"Coom on, lads!" cried one of the others; and they rushed towards us, headed by a heavy thick-set fellow; but no one flinched, and they hesitated as they came close up.
"Take that fellow away," said Uncle Jack sternly; "and look here, while you stay, if any gentleman comes to the gate don"t send a surly dog like that."
"Who are yow? What d"ye want? Happen yow"ll get some"at if yo" stay."
"I want to go round the place. I am one of the proprietors who have taken it."
"Eh, you be--be you? Here, lads, this is one o" chaps as is turning us out. We"ve got the wheels ti" Sat.u.r.day, and we wean"t hev no one here."
"No, no," rose in chorus. "Open gate, lads, and hev "em out."
"Keep back!" said Uncle d.i.c.k, stepping forward; "keep back, unless you want to be hurt. No one is going to interfere with your rights, which end on Sat.u.r.day night."
"Eh! But if it hedn"t been for yow we could ha kep" on."
"Well, you"ll have to get some other place," said Uncle d.i.c.k; "we want this."
He turned his back on them and spoke to his brothers, who both, knowing their great strength, which they cultivated by muscular exercise, had stood quite calm and patient, but watchful, and ready to go to their brother"s aid in an instant should he need a.s.sistance.
"Come on and look round," said Uncle d.i.c.k coolly; and he did not even glance at the squinting man, who had tried to get up, but sank down again and sat grinning with pain and holding his injured leg.
The calm indifference with which my three uncles towered above the undersized, pallid-looking fellows, and walked by them to the entrance to the stone building had more effect than a score of blows, and the men stopped cl.u.s.tered round their companion, and talked to him in a low voice. But I was not six feet two like Uncle Bob, nor six feet one like Uncle Jack, nor six feet three like Uncle d.i.c.k. I was only an ordinary lad of sixteen, and much easier prey for their hate, and this they saw and showed.
For as I followed last, and was about to enter the door, a shower of stones and pieces of iron came whizzing about me, and falling with a rattle and clangour upon the cobble stones with which the place was paved.
Unfortunately, one piece, stone or iron, struck me on the shoulder, a heavy blow that made me feel sick, and I needed all the fort.i.tude I could call up to hide my pain, for I was afraid to say or do anything that would cause fresh trouble.
So I followed my uncles into the s.p.a.cious ground-floor of the works, all wet and dripping with the water from the grindstones which had just been left by the men, and were still whizzing round waiting to be used.
"Plenty of room here," said Uncle d.i.c.k, "and plenty of power, you see,"
he continued, pointing to the shaft and wheels above our heads.
"Ugly-looking place this," he went on, pointing to a trap-door at the end, which he lifted; and I looked down with a shudder to see a great shaft turning slowly round; and there was a slimy set of rotten wooden steps going right down into the blackness, where the water was falling with a curiously hollow echoing sound.
As I turned from looking down I saw that the men had followed us, and the fellow with the squint seemed to have one of his unpleasant eyes fixed upon me, and he gave me a peculiar look and grin that I had good reason to remember.
"This is the way to the big wheel," said Uncle d.i.c.k, throwing open a door at the end. "They go out here to oil and repair it when it"s out of gear. Nasty spot too, but there"s a wonderful supply of cheap power."
With the men growling and muttering behind us we looked through into a great half-lit stone chamber that inclosed the great wheel on one side, leaving a portion visible as we had seen it from the outside; and here again I shuddered and felt uncomfortable, it seemed such a horrible place to fall into and from which there would be no escape, unless one could swim in the surging water below, and then clamber into the wheel, and climb through it like a squirrel.
The walls were dripping and green, and they echoed and seemed to whisper back to the great wheel as it turned and splashed and swung down its long arms, each doubling itself on the wall by making a moving shadow.
The place had such a fascination for me that I stood with one hand upon the door and a foot inside looking down at the faintly seen black water, listening to the echoes, and then watching the wheel as it turned, one pale spot on the rim catching my eye especially. As I watched it I saw it go down into the darkness with a tremendous sweep, with a great deal of splashing and falling of water; then after being out of sight for a few moments it came into view again, was whirled round, and dashed down.
