"Yes. I'll put 'em through their paces. The contractor's men are downstairs now."
"Ah, well, ta ta. You'll be worth £50 more per annum when I see you again." Darwen laughed and disappeared through the door.
Carstairs went down into the engine-room, and looked all round the new engine and dynamo. "Seems to me damn small for the power," he said to himself.
Late that evening they met again in the office. Darwen was beaming. "You've got your fifty quid, old chap, and I've got my hundred. It was grand, never had so much sport in all my life. Donovan opened the ball: I tell you I hardly recognized myself under his glowing eulogies. The Doctor objected. Then Donovan went for him. By Jove! old Donovan can talk. But the old Doctor was grand, he stood up at the head of the table with his great chest heaving and his beard seemed to quiver with anger. 'Retract,' he roared, when old Donovan got personal, I tell you he fairly frightened 'em. If I hadn't been there, he'd have crumpled 'em all up. I'll swear they each and every one of 'em shivered when the old man glared at 'em. Bull baiting's not in it. Donovan was about collapsed when I caught his eye and frowned at him, then we went for the Doctor like a tiger. The others seemed to buck up then, till the old man roared. 'Get outside, sir, you're not fit to speak to a decent assembly,' he said. Then I put my spoke in, I swear Donovan would have gone if I hadn't. 'Come! Come! Doctor,' I said. 'Hold your tongue, sir,' he roared. 'You've no right to speak at all.' That old man thinks he's the schoolmaster of this town. Then Jenkins gave him a hit below the belt. 'This is Mr Darwen, not Mr Wakeley,' he said. That's a patient of the Doctor's, who died the other day with something the matter with his tongue. The old man took no notice. Then Evans gave him another dig, and Smith had a rap at him. Little Winter got up to speak to him too, but when the old man wagged his beard at him, his knees gave way, and he sat down suddenly without saying a word; I never saw anything funnier. Then Sullivan got up and screamed like a man with the devil behind him. (I was the devil, most pleasant sensation I've ever experienced). Donovan capped it, and John Brown put a word in for us, too. I like that navvy, and I think the Doctor does too, he very seldom bullies him, and gets as good as he gives him. They ought to put up a grand scrap, those two, if they ever got going, just about a weight. Anyhow it's passed alright, and there's no mistake Donovan worked like a Trojan. How did the test pan out?"
"Oh, it's off. The damn thing wouldn't do much more than three quarters of its load. I knew it wouldn't."
"Go on! Is that right?" Darwen's face expressed incredulous surprise, there was a sort of smile there too, with a strange little flicker of the eyelids whose long lashes were drawn down till they almost completely shaded the brilliant, beautiful eyes.
"That's quite correct."
"This is serious. We must have another test to-morrow. I'll be in myself."
"Alright, but I know she can't do it. She hasn't got the dimensions, anywhere."
Darwen laughed suddenly. "You're such a stickler. We mustn't be too hard on them, you know, Peace on earth, etc., you know. And we've just had a rise."