x months.

"He was the sort o' chap that'll make himself 'appy anywhere," ses one of
'em, comforting-like.

"Not without me," ses Mrs. Bullet, sobbing, and wiping her eyes on
something she used for a pocket-hankercher. "He never could bear to be
away from me. Was there no last words?"

"On'y one," ses one o' the chaps, Joe Peel by name.

"As 'e fell overboard," ses the other.

Mrs. Bullet began to cry agin, and say wot a good 'usband he 'ad been.
"Seventeen years come Michaelmas," she ses, "and never a cross word.
Nothing was too good for me. Nothing. I 'ad only to ask to 'ave."

"Well, he's gorn now," ses Joe, "and we thought we ought to come round
and tell you."

"So as you can tell the police," ses the other chap.

That was 'ow I came to hear of it fust; a policeman told me that night as
I stood outside the gate 'aving a quiet pipe. He wasn't shedding tears;
his only idea was that Sam 'ad got off too easy.

"Well, well," I ses, trying to pacify 'im, "he won't bite no more
fingers; there's no policemen where he's gorn to."

He went off grumbling and telling me to be careful, and I put my pipe out
and walked up and down the wharf thinking. On'y a month afore I 'ad lent
Sam fifteen shillings on a gold watch and chain wot he said an uncle 'ad
left 'im. I wasn't wearing it because 'e said 'is uncle wouldn't like
it, but I 'ad it in my pocket, and I took it out under one of the lamps
and wondered wot I ought to do.

My fust idea was to take it to Mrs. Bullet, and then, all of a sudden,
the thought struck me: "Suppose he 'adn't come by it honest?"

I walked up and down agin, thinking. If he 'adn't, and it was found out,
it would blacken his good name and break 'is pore wife's 'art. That's
the way I looked at it, and for his sake and 'er sake I determined to
stick to it.

I felt 'appier in my mind when I 'ad decided on that, and I went round to
the Bear's Head and 'ad a pint. Arter that I 'ad another, and then I
come back to the wharf and put the watch and chain

William Wymark Jacobs (September 8, 1863 September 1, 1943), was an English author of short stories and novels. He is now best remembered for his macabre tales The Monkeys Paw (published 1902) and The Toll House (in the collection of short stories The Lady of the Barge). However the majority of his output was humorous in tone. His favourite subjects were marine life: men who go down to the sea in ships of moderate tonnage said Punch, reviewing his first collection of stories, Many Cargoes, which achieved great popular success on its publication in 1896.

William Wymark Jacobs (September 8, 1863 September 1, 1943), was an English author of short stories and novels. He is now best remembered for his macabre tales The Monkeys Paw (published 1902) and The Toll House (in the collection of short stories The Lady of the Barge). However the majority of his output was humorous in tone. His favourite subjects were marine life: men who go down to the sea in ships of moderate tonnage said Punch, reviewing his first collection of stories, Many Cargoes, which achieved great popular success on its publication in 1896.

William Wymark Jacobs (September 8, 1863 September 1, 1943), was an English author of short stories and novels. He is now best remembered for his macabre tales The Monkeys Paw (published 1902) and The Toll House (in the collection of short stories The Lady of the Barge). However the majority of his output was humorous in tone. His favourite subjects were marine life: men who go down to the sea in ships of moderate tonnage said Punch, reviewing his first collection of stories, Many Cargoes, which achieved great popular success on its publication in 1896.