Land
draws life away.... He felt tempted to go and see whether it did.
Perhaps already.. It would be a bit of luck. There was money in
the beggar's chest. He stepped briskly out of the shadows into the
moonlight, and, instantly, his craving, hungry face from sallow became
livid. He opened the door of the cabin and had a shock. Sure enough,
Jimmy was dead! He moved no more than a recumbent figure with clasped
hands, carved on the lid of a stone coffin. Donkin glared with avidity.
Then Jimmy, without stirring, blinked his eyelids, and Donkin had
another shock. Those eyes were rather startling. He shut the door behind
his back with gentle care, looking intently the while at James Wait
as though he had come in there at a great risk to tell some secret of
startling im-portance. Jimmy did not move but glanced languidly out of
the corners of his eyes.--"Calm?" he asked.--"Yuss," said Donkin, very
disappointed, and sat down on the box.
Jimmy was used to such visits at all times of night of day. Men
succeeded one another. They spoke in clear voices, pronounced cheerful
words, repeated old jokes, listened to him; and each, going out, seemed
to leave behind a little of his own vitality, surrender some of his own
strength, renew the assurance of life--the indestructible thing! He did
not like to be alone in his cabin, because, when he was alone, it seemed
to him as if he hadn't been there at all.
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