However, before they separated, the two had been commissioned to build his water-mill and house, and a time appointed to find a suitable spot.
They were both conscious that it was an undertaking—with William a great one. They felt as if the making or marring of their lives was in their hands. But they were not daunted.
'If difficulties arise we must surmount them,' said William resolutely, before his plans were drawn. 'As I cannot get books I can read, I must be studying the castle again.'
There were no Welsh books of any technical value to him; English he was unable to read. Fortunately for him, the walls and towers and arches of Caerphilly Castle had been as the leaves of an open and intelligible book, a work on ancient masonry no printed volume could surpass.
He had need to study it well now, to learn the secret of the arch, and how to construct a tunnel to bear away the watery overflow from the mill-wheel.
Learn it the young mason did, and that effectually.
Hard at work were they and their men all through the summer months, the builders with stone and wood, and ere the frosts of autumn came to lay a destructive finger on the mortar, there was a goodly mill by the side of the river, storey rising above storey, and the tunnelled waterway firm and compact, only some woodwork and the flagstone roof to be added.
It had been a period of great anxiety to both young men, for besides the risks attending all experimental work, Edwards was uneasy respecting his mother's possession of the farm, and Thomas Williams had resolved to seek Jonet for a wife if their work was a success.
Of any portion he might expect with her he knew nothing.
The corn had ripened for the sickle, but no lease had yet been found. September shone upon the land, and the case became urgent.