Robert W. Chambers

“ Lee had never noticed her face; both sun-tanned hands hid it now; her felt hat was pulled down over the forehead.
"Why do you come to the quarry?" he asked soberly. She did not reply.
"It is men's work," he said; "look at your hands! You cannot do it."
She lightened her hands over her eyes; tears stole between her fingers and dropped, one by one, on the young grass.
"If you need work—if you can find nothing else—I—I think, perhaps, I may manage something better," he said. "You must not stand there crying—listen! Here come Finn and Dyce, and I don't want them to talk all over the camp." ”

“ Lee's eyes turned from Finn to Dyce. There was, in the sullen faces before him, something that he had never before seen, something worse than sinister. He recognised it instantly. The next moment he said pleasantly—"Well, then, tell Lefty Sawyer to take his diving kit and be ready by three. If you need a new ladder at the dump-dock, send one there by noon. That is all, men." ”

“ Finn came and spoke to me to-day. Dyce knows it. Carrots and Lefty Sawyer know it—I should have known it myself had I looked at you twice."
The June wind blowing over the grass carried two white butterflies over the cliff. Lee watched them struggle back to land again; Williams watched Lee.
"I don't know what to do," said Lee, after a silence; "it is not forbidden for women to work in the quarry as far as I am aware. If you need work and prefer that sort, and if you perform your work properly, I shall not interfere with you. And I'll see that the men do not." ”

“ Again the dark point came into view, now close under the cliff where thirty feet of limpid water bathes its base.
"The Collector of the Porte!" shouted Finn from the rocks. Lee bent over the cliffs brink. Far down into the clear water he followed the outline of the cliff. Under it a shadowy bulk floated, a monstrous shark, rubbing its length softly as if in greeting for old acquaintance' sake. The Collector of the Porte had returned from the south.
II
The Collector of the Porte and the Company were rivals; both killed their men, the one at sea, the other in the quarry. ”

“ When Dyce and Finn had shuffled away toward the coast, Lee looked at the figure outlined on the cliffs against the sunset sky—a desolate, lonely little figure in truth.
"Come," said Lee; "if you must have work, I will give you enough to keep you busy; not in the quarry, either—do you want to cripple yourself in that pit? It's no place for children, anyway. Can you write properly?" ”

“ The first bud on the Indian-willow brings the first inhabitant back to the Porte-of-Waves, Francis Lee, superintendent of the mica quarry. The quarrymen follow in batches; the willow-tassels see them all there; the wind-flowers witness the defile of the first shift through the pines. ”

“ A moment or two of suffocation!—would such men hesitate? Accidents are so easy to prove, and signals may be easily misunderstood. He laid a brace of heavy revolvers on the dock and smiled.
As Dyce lifted the helmet upon his shoulders, he caught a last glimpse of sunlight and blue sky and green leaves—a brief vision of dark, brutal faces—of Helen Pine's colourless frightened face. Then he felt himself on the dock ladder, then a thousand tons seemed to fall from his feet, and the dusky ocean enveloped him.
On the dump-dock silence reigned. After a moment or two Finn whispered to Sawyer ”

“ Lee grew white with anger; Dyce turned away to conceal a grin.
When again Sawyer stood on the dock and reported that the two cash-boxes were hopelessly engulfed in the mud, Lee sternly bade him divest himself of the diving-suit with reasonable celerity.
"What you goin' to do?" asked Finn, coming up.
"Is it your place to ask questions?" said Lee sharply. "Obey orders, or you'll regret it!"
"He's goin' down himself," whispered Dyce to Sawyer. The diver cast a savage glance at Lee, and hesitated. ”

“ Reflection, however, assured her that her disguise must be perfect, and she awaited the dramatic moment when she should reveal herself—not dying from quarry toil, for she did not wish to die now that she had seen him. ”

“ When Sawyer was able to hear and to be heard, Lee listened, tight-lipped and hard-eyed, to a report that brought a malicious sneer to Finn's face and a twinkle of triumph into Dyce's dissipated eyes.
"The safe is smashed an' the door open. Them there eight cash-boxes is all that I can see." ”