 chapter 19 part 1 of Moonfleet this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Jamie Ash Young Moonfleet by J. Meade Fockner chapter 19 on the beach told for the brave the grave that are no more I'll sunk beneath the wave fast by their native shore cow per the night was cold and I had nothing on me save breaches and boots and those drenched with the sea and had been wrestling with the surf so long that there was little left in me yet once I clutched the rope I clung to it for very life and in a minute found myself in the midst of the beach men I heard them shout again and felt strong hands sees me but could not see their faces for a mist that swam before my eyes and could not speak because my throat and tongue were cracked with the saltwater and the voice would not come there was a crowd above me of men and some women and I spread out my hands blindly to catch hold of them but my knees failed and let me down upon the beach and after that I remember only having coats flung over me and being carried off out of the wind and laid in warmest blankets before a fire I was numb with the cold my hair was matted with the salt and my flesh white and shriveled but they forced liquor into my mouth and so I lay in drowsy content till utter weariness bound me in sleep it was a deep and dreamless sleep for hours and when it left me gently as it were inch by inch I found I was still lying wrapped in blankets by the fire oh what a vast and infinite peace was that to lie there half asleep yet wake enough to know that I had slipped my prison and the pains of death and was a free man here in my native place at last I shifted myself a little growing more awake and opening my eyes saw I was not alone for two men sat at a table by me with glasses and a bottle before them he is coming to said one and may live yet to tell us who he is and from what port his craft sailed there has been many a craft the other said has sailed for many a port and made this beach her last many an honest man has landed on it and never went alive in such a sea nor would this one be living either if it had not been for that other brave heart to stand by and save him brave heart brave heart he said over to himself here pass me the bottle or I shall get the vapors to scoot against these early chills and I have not been in this place for ten years past since poor Elsevier was cut adrift I could not see the speaker's face from where I lay upon the floor yet seemed to know his voice and so fumbling in my weakened mind to put a name to it when he spoke of Elsevier and send my thoughts flying elsewhere Elsevier I said where is Elsevier and set up to look around expecting to see him lying near me and remembering the wreck more clearly now and how he had saved me with a last shove forward on the beach but he was not to be seen and so I guess that his great strength had brought him round quicker than had my youth and that he was gone back to the beach hush said one of the men at the table lie down and get to sleep again and then he added speaking to his comrade his brain is wandering yet do you see how he has cut up my words about Elsevier no I struck in my head is clear enough I'm speaking of Elsevier block I pray you tell me where he is is he well again they got up and stared at one another and at me when I named Elsevier block and then I knew the one that spoke for Master Radsey only grayer than he was who are you he cried who talk of Elsevier block do you not know me Master Radsey and I looked full in his face I am John Trenchard who left you so long ago I pray you tell me where is master block Master Radsey looked as if he had seen a ghost and was struck dumb at first but then ran up and shook me by the hand so warmly that I fell back again on my pillow while he poured out questions in a flood how had I fared where had I been whence had I come until I stopped him saying softly kind friend and I will answer only tell me first where is master Elsevier nay that I cannot say he answered for never a soul has set eyes on Elsevier since that summer morning we put thee and him ashore at Newport oh fool me not I cried out chafing at his excuses I am not wondering now was Elsevier that saved me in the surf last night was he that landed with me there was a look of sad amaze that came on Radsey's face when I said that a look that woken me an awful surmise what cried he was that master Elsevier that dragged thee through the surf I was he landed with me was he landed with me I said trying as it were to make true by repeating that which I feared was not the truth there was a minute silence and then Radsey spoke very softly there was none landed with you there was no soul saved from that ship alive save you his words fell one by one upon my ears if there were drops of molten lead it is not true I cried he pulled me up the beach himself and it was he that pushed me forward to the rope I he saved thee and then the undertow God hold of him and swept him down under the curl I could not see his face but might have known there was never a man save Elsevier could fight the surf a moonfleet beach like that yet had we known was he we could have done no more for many risked their lives last night to save you both we could have done no more then I gave a great groan for utter anguish to think that he had given up the safety he had won for himself and laid down his