About seven o'clock
When she had gone Charnock smiled . Sadie would , no doubt , come round to-morrow , and it was lucky she knew nothing about the cheque he had given Wilkinson ; but he wondered where she had been . Now he came to think of it , Wilkinson had said nothing abut the cheque when they met at the railroad settlement ; but after all there was perhaps no reason he should do so . About seven o'clock one evening a fortnight later , Festing threw down the cant-pole he had been using to move a big birch log , and lighting his pipe , stopped and looked about . A shallow creek flowed through a ravine at the edge of the tall wheat , and below the spot where he stood its channel was spanned by the stringers of an unfinished bridge . The creek had shrunk to a thread of water , but Festing , who had been wading about its bed , was wet and splashed with mire . Moreover he had torn his threadbare overalls and his hot face was smeared where he had rubbed off the mosquitoes with dirty hands .