John Girdlestone picked it out and tried it in the air. "I think I could kill an ox with this," he said.
"Don't wave it about my head," cried Ezra. "As you stand in the firelight brandishing that stick in your long arms you are less attractive than usual."
John Girdlestone smiled and replaced the cudgel in the sleeper's pocket. "Wake up, Burt," he cried, shaking him by the arm. "It's half-past eight."
The navvy started to his feet with an oath and then fell back into his chair, staring round him vacantly, at a loss as to where he might be. His eye fell upon the bottle of Hollands, which was now nearly empty, and he held out his hand to it with an exclamation of recognition.
"I've been asleep, guv'nor," he said hoarsely. "Must have a dram to set me straight. Did you say it was time for the job."
"We have made arrangements by which she will be out by the withered oak at nine o'clock."
"That's not for half an hour," cried Burt, in a surly voice. "You need not have woke me yet."
"We'd better go out there now. She may come rather before the time."
"Come on, then!" said the navvy, buttoning up his coat and rolling a ragged cravat round his throat. "Who is a-comin' with me?"
"We shall both come," answered John Girdlestone firmly. "You will need help to carry her to the railway line."
"Surely Burt can do that himself," Ezra remarked. "She's not so very heavy."
Girdlestone drew his son aside. "Don't be so foolish, Ezra," he said. "We can't trust the half-drunken fellow. It must be done with the greatest carefulness and precision, and no traces left. Our old business watchword was to overlook everything ourselves, and we shall certainly do so now."
"It's a horrible affair!" Ezra said, with a shudder. "I wish I was out of it."
"You won't think that to-morrow morning when you
