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"It doesn't seem to have broken down your health or nerve." "That's different. A man gets used to hardships and discomfort. They're sometimes bracing." "A very masculine attitude! Then men alone have pluck and endurance?" "There are two kinds of pluck," Festing rejoined. "I dare say you surpass us in the moral kind I'm sure Miss Dalton has more than Charnock.
"Helen has some money," Mrs. Dalton replied. Festing knitted his brows. "I didn't suspect this!" "That is obvious," Miss Graham interposed. Festing got up, moved a pace or two, and stopped. "How much has she got?" Mrs. Dalton told him and he frowned. "Then she had better keep it. I'd sooner you tied it up." "Isn't that unreasonable?" Miss Graham asked. "It's a man's business to support his wife.
Where the main piles reached the rock the plan would be safe, but where they were bedded in gravel there was danger of their giving way under a heavy load. Festing knew he must share the risk of this happening with the head contractor. By and by somebody knocked at the door, and he got up abruptly as a man came in. "Dalton!" he exclaimed. The other smiled and threw off his wet slickers.
Charnock got up, with some color in his bandaged face, because he knew what Norton's confidence meant. He was, so to speak, an unknown man and the contract had been given to Festing, who was an engineer. If he failed, the men who trusted him would be held accountable. "Thank you both," he said with feeling. "If labor and money can put the thing over, I won't let you down."
"Then he hasn't been in England for some time, and so far as my knowledge goes, men like variety. Of course, to some extent, he saw us under a disadvantage. Mountaineering clothes are comfortable, but one can't say much more." "Don't be ridiculous," Helen rejoined and went on across the field. After dinner Festing walked across the fields to the farm.
They let the matter drop, and Festing presently remarked: "The rain makes things difficult, but it's lucky the frost keeps off. I must try to get the frames up at the awkward places before it begins." "You haven't enough men." "I could use more. Still, one couldn't engage men to come here on short notices, and if we get a long cold-snap I might have trouble to keep them employed.
For one thing, her money had enabled Festing to arrange his household better than he had expected and hire useful help. She took a rough trail through the bluff, picking her way among the holes and rotting stumps, and as she rode out the horse plunged. After calming the startled animal she saw a dirty handkerchief snapping in the wind at the top of a stick.
Helen supposed he was summer-fallowing, but did not understand the dust, because when she last passed the spot the soil looked dark and firm. She remembered that Festing had been anxious about the weather. Riding on, she saw the roof of the Charnock homestead above a straggling bluff, and her thoughts centered on its occupants.
Some of their faces are smeared with ochre, others with charcoal, and are frightful to behold. We keep on our guard, for we know not any moment that they may venture to attack us. As Taro is on shore we cannot understand what they say. Festing and I allow only a few at a time to come on board.
The man hesitated, his eyes fixed on Festing's hardset face. Perhaps a way out might have been found, but the lad precipitated matters. Running to the mouth of the burrow, he picked up a half-dead rabbit that was trying to crawl away, and leered at Festing as he raised his stick. The blow was not struck, for Festing leaped across the grass and next moment the boy fell beside the burrow.
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