Jeremy Poldark Read Online Free

she had stayed since her illness of January. ,
    I
suppose it depends whether the purpose was moral or not.'
    She pushed in a curl that the wind had
dislodged. " Ah, that I don't know. We should have to ask the preacher. I
have been to Place House doctoring Sir John's cattle;"
    Dwight
looked surprised. "I didn't know you were expert in that."
    "
Nor am I. I only pray to God his Hereford cow takes a turn for the better. If
it dies I shall have advanced nothing." "And if it lives?"
    She glanced at him. " Where are you bound,
Dwight?"
    "To see some of the folk of Sawle. I am
increasingly popular with the patients who can afford to pay nothing. Choake
gets ever lazier."
    "And
more unfriendly, like. What is at back of all this - this this trying to get
Ross convicted?"
    The doctor looked uncomfortable. He flicked the
loose loop of the reins against the sleeve of his black. velvet coat. "The
law, I suppose'
    "Oh yes, the law. But something else. Since
when has the law been so fussy about strippin' a wreck or rough-handling a few
excise men - even suppose Ross had any part in that, and we know he did not. It
is only what's been going, on since I was born and for hundreds of years before
that."
    "
I'm not sure that that's true-not altogether. I'd do any thing to help Ross and
will do, you know that . .
    " Yes, I know that."
    "But
I don't think it's any good blinking that you can ignore the law ten times, but
the eleventh-if it gets you.
    It will hold on like a leech, and no letting go
till the thing's thrashed out. That's the truth. Of course, in this case one
wonders if, now the law has moved, there may not be other influences at work
also-
    "
There's men been round asking questions even of the Gimletts, our own
servants.' There can scarcely be a cottage in the district that hasn't had its
caller, all trying to pin the blame on Ross! It's the law, no doubt, but the
law wi' plenty of money to spend and time to waste - for there's none of his own
folk will give him away, and they might know it. Ross has his enemies but
they're not among the miners who helped him at the wreck!"
    Sawle Church, its tower leaning like Pisa, was
reached, and Dwight halted, at the head of Sawle Combe. On the hill some women
were cutting a sloping field of corn; it was stacked round the edge but as yet
uncut in the middle, and looked like an embroidered handkerchief.
    You will not come down this way?"
    "No, Ross will be expecting me back."
    "In so far," said Dwight; " in so
far as there is any influence at work beyond the law, I should not put it down
to pompous nobodies like Surgeon Choake who have neither the money nor the
venom to do serious harm."
    "Nor do I, Dwight. Nor do we."
    "No „
    He
said : " For your information, I have not visited the Warleggans for
twelve months."
    She
said : " I have only met George properly. What are the others like?"
    "I know them very little. Nicholas,
George's father, is a big hard domineering man, but he has a reputation for
honesty that is not lightly to be had. George's uncle, Cary, is the one who
keeps in the background, and if there is anything shady to be done I should
guess he does it. But I confess they have always been gracious enough to
me."
    Demelza stared across at the silver-blue
triangle of sea blocking up the end of the valley. "Sanson, who lost his
life in the wreck, was a cousin of theirs. And there are other things between
Ross and George - even before the smelting company.. It is a good time to pay
off old scores."
    "I
should not worry overmuch about that. The law will only take account of the
truth."
    "I'm
not so sure," she said.
     
    On
Hendrawna Beach the scene was quite different from Trevaunance Cove. Although
there was little ebb and flow about the rocks, on the flat sandy beach the sea
roared,. and a low mist hung over it in the still mild air. Coming back from
his usual morning walk as far as the Dark Cliffs, Ross glanced across at the
cliffs where the shacks of Wheal Leisure were built, and could