ce or twice when I was in, and thought he was a friend of
yours."

"He can swap a good yarn; kind of handy man and sometimes helps me with
the hammer, but I guess that's all there is to it."

"Just so," said Charnock carelessly. "This is a warm place for a
quiet smoke, and the foreman can't tell how long one ought to stop,
particularly as you're sometimes out at the machine-shop. Do you find
the boys meddle with your tools if they come in while you're away?"

"No, sir; there'd be trouble if I did! Besides, nobody comes but
Wilkinson, and if I'm out he waits."

Charnock nodded, as if it did not matter. He had found out what he
wanted to know and thought he had not excited the smith's suspicions.
Taking the broken wedge from his pocket, he put it on the hearth.

"I expect you know what that is! The Lewis smashed when the frame came
down."

"It's the wedge. Don't see why it broke; plenty metal left, though the
slot weakened it."

"What's it made of?"

"Steel. The iron I wanted didn't come; but this is mild, low-carbon
stuff."

"Then what's the matter with it. It did break."

The smith put the piece into a socket in the anvil and struck it with a
hammer. The end broke short, and picking up the fragment he went to the
door.

"Nature's gone out of it; I sure can't understand the thing," he said
with a puzzled look. "If I hadn't forged the stuff myself, I'd allow it
was burned."

"You don't often overheat the steel you work."

"No, sir," said the smith, who took up a piece of metal, pierced with
holes. "Made this out of the same bar, and it took more forging. Now you
watch!"

He put the object in a vise and hammered down the end, which did not
break. "That's all right, anyhow; tough and most as soft as iron. But
steel's sometimes treacherous; you want to be careful--"

"Could you tell by looking at it if a piece was burned?"

"Well," said the smith thoughtfully, "it's not always easy, but if the
thing was badly scaled, I'd be suspicious. Of course, there might be
some scale--"

"But the wedge looked all right when you finished it?"

"It certainly did," said the smith, who hesitated. "Say do you reckon it
was the bolt going that let down your frame?"

"So far, I imagine it was the weight of snow. The pile ran back up the
hill and must have made a crushing load. For all that, I'm curious about
the wedge."

"Well," said the other, "If it was the wedge, I'm surely sorry! The
blamed thing is burned, thou