"Don"t tell any stories about it," I said; "but you do know."
"Don"t ask me, mester," he cried with a groan. "Don"t ask me."
"Then you do know," I cried.
"I don"t know nowt," he said in a hoa.r.s.e whisper. "Why, man alive, it wouldn"t be safe for a chap like me to know owt. They"d put a brick round my neck and throw me in the watter."
"But you do know, Gentles," I persisted.
"I don"t know nowt, I tell "ee," he cried angrily. "Such friends as we"ve been, Mester Jacob, and you to want to get me into a scrarp."
"Why, Gentles!" I cried. "If you know, why don"t you speak out like a man?"
""Cause I"m a man o" peace, Mester Jacob, and don"t want to harm n.o.body, and I don"t want n.o.body to harm me. Nay, I know nowt at all."
"Well, I think you are a contemptible coward, Gentles," I said warmly.
"You"re taking my uncles" money and working on their premises, and though you know who has been base enough to injure them you are not man enough to speak."
"Now don"t--don"t--don"t, my lad," he cried in a hoa.r.s.e whisper. "Such friends as we"ve been too, and you go on like that. I tell "ee I"m a man of peace, and I don"t know nowt at all. On"y give me my grinstone and something to grind--that"s all I want."
"And to see our place blown up and the bands destroyed. There, I"m ashamed of you, Gentles," I cried.
"But you"ll be friends?" he said; and there were tears in his eyes.
"Friends! How can I be friends," I cried, "with a man like you?"
"Oh dear, oh dear!" I heard him groan as I left the workshop; and going to Piter"s kennel I took off his collar and led him down to the dam to give him a swim.
He was a capital dog for the water, and thoroughly enjoyed a splash, so that before the men came back he had had a swim, shaken himself, and was stretched out in the sunshine under the wall drying himself, when, as I stooped to pat him, I noticed something about the wall that made me look higher in a hurried way, and then at the top, and turn off directly.
I had seen enough, and I did not want to be noticed, for some of the men were beginning to come back, so stooping down I patted Piter and went off to the office.
As soon as the men were well at work I went into one of the sheds, where there were two or three holes under the benches where the rats came up from the dam, and where it was the custom to set a trap or two, which very rarely snared one of the busy little animals, though now and then we did have that luck, and Piter had the pleasure of killing the mischievous creature if the trap had not thoroughly done its work.
I soon found what I wanted--an old rusty spring trap with its sharp teeth, and, shaking off the dust, I tucked it under my jacket and strolled off to the smith"s shops, where I found Pannell hammering away as hard as ever he could.
He was making reaping-hooks of my uncles" patent steel, and as I stood at the door and watched him I counted the blows he gave, and it was astonishing how regular he was, every implement taking nearly the same number of blows before he threw it down.
"Well, Pannell," I said, "arn"t you sorry to have to work so hard again?"
He whisked a piece of hot steel from his forge and just glanced at me as he went on with his work, laying the glowing sparkling steel upon the anvil.
"Sorry!"--_bang_--"no"--_bang_--"not a"--_bing, bang_, _bang_--"not a"--_bang, bang, bing, bang, bang_--"bit of it."
That was how it sounded to me as he worked away.
"Wife"--_bang_--"bairns"--_bing, bang, bang, bing, chinger, chinger, bing, bang_--"eight"--_bang_--"of "em. I hate"--_bang_--"to do"--_bang_--"nowt"--_bang_--"but"--_bang_--"smoke all"--_bang_--"day."
"I say, Pannell," I said, after glancing round and seeing that we were quite alone, "how came you to throw our bands in the wheel-pit?"
"What!" he cried, pincers in one hand, hammer in the other; and he looked as if he were going to seize me with one tool and beat me with the other. "Yah! Get out, you young joker! You know it warn"t me."
"But you know who did it."
Pannell looked about him, through the window, out of the door, up the forge chimney, and then he gave me a solemn wink.
"Then why don"t you speak?"
The big smith took a blade of steel from the fire as if it were a flaming sword, and beat it into the reaping-hook of peace before he said in a hoa.r.s.e whisper:
"Men"s o" one side, lad--unions. Mesters is t"other side. It"s a feight."
"But it"s so cowardly, Pannell," I said.
"Ay, lad, it is," he cried, banging away. "But I can"t help it. Union says strike, and you hev to strike whether you like it or whether you don"t like it, and clem till it"s over."
"But it"s such a cowardly way of making war, to do what you men do."
"What they men do, lad," he whispered.
"What you men do," I repeated.
"Nay, they men," he whispered.
"You are one of them, and on their side, so what they do you do."
"Is that so?" he said, giving a piece of steel such a hard bang that he had to repeat it to get it into shape.
"Of course it is."
"Well, I s"pose you"re right, lad," he said, thoughtfully.
"Why don"t you tell me, then, who threw the bands in the wheel-pit, so that he could be discharged?"
"Me! Me tell! Nay. Look at that now."
_That_ was a piece of steel spoiled by the vehemence of his blows, and it was thrust back into the fire.
"I will not say who gave me the information," I said.
He shook his head.
"n.o.body shall ever know that you told me."
He took a little hook he was forging and made a motion with it as if I were a stalk of wheat and he wanted to draw me to him.
"Lad," he said, "man who tells on his mate aren"t a man no longer. I _am_ a man."