The tone was so cold that Inman thought it best to be silent. He therefore shifted his bass to the other shoulder and made no further attempt at conversation. Nine out of ten moormen are influenced more or less consciously by the moor’s moods, and frequently reflect them—Baldwin was the tenth man, impervious to such spiritual currents by reason of his brass-bound soul as was horny-hided Siegfried to the thrust of his enemies. They covered the remaining distance like mutes, Baldwin with his eyes on the ground, and Inman sweeping the waste with a careless glance until they reached the farm where new buildings awaited their labour. Inman dropped his tools and looked critically at the scaffolding. “Did Drake fix them sticks?” he asked. “They aren’t safe.” Baldwin’s anger blazed out immediately. The structure had been erected since Jagger left, and his own judgment told him that it was faulty. The poles were thinnings of sycamore which had been lying about on the farm and had seemed good enough for the purpose, though in reality they were much too brittle. Inman’s quick eyes had detected evidences of this; but Baldwin was not to be instructed by a stranger. It was for him to decide whether the erection was safe or not, and he said so in language overcharged with emphasis, bidding Inman doff his coat and get to work without more ado. For a moment Inman hesitated, then without a word took off his coat, rolled up his short sleeves and mounted the ladder. Before his master could climb up and stand beside him he had tested the plank with his foot and formed his conclusions, but what they were not even a movement of his shoulders made known, and he picked up his tools and began to work. For a while Baldwin did little more than watch him; and though he had schooled himself in the art of concealing his satisfaction those who knew him would have judged by the way he at length turned to his own task that he was well pleased with the skill and industry of his new hand. Inman needed no instruction and no prodding. Jagger Drake himself was not more skilful and was incomparably slower. The master had to acknowledge to himself that no man he had ever employed had framed so well on such short acquaintance as this mysterious newcomer from nowhere; and he experienced a sense of relief that he was careful not to communicate by any relaxation of tone or feature to the man whose whole attention seemed to be centred on his work. Inman guessed what was passing in the other’s mind; and though he controlled his features as carefully as Baldwin himself, he was in reality in a state of tension regarding the stability of the structure on which they were standing; but all went well until the afternoon when on a sudden heavy movement of the master the far pole gave way.