Warleggan (5 page)

Francis starred at him, `I'm sorry I 'cannot say the same,
George.'

`If it's true, then I'm sorry. It need not be.'

'That's where we differ. I made
my choice long
ago. I prefer
to keep my hands clean.'

George's face darkened. `This empty spite.... In your cousin

I have come to expect no reason-
‘

`Well, then, if that's reason, expect none in me.'

If George had had serious hope of a rapprochement, it did not survive this. He turned away and found himself face to face
with Ross.

There was
a moment's silence. One or two
now watching
hopefully expected an immediate battle. They edged nearer
to catch the words which would provide the spark.

Ross stared down at the other man.' 'Good evening to you,
George'

George's formidable face twitched slightly. `Well, Ross,
imagine our meeting here!'

`We must have supper together sometime.'

`I shall look forward
to it..
’

‘
I hope your mine prospers.?
’
'It will.'

`I wish I had your confidence.'

Ross said `Must you be envious even of that?'

George flushed and opened his mouth to say something as
Ross moved away. But a word now would undo the restraint
of years. Now for the f
irst time he had Ross where he
wanted
him. Restraint was a virtue. He had only to endure in silence
to triumph

As Ross and Demelza rode home, accompanied for the first part of the way by Francis and Elizabeth, a half-spent moon rose and tinselled the landscape for them, lighting the dew on the fields and the spid
er webs in the hedgerows. There
was not much talk among any of the four. Elizabeth was keyed up with what she had said and nervous as to the result, because you could never predict what Ross would do. Francis was
sleepy. And Ross, lost in his
thoughts of the past and his speculations for the future, was curiously detached from the scene th
ough inescapably aware of the
figure of Elizabeth, cause of it all, riding on ahead of him.

Demelza, with her instinctive, animal Perceptions, knew that something
quite fresh had cropped up in R
oss's life. She
felt that Elizabeth must be
at die bottom of it, but could
not imagine what new thing had suddenly grown out of the old allegiance, `I hope to be able to wait on you, ma'am,' Captain McNeil had said, a, very nice admiration his look. Of all the men she had ever met, Malcolm McNeil was the only one who could begin to hold a candle to Ross, 'One of these days I'll give a party, my dear,' Sir Hugh Bodrugan, had said, fingering her arm.

just before it came
tim
e for
th
em to separate, Francis
said
: 'Is it true the tub-runners have had another
successful run?'
'Yes, said Ross. `I heard so.'

Vercoe and his gaugers will be in an ill-humour,' 'I've
no
doubt'

'The
re was a whisper about
- I've forgot
where I
heard
it -
but there was a whisper abou
t that you were conc
erning yourself in the Trade.'

Silence fell. Demelza pulled a littl
e more tightly at her horse's

r
e
i
ns, and the horse shook his head with a jingle of distaste. R
oss said. `Where did you hear tha
t?' `Does it matter so much? It was some time ago and. I think
concerned that run in March.'

'There has never been a tim
e when some foolish rumour has
not been flying round regarding one of us, Francis
’

Another pause. `Well, I'm glad there's no truth in it anyway.! 'Glad? I did, not know you had any special feeling for the
Customs men.'

'Nor have I
, Ross. But I have some feeling for you nowadays. And I do not like this informer, this sneak, this telltale who is about. Everyone knows of his existence no one knows who he is, If he was identified, he would soon come to a bad end.

But while he is about there is a double danger. Of course if I were Mr Trencrom, with big stakes in the business, connections and a sizable cutter to maintain , I shou
ld I suppose go on and trust in
the Lord. I'd have to. But if I were, an ordinary threadb
are country gentleman, looking
to turn an extra penny, or a m
iner or a backsmith, thinking
of struggling as a side line, this is the last time of day I should want to have
an
y hand in the work.'

It was a long speech
for Francis, and as he spoke they bad come to the fork in the track. The four riders halted.

Ross sa
id : `I suppose you'll do your best to q
u
a
sh this story if you should run against it again,'

`I, will. Oh, I will. Well, good night to you both'

Ross S
aid: `So far as the Trade goes, there are of course degrees
of help one may render. Not all kinds entail running the boats ashore or bearing off the goods.'

`All kin
ds can be dangerous if there is
an informer about.'

