"Now leave me in peace," said Carlton, "for I shall have my hands full; and don't trouble to come again, because I sha'n't listen to you. You've had two chances. I promised to live away and only find the money and the men; you wouldn't have it. I invited you to build the church yourself; you wouldn't hear of that. No; you would force me to do my duty, having tied my hands! You would take me at my word. I am taking you at yours. I should try fresh ground, if I were you; meanwhile you could sue me for assault." Gleed had fully intended doing so, but the scornful suggestion killed the thought, and for once he had no last word. But his last look made amends. XII A FRESH DISCOVERY His son was waiting for him at the gate. "The man's mad!" cried Sir Wilton with a harsh laugh. "What's he been doing? What was that row?" Sidney's manner with his father was subtly disrespectful; he seldom addressed him by that name, enjoyed arguing with him (having the clearer head), and argued in slang. Yet his tongue was as dexterous and plausible as it was always smooth, and he was a difficult boy to convict of a specific rudeness. "There's some method in his madness," was his comment on the father's account of the work accomplished under his eyes. "But he says he's going to build it up again!" "I wonder if he will," speculated Sidney. "What--by himself?" "Yes." "Of course he won't. No man could. He's a lunatic." They were walking home. Sidney said nothing for some paces. Then he asked an innocent question. It was a little way of his. "I suppose one man could finish one stone, though, father?" Sir Wilton conceded this. "And fix it in its place, shouldn't you say?" A gruffer concession. "Then I'm not sure that he couldn't do more than you think," said Sidney. "The windows might stump him, and the roof would; but he could do the rest." "Nonsense!" cried Sir Wilton. "You don't know what you're talking about." "Of course I don't," admitted Sidney readily. "That was why I asked about the one man and the one stone." Sir Wilton had not half his boy's brain. The cold-blooded little wretch would boast that he could "score off the governor without his knowing it." Sir Wilton's merit was his tenacity of purpose. "I tell you the man's mad," he reiterated; "and if he doesn't take care I'll have him shut up." "A great idea!" cried Sidney. "But, I say, if that's so we oughtn't to be too rough on him!" "In any case I'll have him out of this," quoth Sir Wilton through his teeth; but his mind dwelt on the shutting-up notion: it really was "a great idea." And Carlton himself had given him another: he just would "take fresh ground."