第9章 The Traveller in the Rain

The traveller came in with the rain on the ninth day, and the rain was the first rain of the season, and it came up off the river and over the mist and down the lane and into the yard in sheets, cold and heavy, and the gate was open, and he walked in through it with a pack on his back and a hat on his head and a card in his hand, and stood in the yard and looked at Kessin. She looked at him. He was a lean man of perhaps fifty, with a face the rain had gone over and a coat that had been mended in more places than it had been unmended, and he was looking at her with the plain unbothered eyes of a person who has walked a long way and had a job to hand. "You are the keeper," he said. "I am the keeper," said Kessin. "I have a card." "I have a board." "Then put my card on your board," he said, "and give me a coin." "I have no coin." "I have a coin," said the traveller. "Take it." He held it out. It was a small flat silver coin with no face on it. Kessin took it, and turned it in her fingers, and looked at it, and felt a small hard thing go up her chest and out, because she knew the coin. It was the coin her grandmother had pressed into her hand at the inn at Gillanwick, and she had carried it two hundred miles, and she had paid it to Turrel for the first bread, and she had taken it from the chest of drawers and given it to the boy, and she had put it in her pocket, and here it was, in a traveller's hand, in the rain, in the yard, on the ninth day. "I have my coin," she said. "You have my coin," said the traveller. "And I have a card." "I have a board," said Kessin. "Then put my card on your board," said the traveller. She took the card and read it. It said: *Band. The ferry at the crossing, to be watched through the night. Fare: one crown and supper. Name: Nyke Kestrelby.* "I am Nyke Kestrelby," said the traveller. "I know," said Kessin. "I have read your card." "You are reading my card," said the traveller. "I am reading your card," said Kessin. "Then you have read my name," said the traveller. "I have read your name," said Kessin. "Then you will put it on the board," said the traveller. "I will put it on the board," said Kessin. "And you will watch the ferry." "I will watch the ferry." "And you will come back at seven." "And I will come back at seven." "And you will give me the coin." "I will give you the coin." "Then I will watch the ferry," said the traveller. He took his hat off and shook it out, and put it back on, and looked at her, and she looked at him, and the rain came down in sheets, and the yard was wet, and the board was dry, and the donkey slept at the gate, and the boy stood at the foot of the wheel with his case, and the mill stood and the farm stood and the croft stood and the bridge stood and the road was the road, and the traveller looked at her, and she looked at him, and the yard was wet and the hall was dry. "Why did you give me my coin," she said. "I did not give it to you," said the traveller. "I gave it to the hall." "The hall gave it to me." "The hall gave it to me," said the traveller. "And the hall gave it to the boy, and the boy gave it to the smith, and the smith gave it to the hall, and the hall gave it to me, and I have given it to the hall, and the hall has it, and I have it, and the coin is the coin, and the coin is the fare, and the fare is the hall, and the hall is the road, and the road is the road." "I will not ask you again," said Kessin. "You will not ask me again," said the traveller. "And I will not say it again. And the ferry will be watched, and the night will be watched, and the coin will be given, and the fare will be given, and the bread will be given, and the supper will be given, and the hall will have the night, and the hall will have the watch, and the hall will have the ferry, and the hall will have the road, and the hall will have the hall." He took his hat and his pack and went out through the gate, and the rain came down, and the yard was wet, and the board was dry, and the card was on the board, and the coin was in her pocket, and the donkey slept at the gate, and the boy stood at the foot of the wheel with his case, and the road was the road. Turrel came in at ten with the lamp and the cloth, and she saw the line on the ledger, and she saw the coin on the table, and she did not say anything, and she put the coin in her apron, and she put the bread on the shelf, and she lit the lamp, and she went to the stove, and she put the coffee on, and Kessin drank the coffee, and she said, "He gave me the coin." "He gave you the coin," said Turrel. "The coin is mine." "The coin is the hall's." "The coin is the hall's," said Kessin. "Then the hall has my coin." "The hall has your coin," said Turrel. "And the hall will give it out, and the hall will give it out to the boy, and the hall will give it out to the man, and the hall will give it out to the watch, and the hall will give it out to the traveller, and the hall will give it out to the seventh name, and the hall will give it out until the hall has given out seven names, and the hall will give it out until the hall has given out a seventh name, and the hall will give it out until the hall goes, and the hall will not go, because the hall is the one thing in Cawthorn that has never once been given a card it did not want." "Then I will give out the coin," said Kessin. "Then I will give out the coin," said Turrel. "And you will put the card on the board, and you will write the fare on the ledger, and you will not ask the traveller who he is, and you will not ask him why he came, and you will not ask him where he was before, and you will not ask him where he is going, and you will not ask him why he gave you the coin, and you will not ask him why the coin is yours, and you will not ask him anything at all, and the hall will give out the coin, and the hall will give out the card, and the hall will give out the fare, and the hall will give out the night, and the hall will give out the watch, and the hall will give out the ferry, and the hall will give out the seventh name, and the hall will give it out, and the hall will not go." ---