any think except a woman. Married yerself?" Bindle
interrogated with significance.

Ignoring the question the foreman continued: "Can you take the numbers
off them rosy doors in the east corridor, and put 'em back again
to-night without makin' a stutterin' row?"

"Me?" queried Bindle in surprise.

"I got to go to a funeral," continued the foreman, avoiding Bindle's
eye, "an' I want to get a bit o' sleep first."

Bindle eyed his superior curiously.

"Funny things, funerals," he remarked casually. "Goin' to 'ave a
cornet on the 'earse?"

"A what?"

"The last time I went to a funeral the guv'nor saw me on the box, next
to Ole 'Arper, and all the boys a-shoutin' somethink about 'Ope and
Glory. The ole guv'nor didn't ought to 'ave been out so early. Ole
'Arper could play; 'e'd wake a 'ole village while another man was
thinkin' about it," he added reminiscently.

"It's my mother wot's dead," said the foreman dully, unequal to the
task of stemming the tide of Bindle's loquacity and at the same time
keeping on good terms with him.

"Yer mother? I'm sorry. Buryin' 'is mother twice got 'Oly Jim into an
'orrible mess. He fixed 'er funeral for February--all serene; but wot
must he go an' do, the silly 'Uggins, but forget all about it and start
a-buryin' of 'er again in June. 'Is guv'nor used to keep a book o'
buryin's, and it took Jim quite a long time to explain that 'is buryin'
of 'er twice all come about through 'im bein' a twin."

The foreman's impatience was visibly growing. "Never you mind about
Jim, 'oly or otherwise. Can yer take off and put on again them
numbers?"

Then after a pause he added casually, nodding in the direction of a
cupboard in the corner:

"There's a couple of bottles o' beer and some bread an' cheese an'
pickles in that cupboard."

Bindle's face brightened, and thus it was that the bargain was struck.

When Bindle left the room it was with the knowledge that his superior
had been delivered into his hands. He did not then know exactly how he
intended to compass the foreman's downfall. Inspiration would come
later. It was sufficient for him to know that correction was to be
administered where correction was due.

In Bindle there was a strong sense of justice, and his sympathies were
all with his mates, who suffered the foreman's insults rather than lose
good jobs. Bindle was always popular with his fellow-workers. They
liked and respected him. He was free with his money,