`If I
were were a threadbare count
ry gentleman looking to
turn an extra penny, I might agre
e with you. But in some circum
stances risk must be weighed against reward.'
'I think I should prefer not to know any more. My wish was to convey a friendly warning, not to pry into your secrets.'

'It seems you already know the secret. It will be a good thing
if you have the details too. Some time ago Mr. Trencrom came to see me, he being in some straits because the informer had made it impossible for him to run in a cargo at any of the usual places. He asked if he might use Nampara Cove. At the time the Warleggans were making the
mselves obnoxious by getting a
foothold in my
other mine, Wheal Leisure. I
agreed to Trencrom's propos
ition, and he uses my cove and
land
-but twice only a year and for
each landing he pays me £200.’

Francis whistled. `It's a tidy sum. Enough to tempt any man. If there were. not this danger, I should have jumped at it myself.'

`If there were not this danger, I should not have been offered it.'

'No. . . No, I see. But this money
-
is it to keep
Wheal
Grace in operation for lo
nger than we'd planned? If so-‘

'I have debts,' said Ross briefly. `One of them carries an
excessive rate of interest. With this money from Trencrom I am
able, to survive. Without it our mine would never have been

started.',

`You
should have told me.' `What?'

`Of
these debts. The money we've invested in Wheal Grace
might have
been better employed.’

`If Wheal Grace fa
ils, it might have been better
in some other venture. It has never been enough in itself to pay
what I owe.'

Francis stared at his cousi
n's face,
which was half lit by the climbing moon. He would have liked to clear up this point between them, but there were too many pitfalls. Their present
friendship, their present partnership, meant too much to him to be jeopardised by an-ill-considered question, now.

As Ross and Demelza rode on
alone,
Demelza said:
`I wonder who told him
,'

`About the Trade? It was bound to get abroad. When twenty or thirty men
know.
As if reading her thoughts, he added. 'Oh, I know that's what you've always said.. But it's a risk
to l fairly taken.
So long as no one learns the date of a run, all's well. Gaugers will not spend every night out;'

`I would r
ather g
o barefoot'

'There is no risk of that.'

'There a
re worse risks.
’

"I differ'

'Don't jest, Ross. It's
no jesting matter. You have
been
in

too much trouble these last years.'

By
now they were, riding down into their own valley, On the other side the new engine of Wheal Grace slithered and s
ighed as it pumped the water up
from the depths of the
earth.

To divert he
r Ross said: `And did you enjoy
the evening?

Did it come up to your expectation?'

`Yes, it was all very agreeable. Only
we were
separated, as you might say, at the very beginning and
were
almost strangers by the end of it,'

'It is the fashion; of modern
society. But I noticed
Captain McNeil looked after you very well.'

'Yes, he did indeed. He's a very polite, genteel sort of man, Ross, and is going to call on us one day next week,'

'Hm. It is not an uncommon pattern. You only have to crook your little finger and they all come'

`You have an awful wicked tongue for exaggeration, Ross
-
I wonder sometimes it does
not drop off. And Caroline Penv
enen?,

'C
aroline?'

'Yes, you saw very much of her. What do you think of her?
s
he kept you
in a corner, did she not, and wouldn't let you come fort
h!

Ross pondered a minute, 'She kept me in
no
corner that
I did not wish to b
e kept in; he said, 'but I certainly think she is the wrong wife for Dwight. She would wipe her feet on him.'

Ellery's
death made a
big difference to Dwight. Surgi
cal and physical skill could be
exercised in a poor and primitive community only on a foundation-of confidence and trust. Without that foundation you were lucky if you exercised anything at all. In two weeks more than half Dwight's patients disappeared from his doorstep or made excuses when he called.

His visits to St. Ann's were at no time frequent, but he had one or two faithful patients there and among them, a paying one too, was Mrs. Vercoe, the wife of the Customs Officer, who
se youngest child he had pulled
through an illness during the winter. On the day, following the party, to which he'd not been invited, he paid them a visit and was just in time to see Vercoe himself separating at the front door of his w
hite-washed cottage from a tall
fair-haired man with a fine cavalry moustache. Although plainly a gentleman, the stranger had not come by horse, because he strode away across the fields towards the cliff path.

