wall-stone; and here goes for the first drive."

For a while we took spell and spell about at the hoe, working like
fiends. I had stripped to the vest at the first set-off, and by degrees
Weems let his eagerness overpower dignity till he had discarded a
similar number of garments. There was not a breath of air stirring, and
the sunbeams poured down upon us in a brazen stream. Being used to hard
work, I naturally could do the larger share; but to give the little
schoolmaster his due, he did stick to it for all he was worth; and
though he did drop more than one hint that such physical toil was
degrading to a man in his station, he didn't try to shirk doing his
just portion.

The ground was desperately hard to get through. There was very little
soil. What we came across chiefly were stones fallen from the sides of
the Talayot woven together by a network of roots. Over these we hacked
and sweated and strained, and tore our hands and wrenched our sinews.
And by degrees the heap of big stones and smaller stones and rubble and
earth and other debris grew larger amongst the bushes, and our jagged
pit sank deeper.

Those hours were the only ones in which I ever felt the smallest
respect for Weems. He hadn't chucked away his bless-you-I-know-best air
by any means. For instance, scorning example, he plucked a prickly pear
off a clump that grew out of the Talayot, and sucked the pulp out of
the skin in spite of seeing me devour one in other fashion. And then he
complained of the damnableness of a needle-sown palate. Also he
persisted in following his own theories about the extraction of the
large stones, although these seldom came off. But he stuck at work like
a Trojan, and one can't help having some respect for a man who keeps
his thews in action.

Whilst the white sun burned to overhead, and whilst it fell half-way to
the water again, did we hack and grovel and wrench, till our pit was
well-nigh twelve feet deep, and we were beginning to have dismal
forebodings that we were either delving in the wrong place, or that
Raymond the philosopher had lied most unkindly. But at last, when we
were both nearly sick with weariness and growing disgust, we came upon
a flat stone which rang hollow when the hoe struck it, and in an
instant our hopes sprang to a feverish height again.

Weems tugged at the edges of the stone, screaming and swearing in his
excitement; but it had lain in that bed for many ages, and would not
budge for such