"Well, sir, what does it matter?" said Bayne, soothingly. "He is no more than a mouthpiece."
"Go for him," said Cheetham, sullenly.
"But, sir, I can"t bear that your own workman should see you so agitated."
"Oh, I shall be all right the moment I see my man before me."
Bayne went off, and soon returned with Redcar. The man had his coat on, but had not removed his leathern ap.r.o.n.
Cheetham received him as the representative of the Unions. "Sit down, Redcar, and let us put an end to this little bother. What do you require?"
"Mr. Little"s discharge, sir."
"Are you aware he is with me on a month"s notice?"
"They make a point of his leaving the works at once, sir; and I was to beg you to put other hands into his room."
"It is taking a great liberty to propose that."
"Nay. They only want to be satisfied. He has given a vast o" trouble."
"I"ll give him a month"s warning. If I discharge him on the spot, he can sue me."
"That has been thought on. If he sues you, you can talk to the Unions, and they will act with you. But the grinders are not to come in till Little is out."
"Well, so be it, then."
"And his rooms occupied by Union men?"
"If I swallow the bolus, I may as well swallow the pills. Anything more?"
"The grinders are not to lose their time; a day and a half."
"What! am I to pay them for not working?"
"Well, sir, if we had come to you, of course the forgers and handlers would have paid the grinders for lost time; but, as you have come to us, you will have to pay them."
Cheetham made a wry face; but acquiesced.
"And then, sir," said Redcar, "there"s another little matter. The incidental expenses of the strike."
"I don"t know what you mean."
"The expenses incurred by the secretaries, and a little present to another gentleman, who advised us. It comes to thirty pounds altogether."
"What!" cried Cheetham, struggling with his rising choler. "You want me to pay men thirty pounds for organizing a strike, that will cost me so dear, and rob me of a whole trade that was worth L300 a year? Why not charge me for the gunpowder you blew up Little with, and spoiled my forge? No, Bayne, no; this is too unjust and too tyrannical. Flesh and blood won"t bear it. I"ll shut up the works, and go back to my grindstone. Better live on bread and water than live like a slave."
Redcar took a written paper out of his pocket. "There are the terms written down," said he, "if you sign them, the strike ends; if you don"t, it continues--till you do."
Cheetham writhed under the pressure. Orders were pouring in; trade brisk; hands scarce. Each day would add a further loss of many pounds for wages, and doubtless raise fresh exactions. He gulped down something very like a sob, and both his hand and his voice shook with strong pa.s.sion as he took the pen. "I"ll sign it; but if ever my turn comes, I"ll remember this against you. This shows what they really are, Bayne.
Oh, if ever you workmen get power, G.o.d HELP THE WORLD!"
These words seemed to come in a great prophetic agony out of a bursting heart.
But the representative of the Unions was neither moved by them nor irritated.
"All right," said he, phlegmatically; "the winner takes his bite: the loser gets his bark: that"s reason."
Henry Little was in his handling-room, working away, with a bright perspective before him, when Bayne knocked at the door, and entered with Redcar. Bayne"s face wore an expression so piteous, that Henry divined mischief at once.
"Little, my poor fellow, it is all over. We are obliged to part with you."
"Cheetham has thrown me over?"
"What could he do? I am to ask you to vacate these rooms, that we may get our half-day out of the grinders."
Henry turned pale, but there was no help for it.
He got up in a very leisurely way; and, while he was putting on his coat, he told Bayne, doggedly, he should expect his month"s salary.
As he was leaving, Redcar spoke to him in rather a sheepish way. "Shake hands, old lad," said he; "thou knows one or t"other must win; and there"s not a grain of spite against thee. It"s just a trade matter."
Henry stood with his arms akimbo, and looked at Redcar. "I was in hopes," said he, grinding his teeth, "you were going to ask me to take a turn with you in the yard, man to man. But I can"t refuse my hand to one of my own sort that asks it. There "tis. After all, you deserve to win, for you are true to each other; but a master can"t be true to a man, nor to anything on earth, but his pocket."
He then strolled out into the yard, with his hands in his pockets, and whistled "The Harmonious Blacksmith" very sick at heart.
CHAPTER IX.
The strike was over, the grinders poured into the works, and the grindstones revolved. Henry Little leaned against an angle of the building, and listened with aching heart to their remorseless thunder.
He stood there disconsolate--the one workman out of work--and sipped the bitter cup, defeat. Then he walked out at the gates, and wandered languidly into the streets. He was miserable, and had n.o.body to mourn to, for the main cause of his grief lay beneath the surface of this defeat; and how could he reveal it, now that his ambitious love looked utter madness? Young as he was, he had seen there is no sympathy in the world for any man who loves out of his sphere. Indeed, whatever cures or crushes such a pa.s.sion, is hailed by the by-standers as a sharp but wholesome medicine.
He sauntered about, and examined all the shops with lack-l.u.s.ter eye. He looked in at everything, but observed nothing, scarcely saw anything.
All his senses were turned inward. It was such a pitiable and galling result of a gallant fight. Even the insurance office had got the better of him. It had taken one-third of his savings, and the very next day his trade was gone, and his life in no danger. The "Gosshawk" had plucked him, and the trade had tied his hands. Rack his invention how he would, he could see no way of becoming a master in Hillsborough, except by leaving Hillsborough, and working hard and long in some other town. He felt in his own heart the love and constancy to do this; but his reason told him such constancy would be wasted; for while he was working at a distance, the impression, if any, he had made on her would wear away, and some man born with money, would step in and carry her gayly off.
This thought returned to him again and again, and exasperated him so at last, that he resolved to go to "Woodbine Villa," and tell her his heart before he left the place. Then he should be rejected, no doubt, but perhaps pitied, and not so easily forgotten as if he had melted silently away.
He walked up the hill, first rapidly, then slowly. He called at "Woodbine Villa."
The answer was "Not at home."
"Everything is against me," said he.
He wandered wearily down again, and just at the entrance of the town he met a gentleman with a lady on each arm, and one of those ladies was Miss Carden. The fortunate cavalier was Mr. Coventry, whom Henry would have seen long before this, but he had been in Paris for the last four months. He had come back fuller than ever of agreeable gossip, and Grace was chatting away to him, and beaming with pleasure, as innocent girls do, when out on a walk with a companion they like. She was so absorbed she did not even see Henry Little. He went off the pavement to make room for their tyrannical crinolines, and pa.s.sed unnoticed.
He had flushed with joy at first sight of her, but now a deadly qualm seized him. The gentleman was handsome and commanding; Miss Carden seemed very happy, hanging on his arm; none the less bright and happy that he, her humble worshiper, was downcast and wretched.