Inside the cottage Clara Vercoe greeted Dwight. Hubert was not s
o well, she said, had vomited
after his latest bottle of physic and she'd given him no more. Hubert, looking papery and wasted, was brought forward into the sunlight falling through the open doorway, and Dwight cast a professional eye over him while pretending to admire his story book. It was a new kind, cheaply, printed in Plymouth on sheets of stiff paper with line pictures illustrating
‘
The Hist
ory of Primrose Prettyface' and
bound between covers of thin horn with a wooden handle. The first picture was of an angel, and Hubert had coloured the (wings red.

Dwight wondered if this was another echo of the Ellery affair and if his draught was being blamed for some digestive upset.

He said he would change the stuff, and poured some of it into a cup to examine and taste.

While he was
there Jim Vercoe came back into the cottage
for a telescope, and Dwight followed
the direction in which it was p
ointed, towards a sail on the horizon.

You could not but admire a man
who persisted in his task in the face of bribes offered, occasional threats, avid the
social ostracism that canoe his
way. Something of the unpleasantness Vercoe
often had to
meet showed in his bearded f
ace. Dwight would have admired
him the more if there had been also a trace of that grim satisfaction about him which some men find in getting disliked in the course of their duty..

The sky's very clear this morning,' Dwight remarked as the Customs Officer lowered his glass;

`Sharp's a knife
surgeon, There'll
be more rain afo
re nightfall.'

'We be
en watching for the revenue ship all week,' said Mrs. Vercoe with a nod. Jim's been asking for 'er for long enough,'

"Twill be
all over the village soon,' Vercoe said irritably. Women's tongues is too slipper in what
don't concern 'em.'

'Eh
, Dr. Enys wouldn't
say
anything, would you, sir?'

'
No
more than I should if I saw a man with a cask of brandy''

Vercoe stared at him resentfully for a moment
- A man with the standin
g of a physician had no right to
be that impartial.'

"Tis hard to, do a proper job when all the gentry are against ee, surgeon, and when there's scarcely a place for an honest boat to find safe h
arbourage anywhere along this co
ast. They just won't venture in when the weather's heavy; Even Padstow's no safe, refuge if a gale bl
ow
up. But ye can't
keep a watch from Mount's Bay!
'

'I should have
thought the disadvantage works both ways. The seas that keep away your revenue cutter will stop men from landing a cargo.

'Ah, 'tis not so simple as that. The runners will take more risks, and they d'know every rock and eddy li
ke the back of their hands. Wh
at I need 'bove all is more men ashore. 'Tis fighting up-hill all the
way, Aid the worst thing of
all
mebbe is knowing
that after all if you catch y
our men, as
like as not they'll be brought before the local magistrates and acquitted and set f
r
ee.'

Dwight said: I know it is hard, but I should not
say th
at
all the gentry
are against you, Or even all
the people, I und
erstand you have your
in
formers, and. they should be worth their weight in
-
well
gold'

Vercoe's face coloured with a dark, angry flush. 'That`s what you come down to, surgeon, when you're hard set. You're'
not helped by the honest
men, so then you've to use the rats.'

A few minutes' later Dwight rode into the main street of the village and dismounted at the little shop where his medicines were made up. He stooped in and waited among the multicoloured bottles and the bundles of coloured straw
for making
bonnets and the green canisters of mixed tea until Irby, the druggist, squeezed himself out of the dungeon where he mixed
his prescriptions. Irby was a little fat man with a stub of a nose and steel spectacles with lenses no bigger than the acquisitive eyes behind them.

Dwight began by asking pleasa
ntly to
see the order he had
made out and asking Mr. Irby to taste the draught and to note the amount of sediment in the bottom if the bottle. Mr. I
rby was effusive, co-operative,
but astonished; there would of course be sediment: the drugs Dwight had ord
ered would refuse to mix and
a precipitate would form. Dwight w
ith deference corrected him. If the drugs were pure, it
was quite impos
sible, etc.,
etc.
At this point
the conversati
on, while still polite, began to
carry a sediment of its own. Dwight
said he wished he might
exa
mine the drugs from which the physic was made up. Mr
Irby squinted round the sides of his spectacles and, said
that he had been practising in S
t. Ann's for twenty years and no surgeon had ever cast a reflection on his competence, it was a plain question if whether the drugs were adulterated. Mr. Irby said he had never bought cheap drugs and he did not propose to be accused if that now, Dwig
ht said he was sorry to have to
insist, but he had a right by law as a physician to enter and examine the drugs in any druggist's establishment, and this he int
ended to exercise. Followed by
Mr. Irby, he went down the steps into the dungeon and pe
ered about him in the uncertain
light, at the Glauber's salts, the Dover's powders, the gamboge, the nux vomica, the paregorics, and the vermifuges.

