ut it's more'n
likely as he'll do it wi' some one else's, or wi' a clog or a knobstick.
You can nivver tell. Good-night, Mester Jacob, sir. Keep a sharp
look-out, sir, and so will I, for I shouldn't like to see a nice
well-spoken young gentleman like you spoiled."

I followed Dunning down to the gate, and turned the key after him,
feeling horribly alarmed.

Spoiled--not like to see a boy like me spoiled. What did spoiling mean?
I shuddered at the thought, and though for a moment I thought of
rushing out and getting home as quickly as I could, there was a sort of
fear upon me that a party of men might be waiting at one of the corners
ready to shoot me.

"I must wait a bit, and get cool," I said; and then looking about me, I
shivered, for the great works looked strange and deserted, there was a
horrible stillness in the place, and I had never felt so lonely and
unpleasantly impressed even when watching in the middle of the night.

Just then there was a whine and a bark, and Piter gave his chain a jerk.

There was society for me at all events, and, going to the kennel, I
unhooked the spring swivel and set the dog free, when, as usual, he
showed his pleasure by butting his great head at me and trying to force
it between my legs.

I was used to it and knew how to act, but with a stranger it would have
been awkward and meant sitting down heavily upon the dog unless he
leaped out of the way.

Of course I did not sit down on Piter, but lifted a leg over him, and as
soon as he had become steady made a sort of inspection of the place to
see that nothing was wrong, feeling that it was a sort of duty to do, as
I was left alone.

Piter kept close to me, rubbing my leg with one ear as we went all over
the place, and as I found no powder-cans and fuses, no bottles full of
fulminating silver, or any other deadly implement, my spirits rose and I
began to laugh at myself for my folly.

There was only the lower workshop with its grindstones to look through,
and lit up as it was by the evening sun there did not seem to be
anything very terrible there. The floor was wet, and the stones and
their frames and bands cast broad shadows across the place and on the
opposite wall, but nothing seemed to be wrong, only I could hear the
hollow echoing plash of the water falling from the wheel sluice down
into the stone-walled pit.

There was nothing new in this, only that it seemed a little plainer than
usual, and as I looked I saw th