Then, as he reached the sixth, he gazed ahead and smiled.
A mountain pond lay right in his straight path to the seventh stake.
"Can that pond be easily forded ?" Reade asked the nearer chainman.
"No, sir; it's about ten feet deep in the centre." Tom smiled grimly to himself.
"Rutter didn't say anything about this to me," Tom muttered to himself.

"He put this upon me, to see how I'd get over an obstacle like an unfordable pond.

Well, it's going to take a lot of time but I'll show Mr.Jack Rutter!" Accordingly, Reade allowed his chainmen to proceed measuring until they were fairly close to the pond.

Then he went forward to the metal stake that had just been driven.

From this stake he laid out a new course to the north and at exact right angles with the proper course, sending his chainmen forward with markers.