life there on the beach for me to think that he had died on the threshold of his home that I should never get a kind look from him again nor ever hear his kindly voice it is weary some to others to talk of deep grief and beside that no words even of the wisest man can ever set it forth nor even if we were able could I memory bear to tell it so I shall not speak more of that terrible blow only to say that sorrow so far from casting my body down as one might have expected gave it strength and I rose from the mattress where I had been lying they tried to stop me and even to hold me back but for all I was so weak I pushed them aside and must needs fling a blanket around me and a way back to the beach the morning was breaking as I left the why not for it was in no other place but that I lay and the wind though still high had abated there were light clouds crossing the heaven very swiftly and between them patches of clear sky where the stars were growing paler before the dawn the stars were growing paler but there was another star that shone out from the manor wood above the village although I could not see the house and told me grace like the wise virgins kept her lamp of light all night yet even that light shone without luster for me then for my heart was too full to think of anything but of him who had laid down his life for mine and of the strong kind heart that was stilled forever as well I knew the way so sure of old from why not to beach for I took no heed to path or feet but plunged along in the morning desk blind with sorrow and weariness of spirit there was a fire of driftwood burning at the back of the beach and rounded crouched a group of men in reefing jackets and sell westers waiting for morning to save what they might from the wreck but I gave them a wide berth and so past in the darkness without a word and came to the top of the beach there was light enough to make out what was doing the sea was running very high but with a falling wind the waves came in more leisurely and with less of broken water curling over in a tawny sweep and regular thunderous beat all along the bay for miles there was no sign left of the hull of the oaring zeeb but the beach was shone with so much wreckage as one would have thought could never come from so small a ship there were barrels and kegs gratings and hatch covers booms and pieces of masks and trucks and beside all that the heaving water inshore was covered with a floating mask of broken matchwood and the waves as they curled over carried up and dash down on the pebble planks and beams beyond number there were a dozen or more of men on the seaward side of the beach with oil skins to keep the wet out prowling up and down the pebbles to see what they could lay their hands on and now and then they would run down almost into the white fringe risking their lives to save a keg as they had risked them to save their fellows last night as they had risked their lives to save ours as Elzevir had risked his life to save mine and lost it there in the white fringe I sat down at the top of the beach with elbows on knees head between hands and face set out to see not knowing well why I was there or what I sought but only thinking that Elzevir was floating somewhere in that floating skin of wreckwood and that I must be at hand to meet him when he came ashore he would surely come in time for I had seen others come ashore that way for when the Batavia man went down on the beach I stood as near her as our rescuers had stood to us last night and there were some aboard who took the fatal leap from off her bows and tried to battle through the surf I was so near them I could mark their features and read the wild hope in their faces at the first and then the undertow took hold of them and never one that saved his life that day and yet all came to beach at last and I knew them by their dead faces for the men I had seen hoping against hope to ex ship and shore some naked and some clothed some bruised and sorely beaten by the pebbles and the sea and some sound and untouched all came to beach at last so I sat and waited for him to come and none of the beach walkers said anything to me the Moonfleet men thinking I came from Ringstay and the Langton men that I belong to Moonfleet and both that I had marked some casket sea for my own and was waiting till it should come in only after a while master Ratsey joined me and sitting down by me begged me to eat bread and meat that he had brought now I had little heart to eat but took what he gave me to save myself from his importunities and having once tasted was led by nature to eat all and was much benefited thereby yet I could not talk with Ratsey nor answer any of his questions though another time I should have put a thousand to him myself and he seeing twas no good sat by me in silence using a spyglass now and again to make out the things floating at sea as the day grew the men left the fire at the back of the beach and came down to the seafront where the waves were continually casting up fresh boil and there all worked with a will not each one for his own hand but all to make a common horde which should be divided afterwards among the flotsam moving outside the breakers I could see more than one dark ball like black buoys bobbing up and down and lifting as the wave came by and knew them for the heads of drowned men yet though I took