CHAPTER V

UNMASKED

All the morning Jasper Randall was busy hoeing potatoes in the large field near the main highway.  He liked the work, for he was alone and could give himself up to thought as he drove the hoe into the yielding earth.  His task suited him well, and as he tore out innumerable weeds, slashing down a big one here and another there, he was in reality overcoming and defeating opponents of the brain.  They were all there between the rows, and he could see them so plainly.  The lesser ones he could sweep away at one stroke, but that quitch grass was more difficult to conquer.  He could cut it off, but its roots would remain firmly embedded in the ground and would spring forth again.  It was a nasty, persistent weed.  Little wonder that he attacked it most fiercely, for it reminded him of the weed of injustice with which he had been contending for years.  Other enemies, like the smaller weeds, he could overcome, but injustice, that quitch grass of life, was what stung him to fury.  Little did Simon Squabbles, the tight old skin-flint, realise that the lone man working in his potato field was doing the work of two men that morning, and at the same time slaying a whole battalion of bitter enemies.  The contest was continued during the afternoon.  The quitch grass was thicker now, and the struggle harder.  With savage delight Jasper had just torn out a whole handful and had shaken it free from its earth as a dog would shake a rat, when the honk of an auto caused him to look toward the road.  As he did so, his face underwent a marvellous transformation.  The car was only a few seconds in passing, but it was sufficient for him to recognise the occupants, see the amused expression upon their faces, and hear their salutation of “Spuds,” as they sped by.  His strong, supple body trembled as he leaned for a while upon his hoe and gazed down the road after the rapidly disappearing car.  He must have remained thus for several minutes oblivious to everything else.  Neither did he see his hard taskmaster watching him in the distance.  But when he again resumed his hoeing he worked more fiercely than ever, and there was danger at times lest the frail hoe should break beneath his tremendous strokes.  Up one row and down another he moved all the afternoon.  He seemed like a giant tearing up the earth, rather than a man performing a prosaic task.  When toward evening the sky darkened, the wind began to blow and the rain to fall, he hardly noticed it at first.  Only when the earth became mucky and stuck constantly to his hoe, did he leave his work and go across the field toward the barn.  It was time, anyway, to help with the chores.  He was anxious to get through that he might go home.  He was glad that it was Saturday, for he would have the next day free.

It was dark by the time his tasks were done, and then he went to the house for his week’s pay.  He had agreed to work for a dollar and a half a day, and get his own breakfast and supper at home.  Thus he had nine dollars coming to him for his week’s work.  He was surprised, therefore, when Simon Squabbles handed him out only eight dollars and fifty cents.