His head was turned away
from us.
"Yes, Jo Brackenbury; and Captain Falchion said to me" (I wonder that I
did not start then) "when I told him how the 'Fly Away' went down to
Davy, and her lovers went aloft, reefed close afore the wind--'Then,'
says he, 'they've got a damned sound seaman on the Jordan, and so help
me! him that's good enough to row my girl from open sea, gales poundin'
and breakers showin' teeth across the bar to Maita Point, is good enough
for use where seas is still and reefs ain't fashionable.'"
Roscoe's face looked haggard as it now turned towards us. "If you will
meet me," he said to the stranger, "to-morrow morning, in Mr. Devlin's
office at Viking, I will hand you over Phil Boldrick's legacy."
The man made as if he would shake hands with Roscoe, who appeared not to
notice the motion, and then said: "I'll be there. You can bank on that;
and, as we used to say down in the Spicy Isles, where neither of you have
been, I s'pose, Talofa!"
He swung away down the hillside.
Roscoe turned to me. "You see, Marmion, all things circle to a centre.
The trail seems long, but the fox gets killed an arm's length from his
hole.
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