Ratsey's glass and scanned all carefully enough I could make nothing of them but saw the pinnests floating bottom up and farther out another boat deserted and down to her gun well in the water was midday before the first body was cast up when the sky was breaking a little and a thin and watery Sun trying to get through and afterwards three other bodies followed they were part of the pinnests crew for all had the iron ring on the left wrist as Ratsey told me who went down to see them though he said nothing of the branded why and they were taken up and put under some sheeting at the back of the beach there to lie till a grave should be made ready for them then I felt something that told me he was coming and saw a body rolled over in the surf and knew it for the one I sought was nearest me he was flung up and I ran down to the beach carrying nothing for the white foam nor for the undertow and late hold of him for had he not left the rescue line last night and run down into the surf to save my worthless life Ratsey was at my side so between us we drew him up out of the running foam and then I'd rung the water from his hair and wiped his face and kneeling down there kissed him when they saw that we had got a body others of the men came up and stared to see me handle him so tenderly but when they knew at last I was a stranger and had the iron ring upon my wrist and a why branded upon my cheek they stared the more until the tail went round that I was he who had come through the surf last night alive and that this poor body was my friend who had laid down his life for me then I saw Ratsey speak with one and another of the group and knew that he was telling them our names and some that I had known came up and shook me by the hand not saying anything because they saw my heart was full and some bent down and looked in Elsevier's face and touched his hands as if to greet him see in stones had been merciful with him and he showed neither bruise nor wound but his face wore a look of great peace and his eyes and mouth were shut even I who knew where it was could scarcely see the why mark on his cheek for the paleness of death had taken out the color of the scar and left his face as smooth and mellow white as the alabaster figures in Moonfleet Church his body was naked from the waist up and he had stripped for jumping from the break and we could see the great broad chest and swelling muscles that had pulled him out of many a desperate pass and only failed him for the first and last time so few hours ago they stood for a little while looking in silence at the old lander who had run his last cargo on Moonfleet Beach and then they laid his arms down by his side and slung him in a sail and carried him away I walked beside and as we came down across the sea meadows the Sun broke out and we met little groups of school children making their way down to the beach to see what was doing with the wreck they stood aside to let us go by the boys pulling their caps and the girls dropping a curtsy when they knew that it was a poor drowned body passing and as I saw the children I thought I saw myself among them and I was no more a man but just come out from mr. Glennie's teaching in the old almshouse hall thus we came to the why not and there set him down the inn had not been let as I learned afterwards since mask you died and they had put a fire in it last night for the first time knowing that the break would be wrecked and thinking that some might come off with their lives and require tending the door stood open and they carried him into the parlor where the fire was still burning and laid him down on the trestle table covering his face and body with the sail this done they all stood round a little while awkwardly enough as not knowing what to do and then slipped away one by one because grief is a thing that only women know how to handle and they wanted to be back on the beach to get what might be from the wreck last of all when master Ratsy saying he saw that I would as leaf be alone and that he would come back before dark so I was left alone with my dead friend and with a host of bitterest thoughts the room had not been cleaned there were spiderwebs on the beams and the dust stood so thick on the windowpane as to shut out half the light the dust was on everything on chairs and tables save on the trestle table where he lay was on this very trestle they had laid out David's body was in this very room that this still form who would never more know either joy or sorrow had bowed down and wept over his son the room was just as we had left it and April evening years ago and on the dresser laid the great backgammon board so dusty that one could not read the lettering on it life is like a game of hazard the skillful player will make something of the worst of throws but what unskillful players we had been how bad our throws how little we had made of them end of chapter 19 part 1 recording by Jamie Ash Young Moonfleet by Jamie Faulkner chapter 19 Moonfleet this recording is in the public domain to us with thoughts like this that I was busy while the short afternoon was spent and the story went up and down the village how that Elizabeth Block and John Trinshard who left so long ago were come back to Moonfleet and that the old lander was drowned saving the young man's life the dusk was creeping up as I turned back the sail from off