meddling fool somehow,
it would be a keen relief."

He came back to the table and picked up a cup of tea. Then, grumbling
that it had gone cold, he put it down noisily and went out.

CHAPTER VIII

GRACE FINDS A WAY

Soon after the reckoning at Mireside, the snow melted off the fells and
for a month dark rain clouds from the sea rolled up the dale. They broke
upon the hill tops in heavy showers, gray mist drifted about the wet
slopes, the becks roared in the ghylls, and threads of foam that wavered
in the wind streaked the crags. In the bottom of the valley it was never
really light, water flowed across the roads, and the low-standing
farmsteads reeked with damp.

All this was not unusual and the dalesfolk would have borne it patiently
had fuel not been short. Large fires were needed to dry the moisture that
condensed in the flagged kitchens and soaked the thick walls, but coal
could not be got at a price the house-wives were willing to pay. Some
would have had to stint their families in food had they bought on Bell's
terms, and the rest struggled, for the common cause, against the mould
that gathered on clothing and spoiled the meal. They grumbled, but their
resolution hardened as the strain got worse, while Bell waited rather
anxiously for them to give way.

His yards were full and more coal was coming in, but he saw that if he
let the farmers beat him his power to overcharge them another time would
be gone. The new combine was dangerous, since the cooperative plan might
be extended to the purchase of chemical manures, seed, and lime. In the
meantime, there was plenty of peat, stacked so that it would escape much
damage, on Malton Head; but Askew and his friends could not get it down.
Carts could not be used on the fells and the clumsy wooden sledges the
farmers called stone-boats would not run across the boggy moor. The few
loads Kit brought down at the cost of heavy labor were carried off by
anxious house-wives as soon as they arrived.

The weather was helping the monopolist, but he could not tell if a change
to frost would be an advantage or not. Although it would make the need
for coal felt keenly, it might simplify the transport of peat. When Bell
thought about it, and the colliery company's bills came in, he felt
disturbed, but he was stubborn and would not lower his price yet.

At length the rain stopped, and after a heavy fall of snow keen frost
began. The white fells glittered in cold sunshin