noon
Men toiled in the bed of the stream with the foaming , coffee-colored water washing about their hips , seething as it climbed up to their great , hairy , panting chests . With no thought of finishing the breakfast which they had barely begun , they worked upon the banks with sweaty , hot bodies and calm , cool minds . Stripped to their waists , almost naked many of them , black with dirt and running sweat , they strained and strove against the rising stream . The morning died , noon came , and Conniston had a dozen men distribute sandwiches and hot coffee . The afternoon wore on and brought with it the men whom Tommy Garton had sent . Then Conniston called to every man of the hundred who had toiled for him since sunrise to drop his tools . In their places he put a hundred new men .