Hocken and Hunken Part 60

"Hullo!" said a voice outside the window. "I didn' know as you indulged between meals."

It was Mr Philp, staring in.

"I heard you tappin' on the window-ledge, and I thought maybe you had caught sight o' me," suggested Mr Philp.

"But I hadn't," said Cai, somewhat confused.

"I said to myself, 'He's beckonin' me in for a chat': and no wonder if 'tis true what they're tellin' down in the town."

"Well, I wasn't," said Cai, gulping his brandy-and-water hardily.

"But what are they tellin'?"

"There's some," mused Mr Philp, "as don't approve of solitary drinkin'.

Narrow-minded bodies _I_ call 'em. When a man is in luck's way, who's to blame his fillin' a gla.s.s to it--though some o' course prefers to call in their naybours; an' _that's_ a good old custom too."

Cai ignored the hint. "What are they tellin' down in the town?"

"All sorts o' things, from mirth to mournin'. They say, for instance, as you and the Widow have fixed it all up to be married this side o'

Jubilee."

"That's a lie, anyway."

"And others will have it as the engagement's broken off by reason of your losin' all your money in Johnny Rogers's smash?"

"And that," said Cai, "is just as true as the other. But who says that Rogers has gone smash?"

"Everyone. I tackled Tabb upon the subject this mornin', and he couldn'

deny it. The man's clean scat. He's been speckilatin' for years: I always looked for this to be the end, and when they told me the _Saltypool_ wasn't insured, why, I drew my conclusions. As I was sayin'

to Cap'n Hunken just now--"

"Eh? . . . Where is he?"

"Who?"

"'Bias Hunken. You said as you been speakin' with him--"

"Ay, to be sure, over his garden wall. I looked over and saw him weedin' among the rose-bushes, an' pulled up to give him the time o'

day."

"You didn' tell him about the _Saltypool?_"

"As it happens, that's just what I did. He'd heard she was lost, but he'd no notion Rogers hadn't taken out an insurance on her, and he seemed quite fetched aback over it."

"The devil!"

"I'm sorry you feel like that about him. As I was tellin' him, when I heard your tap here at the window--"

"But I don't--and I wasn' tappin' for you, either."

"Appears not," said Mr Philp, with a glance at the empty gla.s.s in Cai's hand.

"Where is he? Still in the garden, d'ye say?"

"Ay: somewheres down by the summer-house. Says _I_, when I heard you tappin', 'That's Cap'n Hocken,' says I, 'signallin' me to come an wish him joy, an' maybe to join him in a drink over his luck. And why not?'

says I. 'Stranger things have happened.'"

"You'll excuse me. . . . If he's in his garden, I want a chat with him."

Cai hurried out to the front door.

"Maybe you'd like me to go with you," suggested Mr Philp, ready for him.

"Maybe I'd like nothin' of the sort," snapped Cai. "Why should I?"

"Well, if you ask _me_, he didn' seem in the best o' tempers, and it might come handy to take along a witness."

"No, thank'ee," said Cai with some asperity. "You just run along and annoy somebody else."

He descended the garden, to find 'Bias at the door of his summer-house, seated, and puffing great clouds of tobacco-smoke.

"Good evenin'!"

"Good evenin'," responded 'Bias in a tone none too hospitable.

"You don't mind my havin' a word with you?"

"Not if you'll make it short."

"I've just come from Philp. He's been tellin' you about the _Saltypool_, it seems."

"Well?"

"She was uninsured."

"And on top o' that, the fools overloaded her."

"And 'tis a serious thing for Rogers."

"Ruination, Philp tells me--that's if you choose to believe Philp."

"I've better information than Philp's, I'm sorry to say."

"Whose?"

"Fancy Tabb's."

"She didn' tell me so when I saw her to-day."--(And good reason for why, thought Cai.)--"Still, if she told you, you may lay there's some truth in it. That child don't speak at random. I don't see, though, as it makes much difference, up _or_ down?"

"No difference?"