The expected had happened. During Eves’s harangue, the water had been eating away the pile of soil and rubbish which had been loosened by Mr. Noakes’s exertions. Without warning, the dam against which the man was leaning gave way. He fell backward; there was a swirl and a flurry, and Mr. Noakes, carried off his feet by the rush of water, was rolled down stream. His new soft straw hat, which had betrayed him, floated on ahead. Templeton sprang over the ridge and hastened to Mr. Noakes’s assistance. For the moment Eves was incapacitated by laughter. Fortunately the stream was not deep, and after the first spate it flowed on with less turbulence. Templeton gripped the unhappy man by the collar, and hauled him up after he had been tumbled a few yards. Breathless, he stood a pitiable object in his frock-coat and baggy trousers, his lank hair shedding cascades. [Illustration: "TEMPLETON GRIPPED THE UNHAPPY MAN BY THE COLLAR, AND HAULED HIM UP."] "A most unfortunate accident," said Templeton. "You see, by removing some of the stones——" "Mr. Noakes, your hat, I believe," interposed Eves, handing him the sodden, shapeless object which he had retrieved from the stream. Mr. Noakes snatched it from him, turned away, and started downhill. Never a word had he said; but there was a world of malevolence in his eye. "We had better get back and dress," said Templeton. "What on earth for?" "Well, we can hardly repair the dam in our pyjamas." Eves laughed. "You’re a priceless old fathead," he said. "Repairs must wait till the morning. I can never do any work after a rag." "A rag! But it was a pure accident, due to the idiot’s own meddlesomeness." "Most true; but it wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t kept his attention fixed by the longest spell of spouting I ever did in my life. It was a ripping rag, old man, and now we’ll toddle back to bed. The one thing that beats me is, what’s his motive? He’d hardly take the trouble to smash our dam just to get even with us, would he? That’s a kid’s trick. There’s something very fishy about old Noakes." *III* Templeton had not settled which among his many ideas to work at, when accident launched his imagination upon a new flight. One day the village was stirred to unusual excitement. Two items of local news, following quickly one upon the other, gave the folk so much matter for gossip that the amount of work they did was reduced fifty per cent. The first was that Nahum Noakes’s final appeal had failed; the second, that young Wilfred Banks, the son of Squire Banks, one of the local magnates, had been seriously injured by the fall of an aeroplane. Mrs. Trenchard, having been "there and back," was full of the story.