Ragnhild, a minute."
And then to Ragnhild, when the others had gone: "What was I going to say,
now? You haven't moved some photos, have you, that were on the piano here?
I can't make out what's happened to them."
Then Ragnhild spoke up well and with spirit--and may Heaven bless her for
the lie!
"I? No, indeed, 'twas Fruen herself one day."
"Oh? Well, well. I only wondered how it was they had gone."
Relieved--relieved the Captain was to hear it.
As he was leaving he told Ragnhild to say I was not to go away from Ovrebo
till he returned.
XIV
No, I didn't go away.
I worked on, tramped through the weariest days of my life to their end,
and finished laying the pipes. It was a bit of a change for us all on the
place the first time we could draw water from a tap, and we were none the
worse for something new to talk about for a while.
Lars Falkenberg had left us. He and I had got rid of all disagreement
between us at the last, and were as we had been in the old days when we
were mates and tramped the roads together.
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