Larger specimens of the same kind were concealed inside the
neck of the huge sack, but on the outside everything was comparatively
small, and it seemed as if the hands that had worked it so elaborately
had been directed by a brain in which familiarity with patchwork, and
other homely forms of the sewing-woman's art, had been confused with an
adequate idea of the rough use for which the garment was needed. Some
knowledge of the skill with which fishermen prepare their floats had
also evidently been hers, for the whole outside of the garment was
smeared or painted with a brownish substance that had preserved it to a
wonderful extent from the ravages of moisture and salt. It was torn now,
or, rather, it seemed that it had been cut from top to bottom; but,
besides this one great rent, it was in a rotten condition, ready to fall
to pieces, and, as the dying woman had said, many of the air-blown
floats had burst.
Caius was wondering whether the occasion on which this curious
bathing-dress had been torn was that in which he, by pursuing Josephine,
had forced her to cease pushing herself about in shallow water and take
to more ordinary swimming. He looked around and saw the one other
implement which had been necessary to complete the strange outfit; it,
too, was a thing of ordinary appearance and use: a long pole or poker,
with a handle at one end and a small flat bar at the other, a thing
used for arranging the fire in the deep brick ovens that were still in
use at the older farmsteads.
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