I turned away, and he came after me, pawing at my hand.
'Here,' he said.
'Here, I got something for you.'
He smiled foolishly, he beckoned with his finger, and turned towards the beach.
I went with him, and he bent down and picked up a flat stone by a rock.
There was a little heap of shells under the stone.
He chose one, and presented it to me.
"That's yourn,' he said.
'Thank you; it's very pretty,' I said.
He grinned again, rubbing his ear, his fright forgotten.
'You've got angel's eyes,' he said.
I glanced down at the shell again, rather taken aback.
I did not know what to say.
'You're not like the other one,' he said.
'Who do you mean?' I said.
'What other one?'
He shook his head.
His eyes were sly again.
He laid his finger against his nose.
'Tall and dark she was,' he said.
'She gave you the feeling of a snake.
I seen her here with me own eyes.
Be night she'd come.
I seen her.'
He paused, watching me intently.
I did not say anything.
'I looked in on her once,' he said, 'and she turned on me, she did.
"You don't know me, do you?" she said.
"You've never seen me here, and you won't again.
If I catch you looking at me through the windows here I'll have you put to the asylum," she said.
"You wouldn't like that would you? They're cruel to people in the asylum," she said.
"I won't say nothing, M'am," I said. And I touched me cap, like this here.'
He pulled at his sou'wester.
'She's gone now, ain't she?' he said anxiously.
'I don't know who you mean,' I said slowly; 'no one is going to put you in the asylum.
Good afternoon, Ben.'
I turned away and walked up the beach to the path dragging Jasper by his belt.
Poor wretch, he was potty, of course.
He did not know what he was talking about.
It was hardly likely that anyone would threaten him with the asylum.
Maxim had said he was quite harmless, and so had Frank.
Perhaps he had heard himself discussed once, amongst his own people, and the memory of it lingered, like an ugly picture in the mind of a child.
He would have a child's mentality too, regarding likes and dislikes.
He would take a fancy to a person for no reason, and be friendly one day perhaps and sullen the next.
He had been friendly with me because I had said he could keep the fishing line.
Tomorrow if I met him he might not know me.
It was absurd to notice anything said by an idiot.
I glanced back over my shoulder at the cove.
The tide had begun to run and was swirling slowly round the arm of the harbour wall.
Ben had disappeared over the rocks.