The Pool of St. Branok by Philippa Carr Read Free Book Online Page B

are going to come and start and immediately have something bigger?”
    “It is what I should like.”
    “We don’t all get what we like.”
    “I intend to.”
    “ ‘Pride goeth before a fall.’ ”
    “Oh, moral, are we?”
    “It’s supposed to be true.”
    “I shall be prouder than ever and not fail … just to prove it’s wrong.”
    “I should be rather disappointed if it were, when I think of the number of times I have had to write it out for Miss Prentiss.”
    “It is a great game to prove the moralists wrong. And for every one of these adages there is a contradiction.”
    “ ‘Too many cooks spoil the broth’ and ‘Many hands make light work’?”
    “Exactly. So I shall make my own laws. They will be the laws of Reason.”
    “Oh, Ben, it is nice to have you here.”
    “Shall I tell you what is the nicest thing about being here?”
    “Yes, do.”
    “Angel is here.”
    “You always say such wonderful things. Do you mean them?”
    “Not always. But on this occasion, yes.”
    “If you don’t mean them, why do you say them?”
    He paused for a moment and laughed at me. “Well, it makes people feel good. They like you for it, and it is wise to have people liking you. Never make enemies if you can help it … even in the smallest way. You never know when the most trivial thing can be turned against you. It is what you call keeping the wheels well oiled.”
    “Even though it is false?”
    He shrugged his shoulders. “It’s harmless. It makes people feel happy. What’s wrong with that?”
    “Nothing, I suppose, only I like things to be true.”
    “You are asking too much.”
    We had come to open country and I started to gallop. He was beside me.
    “We’re almost on the moor,” I shouted.
    I pulled up. There it was—miles of moorland with its boulders and little rippling streams and here and there the flowering gorse.
    “There’s something strange about it,” I said. “Do you feel it? I mean strange in a certain way. Uncanny.”
    “Out of this world.”
    “Yes.”
    “You might have strayed onto another planet.”
    “That’s it. Strange things happen here. When I am here I can believe the stories one hears of the piskies and the knackers and the rest.”
    We walked our horses for a while.
    He said: “We could tie our horses to that bush and sit here for a while. I’d like to, would you?”
    “Yes,” I said.
    So we tethered the horses and sat with our backs against a boulder inhaling the fresh air. There was a faint wind which whistled through the grass making a soft moaning noise which was like a human voice.
    I was glad he was aware of the spirit of the moors.
    “The mine is not far from here.”
    “Oh yes. It belongs to the Pencarrons, I believe.”
    “Yes. We’ll ride over there one day. They’d like to meet you.”
    “Profitable concern, the mine, I take it.”
    “Yes, I think so. It’s a great boon to the Poldoreys. Quite a number of the men work there. The population seems to be made up of fishermen and miners … apart from the farmers and people who work on the land. They are safe.”
    “Safe?” he asked.
    “They are not in danger. Fishermen and miners always look out for disasters. With the miners it’s black dogs and white hares which appear now and then to announce some disaster … and disaster in the mine or at sea can be terrible. Then there are those knackers who have to be placated all the time. The miners have to leave them bits of their lunch when, poor things, they are hungry and could do with it all themselves. Then the fishermen … they never know when some mermaid is going to appear to give some dreadful warning or they are going to meet a ghost ship. Apart from all that there is the weather. So you see those who work on the land have rather a peaceful time.”
    “Why do they not all want to work on the land?”
    “If they get a good catch they earn a lot of money. And the miners? Well, I suppose they earn more than the farm laborers, because