In a moment she turned, and was frozen with fear. The palsied man had rolled himself from the bed to the floor, and with a supreme effort had wormed himself along it till he reached where she stood. With one hand he had stretched forth and laid hold of her dress that he might drag her away from his store. But the effort had been the last of which he was capable, and when Jane stooped to wrench her garment out of the hand that clutched it, it was already that of a dead man. CHAPTER XX A FIRST STEP The funeral of Captain Rattenbury was conducted with that pomp and circumstance so dear to the West Country heart. The entire neighbourhood attended from both sides of the estuary of the Axe. Indeed, the village of Beer was for the afternoon denuded of its inhabitants; for, although only men were invited to the interment, yet the women flocked to it as well, to express their sympathy with the bereaved and their respect for the deceased, with copious gush of tears and flutter of kerchiefs, and to hang about the door of the house of mourning in hopes of being able to squeeze in and taste a little of that spirituous consolation which flows freely at the funeral of an adult, the absence of which from that of a child deprives it of its zest and popularity. Olver Dench thrust himself forward officiously, acting as though he had been constituted master of the ceremonies and dispenser or steward of the refreshments. Mrs. Jose, always forward in kindly help as she was ever prompt in kind intent, was there to assist Mrs. Marley. She had boiled the salt beef at the farm, and baked the saffron cakes in the Bindon oven. She had thoughtfully retained Winefred at her house, and had told her mother that it was her purpose to keep her there till something was settled relative to her future disposal. When the ceremony in the churchyard was at an end, a sense of relief manifested itself among the sable mourners in a hum of conversation interspersed with sallies of cheerfulness and splutter of laughter. A black stream now set in the direction of the cottage, where the bearers might recruit after the muscular exertion of carrying the corpse, and the mourners after the tension of their feelings. The Undercliff habitation could not possibly contain all, and it resembled a hive about which the bees were thick, some entering eagerly, others emerging reluctantly, wiping their lips. Olver retained hold of a flask of spirits, and poured out to every one, accompanying each libation with a word on the irreparable loss the community had sustained, and on the unapproachable merits of the deceased, accompanied also by confident assurances that he was then smiling down on the mourners from aloft. Then he threw out observations on the good luck enjoyed by Jack at having come in for the fortune accumulated by the thrift of his father, who had been the most unselfish man he knew, toiling that Jack might enjoy, amassing that he might spend.