The Strong Man by H. R. F. Keating

Author:H. R. F. Keating
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 1971-02-14T16:00:00+00:00

6

Fred Quiddie, who had been one of the four waiting to carry Donald on to our temporary headquarters in the scarcely expressed hope that something might be done for him, wheeled sharply round. He did not speak, but the violence of his movement expressed more clearly than words the shock he had felt at Keig’s brusque direction to bury at once and ignominiously the man who had for so long been very much one of us.

It was Jack Ascough, well reconciled to Keig’s leadership but never reconciled to the non-observance of the formulae he had learnt in his army days, who was the one to put the general objections into words.

‘But, sir ...’ he said.

Sir. No one but Ascough, and he only when thus caught off guard, ever addressed Keig as ‘sir’.

‘But, sir, we can’t hope to organize the proper ceremonial here and now, sir.’

Keig turned a totally inexpressive face towards him.

‘There isn’t any proper ceremonial,’ he said. ‘Fayrhare’s dead, he’s got to be buried. The spinney’ll suit nicely.’

There was a shimmer of protest among those gathered round the heavy gate we had lugged, with its heavy burden, all that way. It took the form of no more than half-exchanged glances and men taking half a pace backwards, but I saw it was nevertheless serious. I decided that, for once, I must take advantage of my friendship with Keig—if friendship was the word for the link between us—and try to intervene with him.

‘Keig,’ I exclaimed quickly.

The impassive face, broad of brow, deep-eyed, turned towards me in the fast growing light of this new and blackly depressing day.

‘Look,’ I said, ‘Donald was with us from the very earliest time. And he did damn well by us. I know he made a mistake last night, a bad one if you like. He disobeyed orders, and there’s no excuse for that. But you’re punishing him when he’s dead. For all our sakes, let us give him what decent burial we can.’

I thought I saw a flicker in Keig’s eyes. But, if I did, I was mistaken about its meaning.

‘You’re a fool,’ he burst out harshly. ‘D’you think I’d do that? Take revenge on someone dead for not obeying an order?’

‘Well then, what?’ I asked. ‘Why do you want him shoved away like this? Damn it, like a dog.’

For a moment or two Keig stood there in front of me. For the first time I saw him completely at a loss. He actually shifted from one foot to the other. But before long he forced himself to speak.

‘It’s not that,’ he said, as if each word had to be quarried from the rocky core of his mind. ‘No, it’s not that. Though I see how you thought it was. I ought to have made it clearer like. It wasn’t that. It was . . .’

A frown stood out on his forehead, and for once stayed there.

‘It was this,’ he went piecemeal on. ‘Fayrhare’s dead. Never mind how he came to die, he’s dead. He’s fin—He’s no more, gone.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.