own work in a minute.'




5. The Other Man


As Bannister had said, the work in the postage department was not
intricate. There was nothing much to do except enter and stamp letters,
and, at intervals, take them down to the post office at the end of the
street. The nature of the work gave Mike plenty of time for reflection.

His thoughts became gloomy again. All this was very far removed from
the life to which he had looked forward. There are some people who take
naturally to a life of commerce. Mike was not of these. To him the
restraint of the business was irksome. He had been used to an open-air
life, and a life, in its way, of excitement. He gathered that he would
not be free till five o'clock, and that on the following day he would
come at ten and go at five, and the same every day, except Saturdays
and Sundays, all the year round, with a ten days' holiday. The monotony
of the prospect appalled him. He was not old enough to know what a
narcotic is Habit, and that one can become attached to and interested
in the most unpromising jobs. He worked away dismally at his letters
till he had finished them. Then there was nothing to do except sit and
wait for more.

He looked through the letters he had stamped, and re-read the
addresses. Some of them were directed to people living in the country,
one to a house which he knew quite well, near to his own home in