Look at me, a handy-man doing all kinds of odd jobs, who's got a better right to get dirty--but I leave it alone and it wears off.

I'm blame certain you won't find many people that fool away less money on soap than just me!" said Joe with evident satisfaction.

"The old woman's up!" he cried, as he caught the glimmer of a light on the shore beyond.
Perhaps unconsciously he quickened his pace.
"Not so fast, Joe!" gasped Langham.
"Oh, all right, boss!" responded Montgomery.
Langham turned to him quickly, but as he did so his foot struck the cinder ballast of the road-bed.
"Good night, boss!" said Joe, his eyes fixed on the distant light.
"Wait!" said Langham imperiously.
"What for ?" demanded Montgomery.
"The water made such a noise I couldn't talk to you out on the bridge," began Langham.
"Well, I can't stop now, boss," said the handy-man, turning impatiently from him.
"Yes, damn you--you can--and will!" and Langham raised his voice to give weight to his words.
Montgomery rounded up his shoulders.
"Don't you try that, boss! Andy Gilmore could shout me down and cuss me out, but you can't; and I'll peel the face off you if you lay hands on me!" He thrust out a grimy fist and menaced Langham with it.

There was a brief silence and the handy-man swung about on his heel.
"Good night, boss!" he said over his shoulder, as he moved off.
Langham made no answer, but long after Joe's shuffling steps had died away in the distance he was still standing there irresolute and undecided, staring fixedly off into the darkness that had swallowed up the handy-man's hulking figure.
Mr.Montgomery, muttering somewhat and wagging his head, continued along the track for a matter of a hundred yards, when his feet found a narrow path which led off in the direction of the light he had so confidently declared was his old woman's.

Then presently as he shuffled forward, the other seven houses of the row of which his was the eighth, cloaked in utter darkness, took shadowy form against the sky.