the lad actually took pleasure in, nay,
thoroughly enjoyed, his work. But on the third week after his return
Harry began to detect signs that these agreeable conditions were drawing
to an end. Thenceforth Butler allowed himself to gradually drift back
into his former exacting and autocratic ways, until at length life in
the camp again became a veritable purgatory for everybody concerned,
Butler himself included, the natural result of his tyrannical conduct
being that everybody--Harry excepted--did everything in his power to
thwart him, while even the lad himself ceased to attempt the apparently
impossible task of pleasing his chief.

In this unpleasant and unsatisfactory manner the railway survey
proceeded for the two months following Escombe's return to duty; by
which time Butler's behaviour had become so unendurable that nearly
three-fourths of the peons originally engaged had deserted,
notwithstanding the fact that their desertion involved them in the loss
of a sum in wages that, to these humble toilers, represented quite a
little fortune, and their places had been filled by others of a much
less desirable type in every way. And this was all the more to be
regretted since the surveyors were now in the very heart of the
mountains, where the natural difficulties to be contended with were at
their worst, while the newcomers, being of course utterly strange to
such work, had to be taught their duties, down to the simplest detail,
under the most adverse conditions possible. It can be readily
understood that the attempt to instruct a set of ignorant, stupid,
sullen, and lawless half-castes under such conditions was a task of
surpassing difficulty, resulting in constant acute friction, and
demanding the nicest judgment and the utmost diplomacy upon the part of
the teachers. Harry met this difficulty by bringing to his assistance
an almost sublime patience, that in the course of time--and not a very
long time either--completely wore down the opposition of his unwilling
pupils and brought a change in their mental attitude which was as
surprising as it was satisfactory. Butler, however, knew not the
meaning of the word "patience", nor did his character contain the
smallest particle of that valuable quality; his method was what he
termed "the rough-and-ready", and consisted in emphasising every order,
and item of construction, with a kick! It was not surprising,
therefore, that the relations between him and the peons dai