I'll
move father's body to a decent Christian churchyard, if I do it with my
own hands. I can't save his life, but I can give him an honourable
grave. He shan't lie in this accursed place!'

'Ay, as our pa'son says, 'tis a barbarous custom they keep up at
Sidlinch, and ought to be done away wi'. The man a' old soldier, too.
You see, our pa'son is not like yours at Sidlinch.'

'He says it is barbarous, does he? So it is!' cried the soldier. 'Now
hearken, my friends.' Then he proceeded to inquire if they would
increase his indebtedness to them by undertaking the removal, privately,
of the body of the suicide to the churchyard, not of Sidlinch, a parish
he now hated, but of Chalk-Newton. He would give them all he possessed
to do it.

Lot asked Ezra Cattstock what he thought of it.

Cattstock, the 'cello player, who was also the sexton, demurred, and
advised the young soldier to sound the rector about it first. 'Mid be he
would object, and yet 'a mid'nt. The pa'son o' Sidlinch is a hard man, I
own ye, and 'a said if folk will kill theirselves in hot blood they must
take the consequences. But ours don't think like that at all, and might
allow it.'

'What's his name?'

'The honourable and reverent Mr. Oldham, brother to Lord Wessex. But you
needn't be afeard o' en on that account. He'll talk to 'ee like a common
man, if so be you haven't had enough drink to gie 'ee bad breath.'

'O, the same as formerly. I'll ask him. Thank you. And that duty
done--'

'What then?'

'There's war in Spain. I hear our next move is there. I'll try to show
myself to be what my father wished me. I don't suppose I shall--but I'll
try in my feeble way. That much I swear--here over his body. So help me
God.'

Luke smacked his palm against the white hand-post with such force that it
shook. 'Yes, there's war in Spain; and another chance for me to be
worthy of father.'

So the matter ended that night. That the private acted in one thing as
he had vowed to do soon became apparent, for during the Christmas week
the rector came into the churchyard when Cattstock was there, and asked
him to find a spot that would be suitable for the purpose of such an
interment, adding that he had slightly known the late sergeant, and was
not aware of any law which forbade him to assent to the removal, the
letter of the rule having been observed. But as he did not wish to seem
moved by opposition to his neighbour at Sidlinch, he had sti