stirring up the stale
whitewash it contained, and the stench which it gave forth was simply
appalling.

Consternation reigned.

They looked like a gang of malefactors suddenly interrupted in the
commission of a crime.

The door opened. It was only Bundy returning from his mission to the
Bookie.

Chapter 2

Nimrod: a Mighty Hunter before the Lord

Mr Hunter, as he was called to his face and as he was known to his
brethren at the Shining Light Chapel, where he was superintendant of
the Sunday School, or 'Misery' or 'Nimrod'; as he was named behind his
back by the workmen over whom he tyrannized, was the general or walking
foreman of 'manager' of the firm whose card is herewith presented to
the reader:

RUSHTON & CO.
MUGSBOROUGH
-------
Builders, Decorators, and General Contractors
FUNERALS FURNISHED
Estimates given for General Repairs to House Property
First-class Work only at Moderate Charges

There were a number of sub-foremen or 'coddies', but Hunter was THE
foreman.

He was a tall, thin man whose clothes hung loosely on the angles of his
round-shouldered, bony form. His long, thin legs, about which the
baggy trousers draped in ungraceful folds, were slightly knock-kneed
and terminated in large, flat feet. His arms were very long even for
such a tall man, and the huge, bony hands were gnarled and knotted.
When he removed his bowler hat, as he frequently did to wipe away with
a red handkerchief the sweat occasioned by furious bicycle riding, it
was seen that his forehead was high, flat and narrow. His nose was a
large, fleshy, hawklike beak, and from the side of each nostril a deep
indentation extended downwards until it disappeared in the dropping
moustache that concealed his mouth, the vast extent of which was
perceived only when he opened it to bellow at the workmen his
exhortations to greater exertions. His chin was large and
extraordinarily long. The eyes were pale blue, very small and close
together, surmounted by spare, light-coloured, almost invisible
eyebrows, with a deep vertical cleft between them over the nose. His
head, covered with thick, coarse brown hair, was very large at the
back; the ears were small and laid close to the head. If one were to
make a full-face drawing of his cadaverous visage it would be found
that the outli