perceived only when he opened it to bellow at the workmen his
exhortations to greater exertions. His chin was large and
extraordinarily long. The eyes were pale blue, very small and close
together, surmounted by spare, light-coloured, almost invisible
eyebrows, with a deep vertical cleft between them over the nose. His
head, covered with thick, coarse brown hair, was very large at the
back; the ears were small and laid close to the head. If one were to
make a full-face drawing of his cadaverous visage it would be found
that the outline resembled that of the lid of a coffin.

This man had been with Rushton - no one had ever seen the `Co.' - for
fifteen years, in fact almost from the time when the latter commenced
business. Rushton had at that period realized the necessity of having
a deputy who could be used to do all the drudgery and running about so
that he himself might be free to attend to the more pleasant or
profitable matters. Hunter was then a journeyman, but was on the
point of starting on his own account, when Rushton offered him a
constant job as foreman, two pounds a week, and two and a half per
cent of the profits of all work done. On the face of it this appeared
a generous offer. Hunter closed with it, gave up the idea of starting
for himself, and threw himself heart and mind into the business. When
an estimate was to be prepared it was Hunter who measured up the work
and laboriously figured out the probably cost. When their tenders
were accepted it was he who superintended the work and schemed how to
scamp it, where possible, using mud where mortar was specified, mortar
where there ought to have been cement, sheet zinc where they were
supposed to put sheet lead, boiled oil instead of varnish, and three
coats of paint where five were paid for. In fact, scamping the work
was with this man a kind of mania. It grieved him to see anything
done properly. Even when it was more economical to do a thing well,