That's mine, not yours! GET OUT!"

With a swift kick I brushed away the sand. I found I was standing
on a squat wooden box, bound with bands of rusty iron. I had only
to stoop to touch it. It was so rotten that I could have torn it
apart with my bare hands. Edgar was dancing on the edge of the pit,
incidentally kicking sand into my mouth and nostrils.

"You PROMISED me!" he roared. "You PROMISED to obey me!"

"You ass!" I shouted. "Haven't I done all the work? Don't I
get----"

"You get out!" roared Edgar.

Slowly, disgustedly, with what dignity one can display in crawling
out of a sand-pit, I scrambled to the top.

"Go over there," commanded Edgar pointing, "and sit down."

In furious silence I seated myself beside Rupert. He was still
slumbering and snoring happily. From where I sat I could see
nothing of what was going forward in the pit, save once, when the
head of Edgar, his eyes aflame and his hair and eye-glasses
sprinkled with sand, appeared above it. Apparently he was fearful
lest I had moved from the spot where he had placed me. I had not;
but had he known my inmost feelings he would have taken the axe
into the pit with him.

I must have sat so for half an hour. In the sky above me a