I had seen enough, and I did not want to be noticed, for some of the men were beginning to come back, so stooping down I patted Piter and went off to the office.
As soon as the men were well at work I went into one of the sheds, where there were two or three holes under the benches where the rats came up from the dam, and where it was the custom to set a trap or two, which very rarely snared one of the busy little animals, though now and then we did have that luck, and Piter had the pleasure of killing the mischievous creature if the trap had not thoroughly done its work.
I soon found what I wanted—an old rusty spring trap with its sharp teeth, and, shaking off the dust, I tucked it under my jacket and strolled off to the smith’s shops, where I found Pannell hammering away as hard as ever he could.
He was making reaping-hooks of my uncles’ patent steel, and as I stood at the door and watched him I counted the blows he gave, and it was astonishing how regular he was, every implement taking nearly the same number of blows before he threw it down.
“Well, Pannell,” I said, “arn’t you sorry to have to work so hard again?”
He whisked a piece of hot steel from his forge and just glanced at me as he went on with his work, laying the glowing sparkling steel upon the anvil.
“Sorry!”—bang—“no”—bang—“not a”—bing, bang, bang—“not a”—bang, bang, bing, bang, bang—“bit of it.”
That was how it sounded to me as he worked away.
“Wife”—bang—“bairns”—bing, bang, bang, bing, chinger, chinger, bing, bang—“eight”—bang—“of ’em. I hate”—bang—“to do”—bang—“nowt”—bang—“but”—bang—“smoke all”—bang—“day.”
“I say, Pannell,” I said, after glancing round and seeing that we were quite alone, “how came you to throw our bands in the wheel-pit?”