"Fetch some more watter, mester," said a pleasant voice, and a rough hand was laid upon my forehead, but only to be taken away again, and that which had vexed and irritated we went on again, and in a dreamy way I knew it was a sponge that was being pa.s.sed over my face.

"I fetched Mester Tom one wi' bottom o' the boocket, and I got one kick at Tom, and when the two boys come home to-night they'll get such a leathering as they never hed before."

"Nay, let 'em be," said a familiar voice.

"Let 'em be! D'ye think I'm going to hev my bairns grow up such shacks?

Nay, that I wean't, so yo' may like it or no. I'd be shamed o' my sen to stand by and let that pack o' boys half kill the young gentleman like that."

"I warn't going to stop 'em."

"Not you, mester. Yow'd sooner set 'em on, like you do your mates, and nice things come on it wi' your strikes and powder, and your wife and bairns wi' empty cupboard. Yow on'y let me know o' next meeting, and if I don't come and give the men a bit o' my mind, my name arn't Jane Gentles."

"Yow'd best keep thy tongue still."

"Mebbe you think so, my man, but I don't."

My senses had come back, and I was staring about at the clean kitchen I was in, with carefully blackleaded grate and red-brick floor. Against the open door, looking out upon the dam, and smoking his pipe, stood-- there was no mistaking him--our late man, Gentles; while over me with a sponge in her hand, and a basin of water by her on a chair, was a big broad-shouldered woman with great bare arms and a pleasant homely face, whose dark hair was neatly kept and streaked with grey.

She saw that I was coming to, and smiled down at me, showing a set of very white teeth, and her plump face looked motherly and pleasant as she bent down and laid her hand upon my forehead.

"That's bonny," she said, nodding her head at me. "You lie still a bit and I'll mak you a cup o' tea, and yo'll be aw reight again. I'm glad I caught 'em at it. Some on 'em's going to hev sore bones for that job, and so I tell 'em."

I took her hand and held it in mine, feeling very weak and dreamy still, and I saw Gentles shift round and give me a hasty glance, and then twist himself more round with his back to me.

"Howd up a minute," she said, pa.s.sing one strong arm under me and lifting me as if I had been a baby; and almost before I had realised it she slipped off my jacket and placed a cushion beneath my head.

"There, now, lie still," she said, dabbing my wet hair with a towel.

"Go to sleep if you can."

By this time she was at the other end of the common print-covered couch on which I lay and unlacing my boots, which she drew off.

"There, now thou'lt be easy, my lad. What would thy poor moother say if she saw thee this how?"

I wanted to thank her, but I was too dreamy and exhausted to speak; but I had a strange feeling of dread, and that was, that if I were left alone with Gentles he would, out of revenge, lay hold of me and throw me into the dam, and to strengthen my fancy I saw him keep turning his head in a furtive way to glance at me.

"Here," exclaimed the woman sharply, "take these here boots out to the back, mester, and clean 'em while I brush his coat."

"Eh?" said Gentles.

"Tak them boots out and brush 'em. Are yo' deaf?"

"Nay, I'm not going to clean his boots," growled Gentles.

"Not going to clean the bairn's boots!" said the woman sharply; "but I think thou art."

She left me, went to the door, took Gentles' pipe from his mouth, and then thrust the boots under his arm, laying a great hand upon his shoulder directly after, and seeming to lead him to a door behind me, through which she pushed him, with an order to make haste.

"Yes," she said, tightening her lips, and smiling, as she nodded to me, "I'm mester here, and they hev to mind. Was it thou as set the big trap ketched my mester by the leg?"

I never felt more taken aback in my life; but I spoke out boldly, and said that it was I.

"And sarve him right. Be a lesson to him. Mixing himself up wi' such business. I towd him if he crep into people's places o' neets, when he owt to hev been fast asleep i' bed wi' his wife and bairns, he must reckon on being ketched like a rat. I'd like to knock some o' their heads together, I would. They're allus feitin' agen the mesters, and generally for nowt, and it's ooz as has to suffer."

Mrs Gentles had told me to try and sleep, and she meant well; but there were two things which, had I been so disposed, would thoroughly have prevented it, and they were the dread of Gentles doing something to be revenged upon me, and his wife's tongue.

For she went on chattering away to me in the most confidential manner, busying herself all the time in brushing my dusty jacket on a very white three-legged table, after giving the cloth a preliminary beating outside.

"There," she said, hanging it on a chair; "by and by you shall get up and brush your hair, and I'll give you a brush down, and then with clean boots you will not be so very much the worse."

She then sat down to some needlework, st.i.tching away busily, and giving me all sorts of information about her family--how she had two boys out at work at Bandy's, taking it for granted that I knew who Bandy's were; that she had her eldest girl in service, and the next helping her aunt Betsey, and the other four were at school.

All of which was, no doubt, very interesting to her; but the only part that took my attention was about her two boys, who had, I knew, from what I overheard, been in the pack that had so cruelly hunted me down.

And all this while I could hear the slow _brush, brush_ at my boots, evidently outside the back-door, and I half expected to have them brought back ripped, or with something sharp inside to injure me when I put them on.

At last, after Mrs Gentles had made several allusions to how long "the mester" was "wi' they boots," he came in, limping slightly, and after closing the door dropped them on the brick floor.

"Why, Sam!" exclaimed Mrs Gentles, "I'd be ashamed o' mysen--that I would!"

But Gentles did not seem to be in the slightest degree ashamed of himself, but took his pipe from the shelf, where his wife had laid it, struck a match, relit it, and went off with his hands in his pockets.

Mrs Gentles rose and followed him to the door, and then returned, with her lips tightened and an angry look in her face.

"Now he's gone off to b.o.o.blic," she said angrily, "to hatch up and mess about and contrive all sorts o' mischief wi' them as leads him on. Oh the times I've telled him as they might make up all the differ by spending the time in work that they do in striking again' a sixpence took off or to get one putt on! Ay, but we missuses have but a sorry time!"

The absence of Gentles' furtive look sent back at me from the door seemed to change the effect of his wife's voice, which by degrees grew soothing and soft, and soon after I dropped off asleep, and dreamed of a curious clinking going on, from which dream I awoke, with my head cooler, and Mrs Gentles bending over me and fanning my face with what looked like an old copy-book.

I looked at her wonderingly.

"That's better," she said. "Now set up and I'll help thee dress; and here's a nice cup of tea ready."

"Oh, thank you!" I said. "What time is it?"

"Close upon five, and I thowt you'd be better now after some tea."

She helped me on with my jacket, and I winced with pain, I was so stiff and sore. After this she insisted upon putting on my boots.

"Just as if I heven't done such things hundreds of times," she said cheerfully. "Why, I used to put on the mester's and tak 'em off all the time his leg was bad."

"I'm sorry I set that trap," I said, looking up at her rough, pleasant face, and wondering how such a sneaking, malignant fellow could have won so good a wife.

"I'm not," she said laughing. "It sarved him right, so say no more about it."

That tea was like nectar, and seemed to clear my head, so that I felt nearly recovered save when I tried to rise, and then I was in a good deal of pain. But I deemed myself equal to going, and was about to start when I missed my cap.

"Hey, but that'll be gone," she said. "Oh, they boys! Well, yow must hev d.i.c.k's."

Before I could protest she went upstairs, and returned with a decent-looking cap, which I promised to return, and then, bidding my Samaritan-like hostess good-bye, I walked firmly out of her sight, and then literally began to hobble, and was glad as soon as I could get into the main road to hail one of the town cabs and be driven home, not feeling strong enough to go to the works and tell of my mishap.