ave saved me thirty
pound, Mus' Dawe," and off he pealed. In some sort we were mad drunk--I
because dear life had been given back to me, and he because, as he said
afterwards, because the old crust of hatred round his heart was broke up
and carried away by laughter. His very face had changed too.

'"Hal," he cries, "I forgive thee. Forgive me too, Hal. Oh, you English,
you English! Did it gall thee, Hal, to see the rust on the dirty sword?
Tell me again, Hal, how the King grunted with joy. Oh, let us tell the
Master."

'So we reeled back to the chapel, arms round each other's necks, and
when we could speak--he thought we'd been fighting--we told the Master.
Yes, we told Torrigiano, and he laughed till he rolled on the new cold
pavement. Then he knocked our heads together.

'"Ah, you English," he cried. "You are more than pigs. You are English.
Now you are well punished for your dirty fishes. Put the draft in the
fire, and never do so any more. You are a fool, Hal, and you are a fool,
Benedetto, but I need your works to please this beautiful English
King----"

'"And I meant to kill Hal," says Benedetto. "Master, I meant to kill him
because the English King had made him a knight."

'"Ah!" says the Master, shaking his finger. "Benedetto, if you had
killed my Hal, I should have killed you--in the cloister. But you are a
craftsman too, so I should have killed you like a craftsman, very, very
slowly--in an hour, if I could spare the time!" That was Torrigiano--the
Master!'

Mr. Springett sat quite still for some time after Hal had finished. Then
he turned dark red; then he rocked to and fro; then he coughed and
wheezed till the tears ran down his face. Dan knew by this that he was
laughing, but it surprised Hal at first.

'Excuse me, sir,' said Mr. Springett, 'but I was thinkin' of some
stables I built for a gentleman in Eighteen hundred Seventy-four. They
was stables in blue brick--very particular work. Dunno as they weren't
the best job which ever I'd done. But the gentleman's lady--she'd come
from Lunnon, new married--she was all for buildin' what she called a
haw-haw--what you an' me 'ud call a dik--right acrost his park. A
middlin' big job which I'd have had the contract of, for she spoke to me
in the library about it. But I told her there was a line o' springs
just where she wanted to dig her ditch, an' she'd flood the park if she
went on.'

'Were there any springs at all?' said Hal.

'Bound to be springs ev