'Come on slow coach! Hurry up!' I (Emily) called excitedly. Grace walked over the cart and kneeled down beside me. 'Are you ready?' I asked. 'Yes,' said Grace.
Carefully I untied the string around the package. Then, together we pulled the sacks (麻布袋) off. There wasn't a dead body inside There was just a roll of cloth. And we both recognized the cloth. It was from Salts Mill.
'They're stealing cloth from the mill,' I said shocked.
'We have to tell someone.' said Grace.
'Yes,' I said, 'but not yet. We'll come back tonight. We'll see who they meet.'
'I don't want to come back tonight,' said Grace.
'Then I'll come by myself, I said I wasn't afraid of the dark.
When you worked in a mill, you were afraid of the machines and you were afraid of the overlooker (监工). They were far more terrifying than the darkness. I loved the silence of night-time. And in fact, I loved the darkness because with the darkness came the end of the working day.
So that night, I walked back to the canal alone. It was a clear night and I could see the stars. I hid in some bushes near the cart, and waited. I didn't have to wait for long. First, the man with red hair came. He stood by the old cart and coughed, a horrible chesty cough that broke the silence of the night. Then along came another man. I recognized him and my heart sank. It was Grace's father.
'Poor Grace,' I thought. 'I can't tell anyone about this. Grace's father will go to prison. The family will lose their house. Grace will lose her job. They'll have no money and no home. They'll die.'
I looked into the darkness for an answer. 'I have to tell someone,' I thought. And there was only one person I could tell. There was only one person I could trust. That was James, James' father was an important overlooker. 'The overlooker won't believe me. But maybe he'll believe his son James loves me. He'll listen to me.'
