Ogden flung the shoe down with an imprecation, and the whip after it. He
then climbed the wall and tried to run, but the ground here was rough
moorland, and he fell repeatedly. He saw no trace of little Jacob. He
made his way back to the house, sullen and savage, and besmeared with
earth and mud.
"Give me a lantern, damn you," he said to old Sarah, "and look sharp!"
Old Sarah took down a common candle-lantern, and purposely selected one
with a hole in it. She also chose the shortest of her candle-ends. Ogden
did not notice these particulars in his impatience, and went out again.
Just then Jim came in.
"Well," said old Sarah, "what d'ye think master's done? He's licked
little Jacob while[5] he's wenly[6] kilt him, but t' little un's reight
enough now. He'll never catch him."
"What! has little Jacob run away?"
"Ay, that he has; and he _can_ run, can little Jacob; and he knows all
th' places about. I've no fears on him. Master's gone after him wi' a
lantern wi' a hoile in it, and auve a hinch o' cannle. It's like
catchin' a bird wi' a pinch o' salt."
"Little un's safe enough, I'se warrant him."
"We mun just stop quite[7] till th' ould un's i' bedd, and then we'll go
and seech[8] little Jacob."
In a quarter of an hour Ogden came back again. His light had gone out,
and he threw the lantern down on the kitchen-floor without a word, and
shut himself up in his sitting-room.
The furniture was in great disorder. The chairs were all overturned, the
mahogany table bore deep indentations from the blows of the hammer. Some
pieces of old china that had ornamented the chimney-piece lay scattered
on the hearth. He lifted up a chair and sat upon it. The disorder was
rather pleasing to him than otherwise; he felt a bitter satisfaction in
the harmony between it and the state of his own mind. A large fragment
of broken china lay close to his foot. It belonged to a basin, which,
having been broken only into three or four pieces, was still repairable.
Ogden put it under his heel and crushed it to powder, feeling a sort of
grim satisfaction in making repair out of the question.
He sat in perfect inaction for about a quarter of an hour, and then rang
the bell. "Bring me hot water, and, stop--put these things in their
places, will you?"
Old Sarah restored some order in the room, removed the broken china, and
brought the hot water.
"Now, bring me a bottle of rum."
"Please, Mestur Ogden, you've got no rum in the house."
"No, but you have."
"Please, sir, I've got very little. I think it's nearly all done."
"D'ye think I want to rob you? I'll pay ye for't, damn you!"
"Mestur Ogden, you don't use drinkin' sperrits at Twistle Farm."
Ogden gave a violent blow on the table with his fist, and shouted,
"Bring me a bottle of rum, a bottle of rum! D'ye think you're to have
all the rum in the world to yourself, you drunken old witch?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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