, she knew what the Sark men were--a law unto
themselves, and slow to move out of the deep-cut grooves of the past,
but, once stirred to boiling point, capable of going to any lengths
without consideration of consequences.
And therein lay Gard's peril.
CHAPTER XIX
HOW THE SARK MEN FELT ABOUT IT
Every soul in the Island that could by any means get there, was in or
outside the school-house, mostly outside, long before the clock struck
two. Never in their lives had they hurried thither like that before.
A barricade of forms had been made across the room. Within it, at the
school-master's table, sat the Senechal, Philip Guille, and the Doctor,
and old Mr. Cachemaille, the Vicar, ageing rapidly since the tragic
death of his good friend, the late Seigneur; beside them stood the
Prevot and the Greffier, behind them lay the body of Tom Hamon covered
with a sheet.
Pages:
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179