So have I, and So have I, growled a couple of the group of men lolling about and looking on in the idle way peculiar to fishermen when winds are unfavourable.
Cant help that, said the man, ceasing to rub his nose, and buttoning up the key in his pocket. Im in possession, and nothing cant come out of here. The goods are seized for debt.
But I aint nothing to do with Pengellys debts, said Tom. My nets aint going to pay for what he owes. I earned my craft with the sweat of my brow, and theyre only stored here like those of other lads.
Iss, my son tis so tis so, said one or two of the bystanders, nodding their heads approvingly.
Ive got nothing to do with that, said the man in possession; the goods are seized, and whatevers in Daniel Pengellys store will be sold if he dont pay up; and thats the law.
Do you mean to tell me that the law says youre to sell one mans goods to pay another mans debts? said Tom.
Yes, if theyre on the debtors premises, said the man, coolly.
Then Im blest if I believe it, cried Tom, furiously; and if you dont give up what belongs to me
Here he strode so furiously up to the bailiff that a couple of brother-fishermen rushed in, and between them hustled Trecarn off, and back to his cottage, where the poor fellow sat down beside his weeping wife, while the two ponderous fellows who had brought him home leaned one on either side of the door, silent and foil of unspoken condolence.
Eighty-four pound! groaned Tom.
Fifteen and seven-pence! sobbed his wife.
Eight bran-new herring nets of mine, said one of his friends.
And fifteen pound worth of my craft, muttered the other.
And this is the law of the land, is it? growled Tom.
They took Sam Kelynacks little mare same way as was grazing on Tressillians paddock, said
time before they got a change. I used to long to be promoted, and tried two or three times; but they wouldnt hear of it; and the smooth travelling inspector who used to come down would humbug me by telling me that I was too vallerble a servant to the company to be changed, for I acted as a sort of ballast to the young station-masters.
This being the case, I got thinking I ought to get better pay, and I told him so; and he said I was right, and promised to report the case; but whether he did so or didnt, and, if he did, whether he made a load enough report, I dont know; tall events, I never got no rise, but had eighteen shillings a week when I went on the line, and eighteen shillings a week when I came off, five years after.
Me and the station-master used to chum it, the station being so lonesome. When the young chaps need first to come down, they used to come the big bug, and keep me at a distance, and expect me to say sir. But, lor bless you, that soon went off, and they used to get me to come and sit with them, to keep off the horrors for we used to get em bad down there and then wed play dominoes, or draughts, or cribbage, when we didnt smoke.
It was a awful lonesome place, and somehow people got to know it, and theyd come from miles away to Gravelwick.
What for? says you.
There, youd never guess, so Ill tell you to commit suicide.
It was too bad on em, because it made the place horrible. I wasnt afraid of ghosts; but after having one or two fellows come and put themselves before the fast trains, and having inquests on em, for the life of you you couldnt help fancying all sorts of horrors on the dark nights.
Why, that made several of our young station-masters go. One of em applied to be removed, and because they didnt move him he ran off threw up his place, he did but I had to stay.
Things got so bad at last that the station-master and me used to look at every passenger as alighted at our station suspicious like if he was a stranger; and we found out several this way, bless you; and if we couldnt persuade em to go away to some other station to do what they wanted, or contrive to bring em to a better turn of mind, we used to lock em up in the lamp-room and telegraph to Tenderby for a policeman to fetch em away.
Oh, it was fine games, I can tell you, only it used to give you the creeps; for some of these parties used to be wild and mad, though others was only melancholy and stupid.
Some on em was humbugs chaps in love, and that sorter way as never meant to do it, only to make a fuss and be saved, so as their young ladies could hear as they meant to die for their sake, and so on; but others was in real earnest; for the fact of one doing it there seemed like a traction to em, and theyd come for miles and miles right away from London.
It was a lively time being at a sooicidal station; and though the station-masters and I kept the strictest of lookouts, we got done moren once; for a fellow would get out right smart, go off, and then, artful-like, dodge back to the line a mile or so away, and the fust wed hear of it would be from an engine-driver who had gone over him.
Well, it happens one day that I was alone at the station, when a quiet, gentlemanly sort of a fellow gets out, smiles, asks me some questions about the place, and chats pleasantly for a bit, says he means to have a tanical ramble as he calls it and finishes off by giving me arf-crown.