Colonel Eldridge had allowed him to go on because he wanted time to collect himself; but he now interrupted brusquely: "There's no need to make trouble at all. You can tell them there's been a mistake, and they can go on."
Coombe's eyes dropped. He was a youngish man, with a self-confident air, but with something secretive in his appearance and demeanour which seemed to contradict his quiet respectful manner. "I've given them notice, sir, on that telegram," he said. "I couldn't do anything else."
"You ought to have come and seen me first. It seems to me that you've been glad of the opportunity to make trouble."
It was a relief to him to speak like this. He disliked the man who stood before him with his sleek, respectful air, which he suspected to hide hostility that would show itself in insolence if it dared.
"I didn't come to see you about that, sir. My instructions are plain enough from that telegram, and I'd only got to carry them out."
"Then why do you come to me at all?"
"Because I thought you might be able to do something to keep these men from making trouble, sir, as Sir William isn't here. Only two of them belong to Hayslope—Jackson and Pegg. The others are lodging here. I've paid them their wages, as instructed, and with no work to do they're likely to get drinking and—"
"Oh, it's out of consideration for the good behaviour of the village you've come to me, is it?"
"Yes, sir. And because Sir William isn't here to deal with it."
Colonel Eldridge was getting more and more annoyed with him. But his training prevented his showing more annoyance with men of this class than he could make effectual. "Sir William is your master," he said, "and you are quite right to take your orders from him. But you know perfectly well that it's for me as a magistrate to deal with anything of that sort, whether he is here or not."