The Pool of St. Branok Read Online Free PDF Page B

now?”
    He shrugged his shoulders. “Have to see which way the wind blows.”
    “I hope it blows in the right direction.”
    He gave me a confident smile. “I’ll see it does,” he said.
    “I am sure you will.”
    We smiled at each other and I had an idea that he liked me as much as I liked him.
    I said: “My grandfather went to Australia.”
    “Is that so?”
    “Yes. First he went as a convict.”
    “Never!”
    “Oh yes. Seven years’ transportation for killing a man.”
    “I can’t believe it.”
    “It was very extraordinary. He joined the gypsies and became one of them although he had been brought up at Cador. You’ll come to see Cador, won’t you? It’s a wonderful place. It was in the Cadorson family for generations.”
    “One of those old places, eh?”
    “It’s my home.”
    “Tell me about your grandfather.”
    “Well, he went off with the gypsies and a man who called himself a gentleman attacked a gypsy girl. My grandfather stopped him and in doing so, killed him. It was said to be murder and he was sent to Australia for seven years.”
    “A light sentence for murder.”
    “It wasn’t really murder. It was a righteous killing. And my grandmother, who was a little girl then, saved him, or she made her father do so. My grandfather served his term, prospered out there and when he came back to England, he and my grandmother were married.”
    “A happy ending then.”
    “At first. They had my uncle Jacco and my mother and were very happy, but they all went out to Australia and they were drowned there … all but my mother. She was the only one left because by chance she hadn’t gone sailing with them that day.”
    “So Australia kept him in the end.”
    I nodded.
    “I’ve heard some tales of people who have come out.”
    “Yes, I daresay. It seems to be a place where things happen.”
    “Everywhere is a place where things happen.”
    “Well, I’m glad you decided to come here, Ben.”
    “So am I.”
    Amaryllis came out with my mother. Amaryllis looked a little nervous of Benedict but he smiled at her without embarrassment. He was quite at home.
    He talked for a while about Australia and how he was finding London as exciting as he had thought it would be. He asked if he could ride here. Aunt Amaryllis said that people rode in the Row and she was sure that could be arranged.
    “I bet you’re a regular horsewoman,” he said to me.
    “Well,” I replied. “I love riding and I do quite a lot of it at Cador.”
    “Perhaps we could take a ride together.”
    “I’d love it.”
    My mother and Aunt Amaryllis looked a little apprehensive and Aunt Amaryllis said that luncheon would be served in half an hour.
    I did go riding in Rotten Row with him and Jonnie and Geoffrey. I found it very different from riding in Cornwall. Many of the fashionable people were there and there were continual nods of recognition. I could ride every bit as well as the London boys, but I could see that Benedict was a very fine horseman indeed; and I rather wished that we were somewhere where he could show off his skills.
    He talked—most of the time to me. “You ought to see the outback,” he said. He described the land. “Scrub and hills,” he said, “with the gum trees everywhere.”
    “And kangaroos?” I asked.
    “Surely. Kangaroos.”
    “They have little babies in their pouches. I’ve seen pictures of them.”
    “Little things about half an inch long when they’re born.”
    He told us about Sydney with its wonderful harbor … all the little bays and inlets, the beautiful foliage and the brightly colored birds.
    “And convicts,” I said.
    “Yes … still them. But less than we used to have and there are many settlers there now who have come out to make something of the place and they’re doing it.”
    Jonnie came up on the other side of me. Geoffrey was a little way ahead.
    “Would you like to go, Jonnie?” I asked.
    “Well … for a visit. I’d rather live here.”
    “How do you know?”