“Logs, I think; we can handle them easily,” Festing replied. “The other job is urgent, but the thaw has only begun, and when the ground gets properly soft we'll do twice as much as we could now. Still, there's a risk. We could make some progress with the track, and the warm spell mayn't last.”
“Take the risk,” said Charnock with a laugh. “There's not much fun in playing for safety, and you don't get far that way, while when you try to foresee things you generally see them wrong. But let's be practical! As soon as the ground is soft enough we'll ask leave to hire half the gravel gang. That will make friends of the opposition and won't put up our wages bill. If you double your helpers, you halve the working hours.”
“Obviously. But you have to pay the larger number all at once. Where's the money coming from?”
“From the head contractor. We'll try to make Norton sign for an interim payment. Let's go and see him.”
Festing was doubtful, but they found Norton, the contractor's engineer, more compliant than he hoped.
“I suppose you are entitled to ask for a sum on account, but I'd take some responsibility in allowing the demand,” he said. “Why did you come to me now?”
“We want to be just,” Charnock answered modestly. “At present, there's no prospect of our finishing the work we ask the money for.”
“It doesn't go much beyond a prospect yet,” Norton rejoined. “However, I'll help you if I can, and will see what Kerr thinks. He's the man we have both to satisfy in the end.”
They went to work up the hill in the melting snow, and soon their clothes were dripping and their long boots soaked. At first, the logs vanished in the drifts through which they tried to roll them, and the horses slipped and floundered in the slush, but this flowed away and left a harder layer that was presently beaten firm. The surface turned black and compressed into ice, and before long rows of heavy logs plunged down the skids. Every moment must be turned to good account, and Festing stopped and went down reluctantly when Kerr sent for him.
“I've seen Norton and he thinks we ought to help you out,” Kerr remarked. “Though he argues from single instances, his judgment's often good, and he seems convinced you can be trusted because you saved a skip of his. Of course, I had my opinion; but as he represents the contractor you are working for, I couldn't urge him.”