his face and took another look at my lost friend my only friend for who was there now to care a job for me I might go and round myself on Moonfleet Beach for anyone that would grieve over me what did it profit me to have broken bonds and to be free again what use was freedom to me now where was I to go what was I to do my friend was gone so I went back and sat with my head in my hands looking into the fire when I heard someone step into the room but did not turn thinking it was Master Ratsy come back and treading lightly so as not to disturb me then I felt a light touch on my shoulder and looking up saw standing by me a tall and stately woman girl no longer but woman in the full strength and beauty of youth I knew her in a moment for she had altered little except her oval face had something more of dignity and the tawny hair that used to fly about her back was now gathered up she was looking down at me and let her hand rest on my shoulder John she said have you forgotten me may I not share your sorrow did you not think to tell me you were come did you not see the light did you not know there was a friend that waited for you I said nothing not being able to speak but marvelling how she had come just in the point of time to prove me wrong to think I had no friend and she went on is it well for you to be here grieve not too sadly for none could have died no cooler than he died and in these years that you have been away I have thought much of him and found him good at heart and if he did ought wrong it was because others wronged him more and while she spoke I thought how Elzevir had gone to shoot her father and only failed if it by a hair's breadth and yet she spoke so well I thought he never really meant to shoot at all but only to scare the magistrate and what a whirligig of time was here that I should have saved Elzevir from having that plot on his conscience and then that he should save my life and now that maskew's daughter should be the one to praise Elzevir when he laid dead and still I could not speak and again she said John have you no word for me have you forgotten do you not love me still if I know part in your sorrow then I took her hand in mine and raised it to my lips and said dear mistress grace I have forgotten nothing and honor you above all others but of love I may not speak more to you nor you to me for we are no more buoyant girl as in times past but you a noble lady and I a broken wretch and with that I told her how I had been ten years a prisoner and why and showed her the iron ring upon my wrist and the brand upon my cheek at the brand she stared and said speak not of wealth just not wealth mix men and if you have come back no richer than you went you are come back no poor nor poor John in honor and I am rich and have more wealth than I can rightly use so speak not of these things but be glad that you are poor and we're not led to profit by that evil treasure but for this brand it is no prisoning to me but the Mahun's batch to show that you are theirs and must do their bidding said I not to you have a care how you touched the treasure it was evenly come by and will bring a curse with it but now I pray you with a greater earnestness seeing you bear this mark upon you touch no penny of that treasure if it should someday come back to you but put it to such uses as Colonel Moon Hoon thought would help his sinful soul with that she took her hand from mine and made me good night leaving me in the darkening room with the glow from the fire lighting up the sale and the outline of the body that lay under it after she was gone I pondered long over what she had said and what that should mean when she spoke of the treasure one day coming back to me but wondered much the most to find how constant is the love of woman and how she could still find a place in her heart for so poor a thing as I but as to what she said I was to learn her meaning this very night master at sea had come in and gone again not stopping with me very long because there was much doing on the beach but bidding me be of good cheer and have no fear of the law for that the bane against me and the head price had been dead for many a year it was Grace had made her lawyers move for this refusing herself to sign the hue and cry and saying that the fatal shot was fired by misadventure and so it read which was just waking was laid to rest forever and when Ratsy went I made up the fire and lay down in the blankets in front of it for I was dog tired and longed for sleep I was already dosing but not asleep when there was a knock at the door and in walked Mr. Glenny he was aged and stooped a little as I could see by the firelight but for all that I knew him at once and sitting up offered him what welcome I could he looked at me curiously at first as taking note of the bearded man that had grown out of the boy he remembered gave me very kindly greeting and sat down beside me on a bench first he lifted the sail from the dead body and looked at the sleeping face then he took out a common prayer reading the commendiments over the dead and giving me spiritual comfort and lastly he felt talking about the past from him I learned something of what had happened while I was away though for that matter nothing had happened at all except a few deaths for that is the only sort of change for which we look in moon fleet and among those who had