Mr Hunter, at the moment when the reader first makes his acquaintance
on the afternoon of the day when the incidents recorded in the first
chapter took place, was executing a kind of strategic movement in the
direction of the house where Crass and his mates were working. He
kept to one side of the road because by so doing he could not be
perceived by those within the house until the instant of his arrival.
When he was within about a hundred yards of the gate he dismounted
from his bicycle, there being a sharp rise in the road just there, and
as he toiled up, pushing the bicycle in front, his breath showing in
white clouds in the frosty air, he observed a number of men hanging
about. Some of them he knew; they had worked for him at various
times, but where now out of a job . There were five men altogether;
three of them were standing in a group, the other two stood each by
himself, being apparently strangers to each other and the first three.
The three men who stood together were nearest to Hunter and as the
latter approached, one of them advanced to meet him.

`Good afternoon, sir.'

Hunter replied by an inarticulate grunt, without stopping; the man
followed.

`Any chance of a job, sir?'

`Full up,' replied Hunter, still without stopping. The man still
followed, like a beggar soliciting charity.

`Be any use calling in a day or so, sir?'

'Don't think so,' Hunter replied. `Can if you like; but we're full