know who threw those bands into the water, Gentles,"
I said.

One of his eyes quivered, and he looked at me as if he were going to
speak. He even opened his mouth, and I could see his tongue quivering
as if ready to begin, but he shut it with a snap and shook his head.

"Don't tell any stories about it," I said; "but you do know."

"Don't ask me, mester," he cried with a groan. "Don't ask me."

"Then you do know," I cried.

"I don't know nowt," he said in a hoarse whisper. "Why, man alive, it
wouldn't be safe for a chap like me to know owt. They'd put a brick
round my neck and throw me in the watter."

"But you do know, Gentles," I persisted.

"I don't know nowt, I tell 'ee," he cried angrily. "Such friends as
we've been, Mester Jacob, and you to want to get me into a scrarp."

"Why, Gentles!" I cried. "If you know, why don't you speak out like a
man?"

"'Cause I'm a man o' peace, Mester Jacob, and don't want to harm nobody,
and I don't want nobody to harm me. Nay, I know nowt at all."

"Well, I think you are a contemptible coward, Gentles," I said warmly.
"You're taking my uncles' money and working on their premises, and
though you know who has been base enough to injure them you are not man
enough to speak."

"Now don't--don't--don't, my lad," he cried in a hoarse whisper. "Such
friends as we've been too, and you go on like that. I tell 'ee I'm a
man of peace, and I don't know nowt at all. On'y give me my grinstone
and something to grind--that's all I want."

"And to see our place blown up and the bands destroyed. There, I'm
ashamed of you, Gentles," I cried.

"But you'll be friends?" he said; and there were tears in his eyes.

"Friends! How can I be friends," I cried, "with a man like you?"

"Oh dear, oh dear!" I heard him groan as I left the workshop; and going
to Piter's kennel I took off his collar and led him down to the dam to
give him a swim.

He was a capital dog for the water, and thoroughly enjoyed a splash, so
that before the men came back he had had a swim, shaken himself, and was
stretched out in the sunshine under the wall drying himself, when, as I
stooped to pat him, I noticed something about the wall that made me look
higher in a hurried way, and then at the top, and turn off directly.

I had seen enough, and I did not want to be noticed, for some of the men
were beginning to come back, so stooping down I patted Piter and went
off to the office.

As soon as the men