passed away was Ms. Arnold my aunt so that I was another friend the less if indeed I should count her friend for those she meant me well she showed her care with too much strictness to let me love her and so in my great sorrow for Elzaver I found no room to grieve for her whether from the spiritual solace Mr. Glenny offered me or whether from his pointing out how much cause for thankfulness I had in being loosed out of prison and saved from imminent death certain it was I felt some assuagement of grief and took pleasure in his talk and though I may by some be reprehended he said for presuming to refer to profane authors after citing holy scripture yet I cannot refrain from saying that even the great poet Homer counsels moderation in mourning or quickly says he come with satiety of chilly grief after this I thought he was going but he cleared his throat in such a way that I guessed he had something important to say and he drew a long-folded blue paper from his pocket my son he said opening it leisurely and smoothing it out upon his knee we should never revile fortune and in speaking of fortune I only use that appellation in our poor human sense and do not imply that there is any chance at all but what is subject to an overruling providence we should never I say revile fortune for just at that moment when she appears to have deserted us she may be only gone away to seek some riches treasure to bring back with her and that this is so let what I am about to read to you proof so light a candle and set it by me for my eyes cannot follow the writing in this dancing firelight I took an end of candle which stood on the mantel piece and did as he bit me and he went on I shall read you this letter which I received near eight years ago and of the weightiness of it you shall yourself judge I shall not hear set down that letter in full although I have it by me but we'll put it shortly because it was from a lawyer tricked with long-winded phrases and spun out to such letters are to afford cover afterwards for a heavier charge it was addressed to the Reverend Horace Gleny perpetual curate of Moonfleet in the county of Dorset England and written in English by Hugh Rootson attorney and signariate of the Hague in the kingdom of Holland it said forth that one Crispigen Alderbrand jeweler and dealer and precious stones at the Hague had sent for here Rootson to draw will for him and that the said Crispigen Alderbrand being near his end had disposed to the said here Rootson that he Alderbrand was desirous to leave all his goods to one John Trenchard of Moonfleet Dorset in the kingdom of England and that he was moved to do this first by the consideration that he Alderbrand had no children to whom to leave art and second because he desired to make full and fitting restitution to John Trenchard for that he had once obtained from the said John a diamond without paying the proper price for it which stone he Alderbrand had sold and converted into money and having done so found afterwards both his fortune and his health to climb so that although he had great riches before he became possessed of diamond these had forthwith melted through unfortunate ventures and speculations till he had little remaining to him but the money that the same diamond had brought he therefore left to John Trenchard everything of which he should die possessed and being near death begged his forgiveness if he had wronged him in art these were the instructions which here Rootson received from Mr. Alderbrand whose health sensibly declined until three months later he died it was well here Rootson added that the will had been drawn in good time for as Mr. Alderbrand grew weaker he became a prey to delusions saying that John Trenchard had laid a curse upon the diamond and professing even to relate the words of it namely that it should bring evil in this life and damnation in that which is to come nor was this all for he could get no sleep but woke up with a horrid dream in which so he informed here Rootson he saw continually a tall man with a coppery face and black beard draw the bed curtains and mock him thus he came at length to his end and after his death here Rootson endeavored to give effect to the provision of the will by writing to John Trenchard at Moonfleet Dorset to prize him that he was left sole heir that address indeed was all the indication that Alderbrand had given although he constantly promised his attorney to let him have closer information as to Trenchard's whereabouts in good time this information was however always postponed perhaps because Alderbrand hoped he might get better and so repent of his repentance so all here Rootson had to do was to write to Trenchard at Moonfleet and in due course the letter was returned to him with the information that Trenchard had fled that place to escape the law and was then nowhere to be found after that here Rootson was advised to write to the minister of the parish and so addressed these lines to Mr. Glenny this was the gist of the letter which Mr. Glenny read and you may easily guess how such news moved me and how he sat far into the night talking and considering what steps it was best to take for we feared last so long an interval as eight years having elapsed the lawyers might have made some other disposition of the money it was midnight when Mr. Glenny left the candle had long burnt out