The Poacher's Wife by Eden Phillpotts

Author:Eden Phillpotts
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Husband and wife -- Fiction, Poachers -- Fiction, West Indies -- Fiction, Dartmoor (England) -- Fiction
Published: 2017-05-27T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Here the unfinished letter broke off, and the things that happened after may be immediately related.

Daniel went ashore with a special message from his captain for the harbour master; but the order was not delivered, because good fortune, as it seemed, had brought Henry Vivian to the pier-head, and, as Daniel climbed up the steps, he almost touched his boyhood’s friend. The overseer of the Pelican Estate stood beside him. Mr Jabez Ford had a private venture of turtles about to be shipped in the Peabody for Barbados, and now he watched his own mark being set upon the unhappy reptiles. Vivian was also an interested spectator. He turned with an expression of sorrow from the turtles and found Daniel Sweetland’s eyes fixed upon them.

“Mister Henry, ’tis I, Sweetland, from home! I be here this minute to speak to you. And I pray you, for old time’s sake, to listen.”

Young Vivian started back, and the blood leapt to his cheek.

“Alive!” he said.

“And kicking, your honour. I had to do all I done an’ give they policemen the slip, for the law was too strong for me. But afore God I swear I’m an innocent man, and, after my wife, I’d sooner you believed in me than any living.”

“Oaths are nothing to you,” said the other, coldly. “Come aside and speak to me.”

They walked apart on the wharf, and Vivian continued,—

“Why did you lie to the officers and deceive them, and escape, and subsequently delude the world into supposing that you had destroyed yourself? Tell me that. Were those the actions of an innocent man, Daniel Sweetland? I do not think so. If you can prove to me that you did not murder Adam Thorpe, do it; if not, my duty, painful as it may be, is clear. You have escaped justice thus far; but you shall not escape it altogether, if I can prevent you.”

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