He nodded and went on with his work again while I went to mine about the books, but with a suspicious feeling of impending trouble on my mind, as I passed two of the men who saw me come out of the smithy, and who must have seen me shaking hands with Pannell.
I don’t know why they should have minded, for I should have done the same with either of them had we been on as friendly terms.
As I entered my little office my eyes lit on the common fishing-rod I had used, and that set me thinking about the conversation I had heard as I stood on the ledge.
I recalled what had been said overnight in a long discussion with my uncles, and the advice they had given.
“Don’t show suspicion,” Uncle Dick had said, “but meet every man with a frank fearless look in the eye, as if you asked no favour of him, were not afraid of him, and as if you wanted to meet him in a straightforward way.”
I thought a good deal about it all, and how my uncles said they meant to be just and kind and stern at the same time; and it certainly did seem as if this was the most likely way to win the men’s respect.
“For now that we have concluded to keep you with us, Cob, I must warn that we mean business, and that we have made up our minds that we shall win.”
That morning went off quietly enough, and though we all kept a quiet searching look-out, there was nothing to excite suspicion. Then evening came, and the watching, in which again that night I had no share, but it was an understood thing that I was to be at the works at the same time as the men next day.
It was a lovely autumn morning with the wind from the country side, and as I hurried up and off to the works there was a feeling in the air that seemed to tempt me away to the hills and vales, and made me long for a change.
“I’ll see if one of them won’t go for a day,” I said to myself; and hopeful of getting the holiday, and perhaps a run up to the great dam, I reached the works before the men.