"--No, just let me finish, Mr. Peterson. I know what you"re going to say. But do your employers want to get the job done by New Year"s? They do. Do they pay you to help get it done? They do. Will it be done if that would-be murderer of a Bannon is allowed to stay here? It will not, you can bet on that. Then it"s your duty to get him out of here, and I"m going to help you do it."
Grady was on his feet when he declaimed the last sentence. He flung out his hand toward Pete. "Shake on it!" he cried.
Peterson had also got to his feet, but more slowly. He did not take the hand. "I"m much obliged, Mr. Grady," he said. "It"s very kind in you. If that"s so as you say, I suppose he"ll have to go. And he"ll go all right without any shoving when he sees that it is so. You go and tell just what you"ve told me to Charlie Bannon. He"s boss on this job."
Grady would have fared better with a man of quicker intelligence.
Peterson was so slow at catching the blackmailer"s drift that he spoke in perfectly good faith when he made the suggestion that he tell Bannon, and Grady went away a good deal perplexed as to the best course to pursue,--whether to go directly to Bannon, or to try the night boss again.
As for Peterson, four or five times during his half-hour talk with Bannon at the office that evening, he braced himself to tell the boss what Grady had said, but it was not till just as Bannon was going home that it finally came out. "Have you seen Grady lately?" Pete asked, as calmly as he could.
"He was around here something more than a week ago; gave me a little bombthrowers" anniversary oratory about oppressors and a watchful eye.
There"s no use paying any attention to him yet. He thinks he"s got some trouble cooking for us on the stove, but we"ll have to wait till he turns it into the dish. He ain"t as dangerous as he thinks he is."
"He"s been around to see me lately--twice."
"He has! What did he want with you? When was it he came?"
"The first time about a week ago. That was nothing but a little friendly talk, but----"
"Friendly! Him! What did he have to say?"
"Why, it was nothing. I don"t remember. He wanted to know if I was laid off, and I told him I was on the night shift."
"Was that all?"
"Pretty near. He wanted to know what we was in such a hurry about, working nights, and I said we had to be through by January first. Then he said he supposed it must be for some rich man who didn"t care how much it cost him; and I said yes, it was. That was all. He didn"t mean nothing. We were just pa.s.sing the time of day. I don"t see any harm in that."
Bannon was leaning on the rail, his face away from Peterson. After a while he spoke thoughtfully. "Well, that cinches it. I guess he meant to hold us up, anyway, but now he knows we"re a good thing."
"How"s that? I don"t see," said Peterson; but Bannon made no reply.
"What did he have to offer the next time he came around? More in the same friendly way? When was it?"
"Just this afternoon. Why, he said he was afraid we"d have a strike on our hands."
"He ought to know," said Bannon. "Did he give any reason?"
"Yes, he did. You won"t mind my speaking it right out, I guess. He said the men didn"t like you, and if you wasn"t recalled they"d likely strike. He said they"d work under me if you was recalled, but he didn"t think he could keep "em from going out if you stayed. That ain"t what I think, mind you; I"m just telling you what he said. Then he kind of insinuated that I ought to do something about it myself. That made me tired, and I told him to come to you about it. I said you was the boss here now, and I was only the foreman of the night shift."
Until that last sentence Bannon had been only half listening. He made no sign, indeed, of having heard anything, but stood hacking at the pine railing with his pocket-knife. He was silent so long that at last Peterson arose to go. Bannon shut his knife and wheeled around to face him.
"Hold on, Pete," he said. "We"d better talk this business out right here."
"Talk out what?"
"Oh, I guess you know. Why don"t we pull together better? What is it you"re sore about?"
"Nothing. You don"t need to worry about it."
"Look here, Pete. You"ve known me a good many years. Do you think I"m square?"
"I never said you wasn"t square."
"You might have given me the benefit of the doubt, anyway. I know you didn"t like my coming down here to take charge. Do you suppose I did?
You were unlucky, and a man working for MacBride can"t afford to be unlucky; so he told me to come and finish the job. And once I was down here he held me responsible for getting it done. I"ve got to go ahead just the best I can. I thought you saw that at first, and that we"d get on all right together, but lately it"s been different."
"I thought I"d been working hard enough to satisfy anybody."
"It ain"t that, and you know it ain"t. It"s just the spirit of the thing. Now, I don"t ask you to tell me why it is you feel this way. If you want to talk it out now, all right. If you don"t, all right again.
But if you ever think I"m not using you right, come to me and say so.
Just look at what we"ve got to do here, Pete, before the first of January. Sometimes I think we can do it, and sometimes I think we can"t, but we"ve got to anyway. If we don"t, MacBride will just make up his mind we"re no good. And unless we pull together, we"re stuck for sure.
It ain"t a matter of work entirely. I want to feel that I"ve got you with me. Come around in the afternoon if you happen to be awake, and fuss around and tell me what I"m doing wrong. I want to consult you about a good many things in the course of a day."
Pete"s face was simply a lens through which one could see the feelings at work beneath, and Bannon knew that he had struck the right chord at last. "How is it? Does that go?"
"Sure," said Pete. "I never knew you wanted to consult me about anything, or I"d have been around before."
Friday afternoon Bannon received a note from Grady saying that if he had any regard for his own interests or for those of his employers, he would do well to meet the writer at ten o"clock Sunday morning at a certain downtown hotel. It closed with a postscript containing the disinterested suggestion that delays were dangerous, and a hint that the writer"s time was valuable and he wished to be informed whether the appointment would be kept or not.
Bannon ignored the note, and all day Monday expected Grady"s appearance at the office. He did not come, but when Bannon reached his boarding-house about eight o"clock that evening, he found Grady in his room waiting for him.
"I can"t talk on an empty stomach," said the boss, cheerfully, as he was washing up. "Just wait till I get some supper."
"I"ll wait," said Grady, grimly.
When Bannon came back to talk, he took off his coat and sat down astride a chair. "Well, Mr. Grady, when you came here before you said it was to warn me, but the next time you came you were going to begin to act. I"m all ready."
"All right," said Grady, with a vicious grin. "Be as smart as you like.
I"ll be paid well for every word of it and for every minute you"ve kept me waiting yesterday and to-night That was the most expensive supper you ever ate. I thought you had sense enough to come, Mr. Bannon. That"s why I wasted a stamp on you. You made the biggest mistake of your life----"
During the speech Bannon had sat like a man hesitating between two courses of action. At this point he interrupted:--
"Let"s get to business, Mr. Grady."
"I"ll get to it fast enough. And when I do you"ll see if you can safely insult the representative of the mighty power of the honest workingman of this vast land."
"Well?"
"I hear you folks are in a hurry, Mr. Bannon?"
"Yes."
"And that you"ll spend anything it costs to get through on time. How"d it suit you to have all your laborers strike about now? Don"t that idea make you sick?"
"Pretty near."
"Well, they will strike inside two days."