The noise of Mr. Irby's annoyance brought Mrs. Irby from a deeper dungeon behind the first, but Dwight went carefully in with his ex
amination. He found what he had
suspected; that cheap substitutes had been bought and labelled for more ex
pensive drugs, and in two cases
the powders had been adul
terated with something, ground
bone or chalk: All these he tipped into a wooden pail. When it was full, he walked out through the shop with it, followed by the druggist angrily demanding recompense and justice. As he went he saw a tall
woman standing in the shop, but it was so dark that he did not take much note of her, He carried the pail round the backs of the houses, found the nearest open cessp
ool, and tipped the contents in,
t
hen he carne back he saw that the woman was Caroline Penvenen..

Five minutes later he left the shop, trying to dust the powder from his breeches and boots. Mr. Irby followed him to the door calling down the wrath of God, but abruptly disappeared
-
being lugged in by his wife, who was a powerful woman as well as an astute one and did not wish their neighbours to know more than could be helped.

Dwight glanced at tine splendid chestnut held by a mounted groom, out he didn't stop, As he got to
his own horse, Caroline came out of the shop.

He took off his hat and the breeze fanned his face.

She s
aid; `Dr. Enys, as I'm alive!
How diverting. And with such an expression as if the Last Trump'd blown. I
almost
mistook you for a vision of Judgment'

He had been expecting, half dreading this meeting. Now that it had come, it had all the anticipated sen
se of shock, it brought all the
old feelings alive, In the middle of his anger he recognised
them,
every one. Her brilliant: hair blowing in the breeze was a renewed
offence
so was the curve of her strong feminine mouth, the laughter in her eyes.

Dwight said
; `There are times, ma'am, when we can't wait for the Last Trump, but must pass a little judgment by the way.'

She swung up on her horse, and the animal side-stepped spiritedly on the cobbles. 'And who is next to receive a chastising? May I a
ccompany you for the entertainm
ent?'

'You may accompany me, but I've no entertainment to offer, I'm riding home now.'

She shook her head, `You underrate yourself, Dr. Enys, Your company is fair entertainment for me any day,'

He bowed, `Thank you, but we differ as to that. Good day."

He rode off fairly
boiling. She thought him a fool
, and no doubt she was right. His life seemed bounded with futilities, and her being
on the spot served to point them
, He had just left St. Ann's when he beard the thump of hooves in the lane and Caroline drew abreast of him, Her groom was left behind.

She said angrily- 'We meet after been months and you
haven't even a civil word for me!'

That, he thought, was a trifle cool. 'I'm old-fashioned
i
n these
matters, Miss Penvenen. I thought civility should be shown
on both sides.
’

`I might have known better than to expect any from you,' `Indeed you might.'

'The truth is that you do not li
ke to be laughed at.' 'That is the truth.'

They 'were silent for a little way, She turned her whip over
and over in her gloved hands and glanced at him, 'I'm sorry.' He looked at her, startled, and she at once laughed. `There, Dr. Enys, you
didn't expect m
e to say that It has
quite frightened you. You see
how dangerous it is to pre
judice a person. I should have thought your medical training
would have warned you
against
it.'

'So it should. The symptoms were deceptive,'

'And
now that you
find you
rself undecieved, don't you owe
me an apology?'

'Yes
I'm sorry,'

She inclined her head. '
Do, you think that if I show a p
roperly sober frame of mind and promise never to laugh again,
we might share this road as far as Trenwith.?' 'You're staying with your uncle?' 'Yes.'

`Unwin Trevaunance is down, I hear'

'He is'

The groom was not overtaking them but was following just
out
of earshot.

'And h
ow is the scurvy in Sawle?' she asked,

`Not so bad as last year. The potato crop didn't fail,
and I sometimes Wonder if even potatoes help to keep at
bay. On the whole-' He stopped and looked at her face,
but
if she was secretly deriding hi
m, she gave no sign this
time.

