So I shall see 'er yet once again. You've been very
patient with me,' he says.
"'Look here, Vickery,' I said, 'this thing's come to be just as much as I
can stand. Consume your own smoke. I don't want to know any more.'
"'You!' he said. 'What have you got to complain of?--you've only 'ad to
watch. I'm _it_,' he says, 'but that's neither here nor there,' he says.
'I've one thing to say before shakin' 'ands. Remember,' 'e says--we were
just by the Admiral's garden-gate then--'remember, that I am _not_ a
murderer, because my lawful wife died in childbed six weeks after I came
out. That much at least I am clear of,' 'e says.
"'Then what have you done that signifies?' I said. 'What's the rest of
it?'
"'The rest,' 'e says, 'is silence,' an' he shook 'ands and went clickin'
into Simons Town station."
"Did he stop to see Mrs. Bathurst at Worcester?" I asked.
"It's not known. He reported at Bloemfontein, saw the ammunition into the
trucks, and then 'e disappeared. Went out--deserted, if you care to put it
so--within eighteen months of his pension, an' if what 'e said about 'is
wife was true he was a free man as 'e then stood. How do you read it off?"
"Poor devil!" said Hooper. "To see her that way every night! I wonder what
it was."
"I've made my 'ead ache in that direction many a long night."
"But I'll swear Mrs. B. 'ad no 'and in it," said the Sergeant unshaken.
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