'The truth is,' said the schoolmaster, 'that you are a thorn in their flesh.' 'Why?' 'Your land is right in the middle of Hamer's fields and that spoils his farm, but that is not the reason as much as your hill; he wants it for a windmill. They have nothing but level ground; it's the best land in the settlement, but no good for a windmill; if they don't put it up, one of the other settlers will.' 'And why are they so crazy after a windmill?' 'Well, it matters a great deal to them; if Wilhelm had a windmill he could marry Miller Knap's daughter from Wolka and get a thousand and twenty roubles with her; the Hamers may go bankrupt without that money. That's why you stick in their throats. If you sold them your land they would pay you well.' 'And I won't sell! I will neither help them to stay here nor do myself harm for their benefit; when a man leaves the land of his fathers...' 'There will be trouble,' the schoolmaster said earnestly. 'Then let there be; I won't die because it pleases them.' Slimak returned home without any further wish to see Hamer; he knew there could be no understanding between them. Maciek had discovered at dawn one morning that a crowd had reached the river-bank by the ravines, and Slimak, hurrying thither, found some gospodarze from the village among the men. 'What is happening?' 'They are going to throw up a dam and build a bridge across the Bialka,' Wisniewski replied. 'And what are you doing here?' 'We have been taken on to cart sand.' Slimak discovered the Hamers in the crowd. 'Nice neighbours you are!' he said bitterly, going up to them. 'Here you are sending all the way to the village for carts, and you won't let me have a job.' 'We will send for you when you are living in the village,' Fritz answered, and turned his back. An elderly gentleman was standing near them, and Slimak turned to him and took off his cap. 'Is this justice, sir?' he said. 'The Germans are getting rich on the railway, and I don't earn a kopek. Last year two gentlemen came and promised that I should make a lot of money. Well, your honours are building the railway now, but I've never yet taken my horses out of the stable. A German with thirty acres of ground is having a good job, and I have only ten acres and a wife and children to keep, as well as the farmhand and the girl. We shall have to starve, and it's all because the Germans have a grudge against me.' He had spoken rapidly and breathlessly, and after a moment of surprise the old man turned to Fritz Hamer. 'Why did you not take him on?' Fritz looked insolently at him. 'Is it you who has to answer for the cartage or I? Will you pay my fines when the men fail me? I take on those whom I can trust.' The old man bit his lip, but did not reply. 'I can't help you, my brother,' he said; 'you shall drive me as often as I come to this neighbourhood. It isn't much, but every little helps. Where do you live?'