Hocken and Hunken Part 61

"I didn' say 'no difference.' I said 'not much.' Ruination's not much to a man already down with a stroke."

"Oh, . . . _him?_" said Cai. "To tell the truth, I wasn't thinkin'

about Rogers, not at this moment."

"No?" queried 'Bias sourly. "Then maybe I'm doin' you an injustice.

I thought you might be pushin' your way in here to suggest our doin'

something for the poor chap." Before Cai had well recovered from this, 'Bias went on, "And if so, I'd have answered you that I didn' intend to be any such fool."

"I--I'm afraid," owned Cai, "my thought wasn' anything like so unselfish. It concerned you and me, rather."

"Thinkin' of me, was you?" 'Bias stuffed down the tobacco in his pipe with his forefinger. "I reckon that's no game, Caius Hocken, to be takin' up again after all these months; and I warn you to drop it, for 'tis dangerous."

Whatever his faults, Cai did not lack courage. "I don't care a cuss for threats, as you might know by this time. What I owe I pay,--and there's my trouble. I introduced you to Rogers, didn't I?"

"That's true," agreed 'Bias slowly. "What of it?"

"Why, that I'm in a way responsible that you took your affairs to him."

"Not a bit."

"But it follows. Surely you must see--"

"No, I don't. I ain't a child, and I'll trouble you not to hang about here suggestin' it. I didn' trust Rogers till I saw for myself he was a good man o' business and the very sort I wanted. He sarved me, well enough; and, well or ill, I don't complain to you."

"See here, 'Bias," said Cai desperately. "You may take this tone with me if you choose. But you don't choke me off by it, and you'll have to drop it sooner or later. I was your friend, back along--let's start with that."

"And a nice friend you proved!"

"Let's start with _that_, then," pursued Cai eagerly--so eagerly that 'Bias stared w.i.l.l.y-nilly, lifting his eye-brows. "Put it, if you please, that I was your friend and misled you to trust in Rogers, that you lost money by it--"

"Who said so?"

"I say so. Put it at the lowest--that you sunk a hundred pound' in the _Saltypool_--"

"Eh?"

"In the _Saltypool_--" Cai met his stare and nodded. "And not your own money, neither. Mrs Bosenna--"

'Bias started and laid down his pipe. "Drop that!" he interjected with a growl.

"Nay, you don't frighten _me_," answered Cai valiantly. "We're goin' to talk a lot of Mrs Bosenna, afore we've done. Present point is, she gave you a hundred pound, to invest for her. She gave me the like."

"What!" 'Bias clutched both arms of his chair in the act of rising.

But Cai held up a hand.

"Steady! She gave me the like. . . . You handed the money over to Rogers, and close on fifteen per cent he was makin' on it--in the _Saltypool_."

"Who--who told you?"

"Wait! I did the like. . . . Seven pounds eight-and-four was my dividend, whatever yours may have been--eh? You may call it a--a coincidence, 'Bias Hunken: but some would say as our minds worked on the same lines even when--even when--" Cai seemed to swallow something in his throat. "Anyhow, the money's gone, and we'll have to make it good."

"Well, I should hope so!"

"I'll see to _that_, 'Bias--whatever happens."

"So will I, o' course." 'Bias turned to refill his pipe.

Cai was watching him narrowly. "Happen that mightn't be none too easy,"

he suggested.

"Why so?"

"Heark'n to me now: I got something more serious to tell. The Lord send we may be mistaken, but--supposin' as Rogers has played the rogue?"

'Bias, not at all discomposed, went on filling his pipe. "I see what you're drivin' at," said he. "'Tis the same tale Philp was chantin' just now, over the wall; how that Rogers had lost his own money and ours as well, and 'twas in everybody's mouth. Which I say to you what I said to him: ''Tis the old story,' I says, 'let a man be down on his back, and every cur'll fly at him.'"

"But suppose 'twas true? . . . Did Rogers ever show the bonds and papers for your money?"

"'Course he did. Showed me every one as they came in, and seemed to make a point of it. 'Made me count 'em over, some time back.

'Wouldn' let me off 'till I'd checked 'em, tied 'em up in a parcel, docketed 'em, sealed 'em, and the Lord knows what beside. Very dry work. I claimed a gla.s.s o' grog after it."

"And then you took 'em away?" asked Cai with a sudden hope.

"Not I. For one thing, they're vallyble, and I don't keep a safe.

I put 'em back in the old man's--top shelf--alongside o' yours."

Cai groaned. "They're missin' then!"

"Who told you?"

"The child--Fancy Tabb."

'Bias looked serious. "Why didn' she come to me, I wonder?"

"I reckon--knowing what friends we'd been--she left it to me to break the news."

"I won't believe it," declared 'Bias slowly. But he sat staring straight at the horizon, and after each puff at the pipe Cai could hear him breathing hard.

"The child's not given to lyin'. And yet I don't see--Rogers bein'

helpless to open the safe on his own account. At the worst 'tis a bad job for ye, 'Bias."

"Eh? . . . 'Means sellin' up an' startin' afresh: that's all--always supposin' there's jobs to be found, at our age. I don't know as there wouldn't be consolations. This here life ash.o.r.e isn't all I fancied it."

Now Cai had in mind a great renunciation: but unfortunately he could not for the moment discover any way to broach it. He played to gain time, therefore, awaiting opportunity.

"As for getting a job," he suggested, "there's no need to be downcast; no need at all. If the worst came to the worst, there's the _Hannah Hoo_, f'r instance, and a providence she never found a buyer."

"Ay, to be sure--I'd forgot the bark'nteen."