IV THE SEA'S TOLL 225 



'Somebody's had It then.' 



'That's very hkely wl' the sort there is about; 

 an' T don't begrudge It to 'em If they'm wicked 

 enough for to do It. Let 'em hae It. 'Twill 

 find 'em out some day, sure 'nuff. 'TIs a thing 

 us be always liable to, ain't It, what picks up a 

 living alongshore, for to stumble across a drownded 

 corpse lying on the beach or to see 'en washing 

 about in the tub o' the surf — an' when you least 

 expects It too. You never knows. They talks 

 about Davy Jones's locker, an' the sea taking its 

 toll o' bodies — ^so't do — an' It gives 'em back to 

 the likes o' us; or some o'em anyhow. "Ah!" 

 I've a-sald to meself 'fore now, when I've a-stood 

 an' looked down on one o'em, "You was alive, 

 an' now you'm dead, an' there's all the difference." 

 Which Is one o' they things nobody can't deny, 

 nor don't want to that I knows of; only it brings 

 it home to 'ee, like, such times. Drownded 

 people Is so cold an' slippery, an' terrible difficult 

 to handle, specially In the dark.' 



'Wer's reckon this chap '11 turn up then, 

 Benjie?' 



'All depends. If 'er don't get buried over in the 

 sand, or don't get jammed an' fixed, washing across 

 Broken Rocks, or get carried out to sea, he might 



Q 



