CHAPTER IX

 "I say, Mother, don't hurry off, wait a jiff, won't you?"

 

The morning "confab" was over; the boat was pulled up close to the bank, and Mrs. Vaughan stood at the river-side; she was just turning to go back to the Chase when Robin¹'s voice detained her. "What is it?" she asked, "Anything wrong? Are you sick of camping?

 

"Rather not. It's something jolly different. It's——" Robin hesitated. "We're gradually finding out something," he said, "and we want to go on. It's about—— Mother, have we got an Uncle Derrick? For, if so, is there anything mysterious about him?"

 

There was a minute's pause, then Mrs. Vaughan looked straight at the boys. "Who told you about him?" she asked slowly.

 

"I'm afraid it was me. I didn't——" began Donald.

 

"Mother, don't listen to him, it wasn't him," burst in Peter; "at least, just at the end, he told us that was who the photograph was of. But we've suspected something all along. Brownie's knowing something, and trying so hard not to let us twig², that's what has given it away. Then up in the attic³ there's Hooker's things!"

 

"Hooker?" Mrs. Vaughan started, "what have you found out about him?"

 

"Only that if there is an Uncle Derrick, he was Uncle Derrick's friend; that he was keeper in Grandfather's time, and that he was dismissed. And—Brownie won't tell us where he is," Robin spoke⁴ slowly.

 

"Also that he was a jolly sporting sort, the room's got ripping little engines and machinery⁵ sort of things about; he ought to have been a Scout⁶. And that he could take jolly snapshots when you come to think that this has been lying round for fifteen years; and——" Peter stopped and held out the picture. "We found this, Mother," he said.

 

"Yes … it's poor Uncle Derrick," said Mrs. Vaughan; she looked sadly at the picture for a minute, then she turned to the group. "Your father and I did not tell you," she said, "we wanted to keep sad things from you as long as we could. But perhaps we were not wise; Donald and Dick have evidently been told more than you know. Brown and his wife, too, know all the sad story, but—oh, I cannot tell you now, this is neither the time nor the place. Donald may tell you what his mother has told him; and you may ask Brownie. For every one loved your Uncle Derrick, and you will hear the story just as lovingly told by the old servants as I can tell it to you myself." Mrs. Vaughan turned, and still holding the little picture, she walked towards the Chase without turning, while the boat was rowed silently back to the other side of the water.

 

It was not until after tea that old Brownie's story was told; all day the campers had half dreaded⁷ and half longed to hear the tale, for Donald knew little more than he had told them already, that there had been an Uncle Derrick, that there was an Uncle Derrick. Beyond that, the story was a mystery to him and Dick, as well as to the Vaughans. "Mother said we should know more some day," he told his cousins, "but I've never liked to ask."

 

"Oh, my dears," said old Brownie when they gave her the message, "tell you? Oh, my dears. But happen it's better not to keep the sad things hid, for they cut so deep, so deep! Your Uncle Derrick, my dears,—oh! he was the gayest, most open-handed that the sun shone on, handsome, kind and good to rich and poor. Aye, and true," the old woman nodded her head, "aye and true!

 

"Him and Hooker was the same age; friends they'd been, though Hooker was but a village lad, from babyhood as you might say. But Master Derrick was like that. Together always, like David and Jonathan, both with the same passion, as boys, for fitting together bits of machinery, engines and such like, and all so clever. Your grandfather was proud of him, aye, and so were we all, servants too, but your grandfather was fonder of him, aye, perhaps than of either of the other two; pardon me, my dears, them being own father and mother to some of you. But so life is, sometimes. Master Derrick was like a Benjamin, so he was, to the Squire⁸, coming late in life to him and all; he'd do anything for Master Derrick, would Squire. Gave the keeper's house to young Hooker, did he, young as Hooker was for to be keeper, just to please Master Derrick.

