ogether then; it was something to know that they had not
only forced Squint Rodaine to show his enmity openly, but it was
something more to make him the instrument of helping them with their
work. The pumps were going steadily now, and a dirty stream of water
was flowing down the ditch that had been made at one side of the small
tram track. Harry looked down the hole, stared intently at nothing,
then turned to the rusty hoist.

"'Ere 's the thing we 've got to fix up now. This 'ere chiv wheel's
all out of gear."

"What makes your face so red?" Fairchild asked the question as the
be-mustached visage of Harry came nearer to the carbide. Harry looked
up.

"Mother 'Oward almost slapped it off!" came his rueful answer. "For
not telling 'er what I was going to do, and letting 'er think I got
drownded. But 'ow was I to know?"

He went to tinkering with the big chiv wheel then, supported on its
heavy timbers, and over which the cable must pass to allow the skip to
travel on its rails down the shaft. Fairchild absently examined the
engines and pumps, supplying water to the radiators and filling an oil
cup or two. Then he turned swiftly, voicing that which was uppermost
in his mind.

"When you were here before, Harry, did you know a Judge Richmond?"

"Yeh." Harry pawed his mustache and made a greasy, black mark on his
face. "But I don't think I want to know 'im now."

"Why not?"

"'E's mixed up with the Rodaines."

"How much?"

"They own 'im--that's all."

There was silence for a moment. It had been something which Fairchild
had not expected. If the Rodaines owned Judge Richmond, how far did
that ownership extend? After a long time, he forced himself to a
statement.

"I know his daughter."

"You?" Harry straightened. "'Ow so?"

"She sold me a ticket to a dance," Fairchild carefully forgot the
earlier meeting. "Then we 've happened to meet several times after
that. She said that her father had told her about me--it seems he used
to be a friend of my own father."

Harry nodded.

"So 'e was. And a good friend. But that was before things
'appened--like they 've 'appened in the last ten years. Not that I
know about it of my own knowledge. But Mother 'Oward--she knows a lot."

"But what's caused the change? What--?"

Harry's intent gaze stopped him.

"'Ow many times 'ave you seen the girl when she was n't with young
Rodaine?"

"Very few, that's true."

"And 'ow many times 'ave you s