IV BRIXHAM-MEN 229 



port. Not they ! If they took 'em aboard they'd 

 hae to pay for their burying. Lord! 'tis nothing 

 in Brixham for one o' they there trawlers to come 

 in short o' a hand or two, drownded; an' some- 

 times the relations offers a reward; but all the same 

 they don't take the body aboard, in case the reward 

 shouldn't be paid, an' then they'd hae to bury 'en 

 at their own expense. 'Sides, they wouldn't sell 

 none o' their fish if 'twas know'd they'd had a dead 

 body in the catch. They Brixham-men, they just 

 puts bodies back where they come'd from. An' 

 I reckon 'tis better so, all ways, to let 'em bide, 

 an' rest where they be to. As for thic fellow 

 there, I been down under cliff, an' up east too, an' 

 / can't see nort o'en. Buried up in the sand, I 

 'spect. 



On the eighth day, however, a boat coming 

 ashore from fishing reported that the body had 

 been seen floating about under water not far from 

 the place of drowning. It might have been one 

 of the yellow porpoises that were known to be in 

 the bay. It could not, they declared, have been 

 a jelly-fish. It was the wrong shape. 



Tides were long. Bathing had begun again. 

 Next morning the bay on the far side of Broken 

 Rocks was merry with people swimming and 