I don"t know how it was, but I felt myself thinking that suppose anyone fell into the horrible pit below me, he would swim round by the slimy walls trying to find a place to cling to, and finding none he would be swept round to the wheel, to which in his despair he would cling. Then he would be dragged out of the water, swung round, and--
"Do you hear, Cob?" cried Uncle Jack. "What is there to attract you, my lad? Come along."
I seemed to be roused out of a dream, and starting back, the door was closed, and I followed the others as they went to the far end of the great ground-floor to a door opening upon a stone staircase.
We had to pa.s.s the men, who were standing about close to their grindstones, beside which were little piles of the articles they were grinding--common knives, sickles, and scythe blades, ugly weapons if the men rose against us as they seemed disposed to do.
They muttered and talked to themselves, but they did not seem inclined to make any farther attack; while as we reached the stairs I heard the harsh shrieking of blades that were being held upon the stones, and I knew that some men must have begun work.
The upper floor was of the same size as the lower, but divided into four rooms by part.i.tions, and here too were shafts and wheels turning from their connection with the great water-wheel. Over that a small room had been built supported by an arch stretching from the works to a stone wall, and as we looked out of the narrow iron-barred window down upon the deep dam, Uncle Bob said laughingly:
"What a place for you, Cob! You could drop a line out of the window, and catch fish like fun."
I laughed, and we all had a good look round before examining the side buildings, where there were forges and furnaces, and a tall chimney-shaft ran up quite a hundred feet.
"Plenty of room to do any amount of work," cried Uncle Jack. "I think the place a bargain."
"Yes," said Uncle Bob, "where we can carry out our inventions; and if anybody is disagreeable, we can shut ourselves up like knights in a castle and laugh at all attacks."
"Yes," said Uncle d.i.c.k thoughtfully; "but I wish we had not begun by quarrelling with those men."
"Let"s try and make friends as we go out," said Uncle Jack.
It was a good proposal; and, under the impression that a gallon or two of beer would heal the sore place, we went into the big workshop or mill, where all the men had now resumed their tasks, and were grinding away as if to make up for lost time.
One man was seated alone on a stone bench, and as we entered he half turned, and I saw that it was Uncle d.i.c.k"s opponent.
He looked at us for a moment and then turned scowling away.
My uncles whispered together, and then Uncle d.i.c.k stepped forward and said:
"I"m sorry we had this little upset, my lads. It all arose out of a mistake. We have taken these works, and of course wanted to look round them, but we do not wish to put you to any inconvenience. Will you--"
He stopped short, for as soon as he began to speak the men seemed to press down their blades that they were grinding harder and harder, making them send forth such a deafening churring screech that he paused quite in despair of making himself heard.
"My lads!" he said, trying again.
Not a man turned his head, and it was plain enough that they would not hear.
"Let me speak to him," said Uncle Bob, catching his brother by the arm, for Uncle d.i.c.k was going to address the man on the stone.
Uncle d.i.c.k nodded, for he felt that it would be better for someone else to speak; but the man got up, scowled at Uncle Bob, and when he held out a couple of half-crowns to him to buy beer to drink our healths the fellow made a derisive gesture, walked to his stone, and sat down.
"Just as they like," said Uncle d.i.c.k. "We apologised and behaved like gentlemen. If they choose to behave like blackguards, let them. Come along."
We turned to the door, my fate, as usual, being to come last; and as we pa.s.sed through not a head was turned, every man pressing down some steel implement upon his whirling stone, and making it shriek, and, in spite of the water in which the wheel revolved, send forth a shower of sparks.
The noise was deafening, but as we pa.s.sed into the yard on the way to the lane the grinding suddenly ceased, and when we had the gate well open the men had gathered at the door of the works, and gave vent to a savage hooting and yelling which continued after we had pa.s.sed through, and as we went along by the side of the dam we were saluted by a shower of stones and pieces of iron thrown from the yard.
"Well," said Uncle Bob, "this is learning something with a vengeance. I didn"t think we had such savages in Christian England."
By this time we were out of the reach of the men, and going on towards the top of the dam, when Uncle d.i.c.k, who had been looking very serious and thoughtful, said:
"I"m sorry, very sorry this has happened. It has set these men against us."