in that minute's space was all of
remorse and understanding and forbearance, of a blind effort towards
something not wholly self, that Archelaus had ever known. The dying man
flung a failing hand out to Nicky, and his eyes were on him when what
light still lingered in them faded and went out.

Nicky wanted to take Ishmael away, but the old man insisted on being
left alone with his dead brother for a while, and when Nicky, determined
not to go far or be more than a few minutes away, had left the room,
Ishmael went to the fire and dropped the letters in it one by one. He
watched them burn away, and then crossing over to the bed again he sat
down slowly in the chair beside it.

Nicky had to send for the doctor, give the news to Marjorie, parry Jim's
questionings; and when at last he went upstairs again it was to find
Ishmael, in a deep sleep, slipped forward in his chair as though he had
never left it, his head against the edge of the bed, so that the
outflung dead hand of Archelaus almost touched his white hair.

CHAPTER V

REAPING

August came in hot and clear, all over the countryside the crops ripened
well, and now, in the last quarter of the moon, they were ripe to cut.
Ishmael went down to the four-acre with Nicky to see the men at work,
and Jim, who for days had been on the tiptoe of excitement over the
advent of "the machine," as the binder was always called, ran in front
of them.

The men had cleared a path some five feet wide all round the field with
their scythes, and now the clattering thing, crimson painted, blatant,
was going on with the work, and the great square of oats and barley
stood up compact and close; while round and round it, diminishing it
every time, went the machine, drawn by three glossy horses harnessed
unicorn fashion.

Up the slope of the field they went, heads nodding, swelling sides
glistening in the sun, while Jimmy, proudly perched upon the leader, his
legs sticking out straight on either side, chirruped an encouragement
lost in the clatter. Up they came, till the three brown heads, the
forelocks blown about their rolling eyes, were clear cut against the
blue of the sea; then the man perched on his high iron seat tugged at
the reins, and the three horses and the clamorous machine came swirling
round the bend of the field and past the waiting knot of people. The
huge wheel, made of flail-like pieces set horizontally on spidery arms,
went thrashing round, scooping the stan