 

"And there the pair used to spend hours of their time. When Master Derrick was a wee chap, 'twas always Hooker he followed; home from boarding-school, the same; he didn't forget old friends, and on they'd go with their inventions as they called them. Home from college, 'time Hooker had the cottage—then there they'd be down at the keeper's house, this house, here, my dears, and—that's how the bad end came!"

 

"What!" whispered Jan with white lips.

 

"Strange things were being said," went on the old woman, "and at that time strange false money was being passed in the county. Coiners were somewhere, and the evil couldn't be traced. Then scandal began to be afloat, though we heard naught⁹ of it till after; 'twas started, some said, by Mitchell, head keeper he'd been, and dismissed when Hooker took the job, and a grudge¹⁰ he'd always borne the lad. Folk spoke of the dear lads' inventions, and—well, my dears, to cut a long story short, the police from headquarters came down unexpected on this very cottage one night. Found what they called, I mind me, 'coiners' plant' in the wee room where Miss Jan sleeps, and in the attic-room above, where to this day I'm feared to heart of stopping long, 'twas there that they arrested the two."

 

"Oh!" Peter's face went quite white. "Uncle Derrick! Was it?"

 

"No!" the old woman's voice was firm, "neither of the dear lads was in it. Some spoke of Master Derrick's debts, and, well, some he may have had, open-handed as he was; but we know, as had served Squire from youth, and watched Master Derrick grow up. It was imprisonment¹¹ that they got—seven years."

 

"Where are they now? It's fifteen years ago," Robin's voice sounded strange, even to himself.

 

"Ah, my dears," Brownie dropped a slow, difficult tear, "that's the saddest part of it all."

 

1 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。

2 twig   

n.小树枝，嫩枝；v.理解

参考例句：

• He heard the sharp crack of a twig.他听到树枝清脆的断裂声。
• The sharp sound of a twig snapping scared the badger away.细枝突然折断的刺耳声把獾惊跑了。

3 attic   

n.顶楼，屋顶室

参考例句：

• Leakiness in the roof caused a damp attic.屋漏使顶楼潮湿。
• What's to be done with all this stuff in the attic?顶楼上的材料怎么处理？

4 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

5 machinery   

n.(总称)机械，机器；机构

参考例句：

• Has the machinery been put up ready for the broadcast?广播器材安装完毕了吗？
• Machinery ought to be well maintained all the time.机器应该随时注意维护。

6 scout   

n.童子军，侦察员；v.侦察，搜索

参考例句：

• He was mistaken for an enemy scout and badly wounded.他被误认为是敌人的侦察兵，受了重伤。
• The scout made a stealthy approach to the enemy position.侦察兵偷偷地靠近敌军阵地。

7 dreaded   

adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词)

参考例句：

• The dreaded moment had finally arrived. 可怕的时刻终于来到了。
• He dreaded having to spend Christmas in hospital. 他害怕非得在医院过圣诞节不可。 来自《用法词典》

8 squire   

n.护卫, 侍从, 乡绅

参考例句：

• I told him the squire was the most liberal of men.我告诉他乡绅是世界上最宽宏大量的人。
• The squire was hard at work at Bristol.乡绅在布里斯托尔热衷于他的工作。

9 naught   

n.无，零 [=nought]

参考例句：

• He sets at naught every convention of society.他轻视所有的社会习俗。
• I hope that all your efforts won't go for naught.我希望你的努力不会毫无结果。

10 grudge   

n.不满，怨恨，妒嫉；vt.勉强给，不情愿做

参考例句：

• I grudge paying so much for such inferior goods.我不愿花这么多钱买次品。
• I do not grudge him his success.我不嫉妒他的成功。

11 imprisonment   

n.关押，监禁，坐牢

参考例句：

• His sentence was commuted from death to life imprisonment.他的判决由死刑减为无期徒刑。
• He was sentenced to one year's imprisonment for committing bigamy.他因为犯重婚罪被判入狱一年。