"The other
job is urgent, but the thaw has only begun, and when the ground gets
properly soft we'll do twice as much as we could now. Still, there's
a risk. We could make some progress with the track, and the warm spell
mayn't last."

"Take the risk," said Charnock with a laugh. "There's not much fun in
playing for safety, and you don't get far that way, while when you try
to foresee things you generally see them wrong. But let's be practical!
As soon as the ground is soft enough we'll ask leave to hire half the
gravel gang. That will make friends of the opposition and won't put
up our wages bill. If you double your helpers, you halve the working
hours."

"Obviously. But you have to pay the larger number all at once. Where's
the money coming from?"

"From the head contractor. We'll try to make Norton sign for an interim
payment. Let's go and see him."

Festing was doubtful, but they found Norton, the contractor's engineer,
more compliant than he hoped.

"I suppose you are entitled to ask for a sum on account, but I'd take
some responsibility in allowing the demand," he said. "Why did you come
to me now?"

"We want to be just," Charnock answered modestly. "At present, there's
no prospect of our finishing the work we ask the money for."

"It doesn't go much beyond a prospect yet," Norton rejoined. "However,
I'll help you if I can, and will see what Kerr thinks. He's the man we
have both to satisfy in the end."

They went to work up the hill in the melting snow, and soon their
clothes were dripping and their long boots soaked. At first, the logs
vanished in the drifts through which they tried to roll them, and the
horses slipped and floundered in the slush, but this flowed away and
left a harder layer that was presently beaten firm. The surface turned
black and compressed into ice, and before long rows of heavy logs
plunged down the skids. Every moment must be turned to good account, and
Festing stopped and went down reluctantly when Kerr sent for him.

"I've seen Norton and he thinks we ought to help you out," Kerr
remarked. "Though he argues from single instances, his judgment's often
good, and he seems convinced you can be trusted because you saved a skip
of his. Of course, I had my opinion; but as he represents the contractor
you are working for, I couldn't urge him."

"Thanks!" said Festing. "I wish I'd brought Charnock; he'd deal with
this better."

Kerr laughed. "Your partner has some talents and see