Demelza
Page 45
“It’s possible it could be raised to fifteen.”
Jud got up, but slowly that time, sucked his teeth, and tried to whistle, but his lips were dry. He hitched up his breeches and two fingers went into a waistcoat pocket for a pinch of snuff.
“Tesn’t fair to come on a man like this,” he grumbled. “Me head’s goin’ around like a trool. Come again in a month.”
“The assizes are fixed for early September.”
Tankard also got up. “We shouldn’t require a long deposition,” he said. Just a few sentences covering the main facts as you know them—and an undertaking to repeat them at the appropriate time.”
“An’ what would I say?” asked Jud.
“The truth, of course, as you can swear to it.”
Garth interrupted hastily, “The truth, of course, but maybe we could guide you as to what we most want, like. It is the assault upon the soldiers that we’re wishing to have witness of. That was on the night of the seventh–eighth of January. You were on the beach at the time, weren’t you, Mr. Paynter? No doubt you saw the whole incident.”
Jud looked old and wary. “Naw… Don’t remember nothing ’bout that, now.”
“It might be worth twenty guineas if so be as your memory came around to it.”
“Twenty now and twenty after?”
“Yes.”
“Tes worth all o’ that for such a big story.”
“It’s the truth we want, man,” said Tankard impatiently. “Were you or were you not a witness of the assault?”
Garth put his pouch upon a rickety old three-legged table that had once belonged to Joshua Poldark. He began to count out twenty gold coins.
“What,” said Jud, staring at the money, “when that there soldier got his head cleaved open, an’ all the rest of ’em was pushed off of Hendrawna Beach fasterer than what they came on. I laffed at that. Didn’ I laff! Was that what you was meaning?”
“Of course. And Captain Poldark’s part in it.”
Shadows were filling the hut with the approach of night. The clink of coins had a liquid sound, and it seemed for a moment as if all the light that was left lingered over the dull gold island of the guineas.
“Why,” said Jud, swallowing, “I reckon I mind that well enough. Though I took no part in it myself, see. I was—thereabouts all the time.” He hesitated and spat. “Why didn’t you tell me you was meaning that all along?”
Order Winston Graham’s next book
in the Poldark series
Jeremy Poldark
On sale August 2015
About the Author
Winston Graham was the author of forty novels, including The Walking Stick; Angell, Pearl and Little God; Stephanie; and Tremor. His books have been widely translated and his famous Poldark series has been developed into two television series shown in twenty-four countries. A special two-hour television program has been made of his eighth Poldark novel, The Stranger from the Sea, while a five-part television serial of his early novel The Forgotten Story won a silver medal at the New York Film Festival. Six of Winston Graham’s books have been filmed for the big screen, the most notable being Marnie, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Winston Graham was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and in 1983 was awarded the Order of the British Empire. He died in July 2003.
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