'Perhaps I'm wrong in calling you Miss Penvenen
.' `Why?'Oh . , , No, I'm not mar
r
ied yet' ‘Is it to b
e soon?'

She wrinkled her nose, 'Not soon. At least, not to Unwin.

He's jilted me,' `What?'

'Well, I'm not sure which way round it was, but Uncle says it was the other way. Uncle was in the greatest of a passion when he learned of it
-
said I had been,
leading Unwin a
dance. But really, Dr. Enys, there's no harm in a man performing a dance once in a while, is there? Why, should I sell myself to Unwin just to become Lady Trevaunance when Sir John dies? I was not meant to be an M.P.'s wife. I should get no pleasure in spending all my money, furthering Unwin's career. I'd better p
refer to spend it furthering my
own!'

Dwight hoped his feelings did not show in his face.

`And what brought you to this sudden decision?'

`Oh... .' A glint came into her
eyes. `I' think it was m
y first real meeting with Ross Poldark.'

`Ross
Poldark happens to
be married.'

`Yes . .
and incidentally last night had no eyes for anyone
but his cousin-in-law that
lovely fair-haired woman with the
grey eyes. I
think that's their relationship, isn't it? But it looked closer.'

'You misunderstood it. Anyway-'

`Anyway, he had no
ey
es for me, you were going to say.

Quite true. I shouldn't object to Poldark as a husband, I believe, but
someone spoke him first. No
what I mean is 'that when one sees a ship of the line, one is that much less content with a third-rater, Do you understand me, dear Dr. Enys?'

'I understand you,' said Dwight, wondering what his own category was in His Majesty's Navy.

`So you can appreciate; it is a very sad story,' said Caroline, `of a young woman left almost at the church door, and no redress. Can you wonder that at any moment she may fall ill and go into a decline?'

`I can understand;' Dwight said, `that she will now have more time on her hands.'

There was a long pause. After it Caroline said steadily: `You dislike me very much, don't you?'';

He flushed. 'D'you really think that?
’

'Have you
ever given me cause to think ot
herwise?'

They had already pass
ed Trenwith, passed her turning
for Killewarren. He said suddenly: - `If what I feel for you is dislike
-
for coming between me and my work sometime
every
day in the last fifteen months
-
if that's dislike
... If being unable to, forget your voice, or the way you turn your neck, or the lights in your-hair
-
if that's dislike
. If wanting to
hear that you're married and dreading to hear that you're married. .. If resenting the condescension that pretends you're not out of my reach ..." He stopped, unable to finish his sentences. Perhaps you can identify these symptoms for me.'

They rode on in silence, and then Caroline reined in her
horse
.

"I must go back. I shall be late for dinner
as it is. Tell
me, do, you ever ride for pleasure?'

`Seldom.'

`I shall be out on Thursday early. Would you like to meet me
at the gates soon after seven?'

At least she was not laughing
now. He could hardly believe that within ten minutes of their meeting all his good resolutions had been tipped overboard, with apparently no effort on her part and no resistance on his. He knew as plainly as if it had been issued by proclamation that, Unwin or no Unwin, Caroline
was
not for him. Her uncles would make very sure that she either, married a title or more money. A penniless doctor with a good name but nothing to it would be better occupied
putting straws in his
hair.

The groom was
coming up with them. She said:- `Or I could be i
ll if you preferred it How long
does it take to develop the scurvy?'

`It's an unpleasant di
sease,' Dwight said, taking off
his hat,' `and so bad for the complexion. I shouldn't advise it.'

A we
ek passed before Malcolm McNeil
paid his visit to Nampara. He walked over one bright summerless afternoon, without prior notice since he wanted it that way, and on foot since he was keen to harden himself before' returning to duty. As he came down the valley, he noticed the changes that three years ha
d brought. On the opposite hill was a
new
mine with a pumping engine hissing and clanking, and a whole litter of sheds and piles of refuse, and leets and a smithy and a spalling house. Industry had advanced at the expense of farming. More fields lay fallow than a rotation of crops justifi
ed, and there were few cattle
or sheep or pigs about. - A dark-lashed baby was asleep in a cot near the front door. The se
rvant who let him in left him in the parlour, which seemed
to him to have beco
me smaller and poorer since his
last visit. A kitten came and mewed round his legs, and he picked it up and gave it his forefinger to bite.