"Sit yourself down, Mr. Doctor, and have some bread and cheese--that is,
if ye've sufficiently forgotten the poies of the old maids. The things
that grow here are good enough to sit on, and that's all we want of
them, not being ponies."
The answer was once more an insult in its allusion to the pies (Caius
was again hungry), and in its refusal of simple information; but the
tone was more cheerful, and O'Shea had relaxed from his extreme brevity.
Caius sat down, and felt almost convivial when he found that a parcel of
bread and cheese and a huge bottle of cold tea were to be shared between
them. Either the food was perfect of its kind or his appetite good
sauce, for never had anything tasted sweeter than the meal. They all
three squatted in the darkness round the contents of the ample parcel,
and if they said little it was because they ate much.
Caius found by the light of a match that his watch told it was the hour
of seven; they had been at hard travel for more than four hours, and had
come to a bit of the beach which could not be traversed without more
light. In another hour the moon would be up and the horse rested.
When the meal was finished, each rested in his own way. O'Shea laid
himself flat upon his back, with a blanket over his feet. The boy
slipped away, and was not seen until the waving grass on the tops of the
highest dunes became a fringe of silver.
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