He put on the half-dry clothes and went to the door.  “I’m not often in such a hurry to get back to work, but if I don’t move I’ll freeze.  See you later!”

“Stop a moment,” Festing called.  “Do you find the bunk-house comfortable?”

“It’s not luxurious, but doesn’t leak very much unless it rains unusually hard.”

“Then why not come up here at night?  I haven’t another bunk or I’d have suggested it before, but a carload of ship-lap has arrived and I dare say Kerr will let me have a few boards.”

“Thanks; I’d like that,” said Charnock, who hurried away.

Soon afterwards Festing resumed his work.  Kerr allowed him to take the boards, and when he had finished his supper Charnock came in.  Sitting down by the fire, he filled his pipe.

“There’s more room here and you can dry your clothes,” he remarked, stretching out his legs to the blaze.

“We’re going to talk about what happened this morning,” Festing replied.  “I was getting exhausted when you jumped off the skip.”

“After all, I only gave you a push now and then.  I was fresh, and imagine I swim better than you.”

“It’s possible.  I don’t swim very well.”

“Then why did you go into the rapid?  I call it a blamed silly thing!”

“I felt I had to recover the skip.”

“Not at all,” said Charnock, with a grin.  “The skip could have stopped where it was.  For a man who thinks much, you’re ridiculously illogical; got no proper sense of relative values.  Your business is to carry out your contract, and not risk your life for a rusty bucket.”

“You risked yours!”

“I didn’t.  The only risk I ran was knocking your head off with my heavy boots.  But if you hadn’t begun the folly, I wouldn’t have jumped, if the river had been full of the company’s skips.”

Then the door opened and the head contractor’s engineer came in.

“You did a plucky thing to-day, Festing,” he began; but Charnock interrupted.

“Don’t spoil my argument, Mr. Norton.  I’ve been proving he made a fool of himself.”

“Then there were two of you,” Norton rejoined.  “The trolley was running fast, and if you had dropped a few yards farther out, you wouldn’t have got back.”  He turned to Festing.  “I was rather mad about it when you broke the wire, and of course wanted the skip.  Still I didn’t mean you to take a risk like that.  We could have fixed the thing.”

“A matter of bookkeeping?” Charnock suggested.  “Much depends on how you charge up your costs, and one understands that doing it cleverly leads to promotion.  The worst is when you come to the total—­”

“I’ll talk to you later.  You’re up against a big proposition, Festing; but if you find yourself in a tight place and I’ve a man or two to spare, or can help—–­”

“Thanks; I may take advantage of your promise,” Festing replied, and Norton turned to Charnock.