"Well, now, I'm
glad o' that. 'Fact is, I've been savin' up to tell 'ee about it,
but (thinks I) when I tells Mr. Q. he won't never believe."
"I certainly saw you," I answered; "but as for believing--"
"Iss, iss," he interrupted, with fresh chucklings; "a fair knock-out,
wasn' it? . . . You see, they was blind--poor fellas!"
"Drunk?"
"No, sir--blind--'pity the pore blind'; three-parts blind, anyways,
an' undergoin' treatment for it."
"Nice sort of treatment!"
"Eh? You don't understand. See'd us from the train, did 'ee?
Which train?"
"The 1.35 ex Millbay."
"Wish I'd a-knowed you was watchin' us. I'd ha' waved my hat as you
went by, or maybe blawed 'ee a kiss--that bein' properer to the
occasion, come to think."
Joby paused, drew the back of a hand across his laughter-moistened
eyes, and pulled himself together, steadying his voice for the story.
"I'll tell 'ee what happened, from the beginnin'. A gang of us had
been sent down, two days before, to Treba meadow, to repair the
culvert there. Soon as we started to work we found the whole
masonry fairly rotten, and spent the first afternoon (that was
Monday) underpinnin', while I traced out the extent o' the damage.
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