put in.

"Yes, that is the name. Some timber had given way above him, and he was
holding it up with his arms. I should say that there must have been
half a ton of it, and he said, as quietly as possible, 'Get two of those
short poles, Wilson, and put up one on each side of me. I can hold it a
bit, but don't be longer than you can help about it.' I managed to shove
up the timber, so that he could slip out before it came down. It would
have crushed us both to a certainty if he had not held it up."

"Why do you say you know I don't like Mr. Bathurst?"

"I don't exactly know, Miss Hannay, but I have noticed you are the only
lady who does not chat with him. I don't think I have seen you speak
to him since we have come in here. I am sorry, because I like him very
much, and I don't care for Forster at all."

"What has Captain Forster to do with it?" Isobel asked, somewhat
indignantly.

"Oh, nothing at all, Miss Hannay, only, you know, Bathurst used to be
a good deal at the Major's before Forster came, and then after that I
never met him there except on that evening before he came in here. Now
you know, Miss Hannay," he went on earnestly, "what I think about you. I
have not been such an ass as to suppose I ever had a chance, though you
know I would lay down my life for you willingly; but I did not seem to
mind Bathurst. I know he is an awfully good fellow, and would have
made you very happy; but I don't feel like that with Forster. There is
nothing in the world that I should like better than to punch his head;
and when I see that a fellow like that has cut Bathurst out altogether
it makes me so savage sometimes that I have to go and smoke a pipe
outside so as not to break out and have a row with him."

"You ought not to talk so, Mr. Wilson. It is very wrong. You have
no right to say that anyone has cut anyone else out as far as I am
concerned. I know you are all fond of me in a brotherly sort of way,
and I like you very much; but that gives you no right to say such
things about other people. Mr. Bathurst ceased his visits not because of
Captain Forster but from another reason altogether; and certainly I
have neither said nor done anything that would justify your saying that
Captain Forster had cut Mr. Bathurst out. Even if I had, you ought not
to have alluded to such a thing. I am not angry with you," she said,
seeing how downcast he looked; "but you must not talk like that any
more; it would be wrong at any time; it is