At length Mother Mim’s cottage was reached. Everything about it looked precisely the same as when he had seen it last. It seemed only like a few hours since he had left it. There, too, crouched on the low wall outside, with her skirt drawn over her head, was Mother Mim’s grand-daughter, the girl with the black glittering eyes, looking as if she had never stirred from the spot since he was last there. She made no movement or sign of recognition when he walked up to her, but her eyes were full of a cold keen criticism of him, far beyond her age and appearance. “How is your grandmother?” said Kester, abruptly. He did not like being stared at as she stared at him. “She’s dead.” “Dead!” It was no more than he expected to hear, and yet he could not hear it altogether unmoved. “Ay, as dead as a door nail. And a good job too. It was time she went.” “How long has she been dead?” asked Kester, ignoring the latter part of the girl’s speech. “Just half an hour.” Another surprise for Kester. He had expected to hear that she had been dead several days—a week perhaps. But only half an hour! “Who was with her when she died?” he asked, after a minute’s pause. “Me and Dirty Jack.” “Dirty Jack! who is he?” “Why Dirty Jack. Everybody knows him. He lives in Duxley, and has a wooden leg, and does writings for folk.” “Does writings for folk!” A shiver ran through Kester. “And has he been doing anything for your grandmother?” “That he has. A lot.” “A lot—about what?” “About you.” “About me? Why about me?” “Oh, you never came near. Nobody never came near. Granny got tired of it. ‘I’ll have my revenge,’ said she. So she sent for Dirty Jack, and he took it all down in writing.” “Took it all down in writing about me?” She nodded her head in the affirmative. “If you know so much, no doubt you know what it was that he took down—eh?” “Oh, I know right enough.” “Why not tell me?” “I know all about it, but I ain’t a-going to split.” Further persuasion on Kester’s part had no other effect than to induce the girl to assert in still more emphatic terms that “she wasn’t a-going to split.”