but the fire was bright and he knelt a moment by the trestle table before he went out he made a good end John he said rising from his knees and I pray that our end may be it has good cause when it comes for with the best of us the hour of death is an awful hour and we may well pray has every Sunday to be delivered in it but there is another time which those who wrote this litany thought no less perilous and made us pray to be delivered in all time of our wealth so I pray that if after all this wealth comes to your hand you may be led to use it well for though I do not hold with foolish tales or think a curse hangs on riches themselves yet if riches have been set apart for good purpose even by evil men as Colonel John Maroon set apart this treasure it cannot be but that we shall do grievous wrong in putting them to other use so fare you well and remember that there are other treasures besides this and that a good woman's love is worth far more than all the gold and jewels of the world as I once knew and with that he left me I guessed that he had spoken with grace that day and as I lay dozing in front of the fire alone in this old room I knew so well alone with that silent friend who had died to save me I mourned him nonetheless but yet soared not as one without hope what need to tell this tale at any more length since you may know by my telling it that all went well for what man would sit down to write a history that ended in his own disconfiture all that great wealth came to my hands and if I do not say how great it was just that I may not wake envy for was far more than ever I could have thought and of that money I never touched penny piece having learned a bitter lesson in the past but laid it out in good works with Mr. Glenny and Grace to help me first we rebuilt and enlarged the Alms houses beyond all that Colonel John Mahoon could ever think of and so established them as to be a haven for ever for all worn out sailors of that coast next we sought the guidance of the brethren of the Trinity and built a lighthouse on the snout to be a channel beacon for seagoing ships as mass cues match had been a light for our fishing boats in the past lastly we beautified the church turning out the cumbers seats of oak and neatly pewing it with deal and bays that made it most comodious to sit in of the Sabbath there was also much old glass which we removed and reglazed all the windows tight against the wind so that what with a high pulpit reading desk and seat for master clerk and new commandment boards each side of the holy table there was not a church could vie with ours in the countryside but that great fault below it with its memories was set in order and then safely walled up and after that nothing was more ever heard of Blackbeard and his lost Mahoons and as for the landers I cannot say where they went and if a cargo is still run of a dark night upon the beach I know nothing of it being both Lord of the manor and justice of the peace the village to renewed itself with the new Alms houses and church there were old houses rebuilt and fresh ones reared and all our ours except the why not which still remains the duchy in and that was that again and men left the cuffs at Ringstave and came back to their old haunt and any shipwrecked or travel worn sailor found bored and welcome within its doors and of the Moonhoon hospital for that was what the Alms houses were now called master Glenny was first warden with fair rooms and a full library and master Ratsy head of the Beatsmen there they spent happier days till they were gathered in the fullness of their years and sleep on the sunny side of the church within sound of the sea by that great buttress where I once found master Ratsy listening with his ear to ground and close beside them lies Elzifer block most faithful and most loved by me with a text on his tombstone greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friend and some of Mr. Glenny's verses and of ourselves let me speak last the manor house is a stately home again with trim lawns and terraced ballast rates where we can sit and see the thin blue smoke hang above the village on summer evenings and in the manor woods my wife and I have seen a little grace and a little John and little Elziver our first born play and now our daughter is grown up fair to us as the polished corners of the temple and our sons are gone out to serve King George on sea and land but as for us for grace and me we never leave this our happy moon fleet being well content to see the dawn tipping the long cliff line with gold and the night walking in dew across the meadows to watch the spring clothe the beach bows with green or the figs ripen on the southern wall while behind all is spread as a curtain the eternal sea ever the same and ever changing yet I love to see it best when it is lashed to madness in the autumn gale and to hear the grinding roar and churn of the pebbles like a great organ playing all the night to then I turn in bed and thank God more from the heart perhaps than any other living man that I am not fighting for my life on moon fleet beach and more than once I have stood rope in hand in that same awful place and try to save a struggling wretch but never saw one come through the surf alive in such a night as he saved me end of chapter nineteen end of moon fleet by jay mead falconer recording by jennifer lot