bonfires were burning in the middle of the way, with a view to purifying the air; and from the wretched tenements with which the lane was lined in those days persons were bringing out bedding and clothing. Some was thrown into the fires, the rest placed in wheelbarrows and wheeled into the moor directly in the track of the fugitives.
They followed on, and came up to where a vast copper was set in the open air. Here the linen was boiled and disinfected. By the light of the lanterns Laura discovered that her husband was standing by the copper, and that it was he who unloaded the barrow and immersed its contents. The night was so calm and muggy that the conversation by the copper reached her ears.
'Are there many more loads to-night?'
'There's the clothes o' they that died this afternoon, sir. But that might bide till to-morrow, for you must be tired out.'
'We'll do it at once, for I can't ask anybody else to undertake it. Overturn that load on the grass and fetch the rest.'
The man did so and went off with the barrow. Maumbry paused for a moment to wipe his face, and resumed his homely drudgery amid this squalid and reeking scene, pressing down and stirring the contents of the copper with what looked like an old rolling-pin. The steam therefrom, laden with death, travelled in a low trail across the meadow.
Laura spoke suddenly: 'I won't go to-night after all. He is so tired, and I must help him. I didn't know things were so bad as this!"
Vannicock's arm dropped from her waist, where it had been resting as they walked. 'Will you leave?' she asked.
'I will if you say I must. But I'd rather help too.' There was no expostulation in his tone.
Laura had gone forward. 'Jack,' she said, 'I am come to help!'
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