“Not for long. Till the field-work's over for the season.”
“I could give you work if you'd care about it.”
Now this was work I knew nothing of, and, what was more, I liked to be among field and forest, not with lumbermen and proletariat. However, I thanked him for the offer.
“Very good of you to come and put this right. As a matter of fact, I broke it open looking for a gun. I wanted to shoot something, and I thought there might be a gun in there.”
I made no answer; it would have pleased me better if he had said nothing.
“So I thought I'd ask you before you started out to work,” he said, to finish off.
I put the lock right and set it in its place again, and began nailing up the woodwork, which was shattered as before. While I was busy with this, we heard Captain Falkenberg's voice; through the bushes we could see him unharnessing the horses and leading them in.
The engineer gave a start; he fumbled for his watch, and got it out, but his eyes had grown all big and empty—they could see nothing. Suddenly he said:
“Oh, I forgot, I must . . .”
And he hurried off far down the garden.