He crept up to a farmsteading after dark, intent on eggs, a chicken, a
pigeon,--anything that might stay the clamour inside. The watch-dogs raised
such a riot that he crept away again in haste.
The hay had been cut in the churchyard. That was No Man's Land, and none
had the right to hunt him out of it. So he made up a bed alongside a great
square tomb, and slept there that night, and scared the children as they
went past to school next morning.
One of the cows at Le Port gave no milk that day, and Dame Vaudin pondered
the matter weightily, and discussed it volubly with her neighbours, but did
not try their remedies.
During the day he went over to Little Sercq in hopes of snaring a rabbit.
But the rabbits understood him and were shy. When he found himself near the
Cromlech it suggested shelter, and creeping in to curl himself up for a
sleep, he came unexpectedly on a baby rabbit paralysed with fear at the
sight of him. It was dead before it understood what was happening. He tore
it in pieces with his fingers and ate it raw. They found its skin and bones
there later on.
Under the stimulus of food his brain worked again. There was no room for
him in Sercq, that was evident. He was alien, and the clan spirit was too
strong for him.
He crept back across the Coupee in the dark, and passed a man there who
bade him good-night, not knowing till afterwards who he was.
Next morning, when Philip Carre came in from his fishing and climbed the
zigzag above Havre Gosselin, he was surprised at the sight of George Hamon
smoking in the doorway of the cottage.
"Why, George, I thought you were off fishing," he said.
"Why then?"
"Your boat's away." And Hamon was leaping down the zigzag before he had
finished, while Carre followed more slowly. But no amount of anxious
staring across empty waters will bring back a boat that is not there. The
boat was gone and Paul Martel with it, and neither was seen again in Sercq.
For many months Rachel Carre lived in instant fear of his unexpectedly
turning up again. But he never came, and in time her mind found rest. The
peace and aloofness of Belfontaine appealed to her, and at her father's
urgent desire she stayed on there, and gave herself wholly to the care of
the house and the training of her boy. The name of Martel, with its
unpleasant memories, was quietly dropped, and in time came to be almost
forgotten. The small boy grew up as Phil Carre, and knew no other name.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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