"Stop if you like," Railton agreed. "You"ve got me a just reckoning and you"re neebors aw."
"It"s not necessary," Hayes objected. "The business we have to transact is private."
"They ken it," Railton replied in a stubborn voice. "I"ve bid them stop and the hoose is mine until Mr. Osborn turns me oot."
"Very well. You know the sum due to the landlord. Are you ready to pay?"
"I canna pay. It"s weel you ken."
"Then, can you give security for the debt?"
"I canna and wadn"t give it if I could. There"s ways a cliver agent can run up a reckoning, and when you want Mireside I"ll have to gan."
"Then, I"m afraid we shall be forced to break the lease and take measures to recover the sum due."
"Hoad on a minute!" said one of the group, who turned to Railton. "Would you like to stop?"
"I would like; I"ve lived at Mireside sin" I was born. There"s another thing: it"s none too good a time for a sale o" farming stock, and when I"ve paid Osborn, I"ll need some money to mak" anither start. Then may-happen a dry spring wold put me straight."
"It ought to; you"re not much behind," Peter agreed. "Weel, you ken I"m generally willing to back my judgment, and noo it seems there"s others think like me."
"In a sense, the lease does not run out yet," Kit interposed. "It has rather reached the half-term, because by our custom Railton is ent.i.tled to take it up again for an equal period if he and the landlord agree about the necessary adjustment. Our leases really cover a double term."
Hayes turned to him with an ironical smile. "Do you know much about tenant law?" he asked.
"No," said Kit, rather dryly. "I made some studies when I could get the books, but they didn"t take me far. In fact, I imagine that in this neighborhood there"s very little law and much precedent, which has generally been interpreted for the landlord"s advantage. There are old Barony laws and Manor rights, and my notion is that n.o.body knows exactly how he stands. But we"ll let this go. If Railton pays his fine, you will have some trouble to get rid of him."
Hayes agreed and Railton looked up with a puzzled air.
"But I canna pay," he said dully.
The farmer who had interrupted Hayes took out a bulky envelope and crossed the floor.
"Well," he said, "I think you"re wrang. Your friends have been talking aboot the thing and wadn"t like t" see you gan." He gave Railton the envelope, adding: "It"s a loan."
Railton"s hand shook as he took out a bundle of bank-notes. "You"re good neebors," he said in a strained voice. "But I dinna think I ought to tak"
your money. There"s a risk."
"Not much risk in backing an honest man," the other rejoined, and taking the notes from Railton gave them to Hayes. "Noo, if you"ll count these--"
Hayes" face was inscrutable as he flicked over the notes. "The total"s correct. It"s an awkward bundle; a check would have been simpler."
"A check has the drawback that it must be signed," Kit remarked with a meaning smile. "We"re modest folk, and n.o.body was anxious to write himself down the leader."
"I see!" said Hayes. "I don"t know if you"re modest; but you"re certainly cautious."
"Anyhow, we"re aw in this," said one of the others.
"So it seems. I hope you won"t lose your money," Hayes rejoined dryly and took out a fountain pen. "Well, here"s your receipt, Mr. Railton. I don"t think there is anything more to be said."
He put the receipt on the table and when he went away a farmer laughed.
"O"ad Hayes is quiet and cunning as a hill fox, but my lease has some time to go and he canna put us aw oot."
Railton tried to thank them, while Mrs. Railton smiled with tears in her eyes, but the dales folk dislike emotion and as soon as it was possible the visitors went away.
An hour or two afterwards Grace heard about the matter from the sick wife of a farmer, whom she had gone to see, and when she went home thought she had better not confess that she had taken Hayes" note to Mireside. When Osborn joined his wife and daughter at the tea-table in the hall after some disappointing shooting, his remarks about his tenants were rancorous. Grace thought it prudent not to talk and left the table as soon as she could. When she had gone, Osborn frowned and getting up savagely kicked a log in the grate.
"I got a nasty knock this morning," he said. "It"s not so much that I mind letting Railton stop; I hate to feel I"ve been baffled and made the victim of a plot."
"After all, wasn"t it rather Hayes"s idea than yours that Railton ought to go?" Mrs. Osborn ventured.
"It was; there"s some comfort in that! You don"t like Hayes much."
"I don"t know that I dislike him. I"m not sure I trust him."
"Well," said Osborn thoughtfully, "I sometimes feel he"s keenest about my interests when they don"t clash with his, and this last affair was a pretty good example of nepotism. For all that, his nephew would have been a better tenant and have paid a higher rent." He paused and knitted his brows angrily as he resumed: "However, it"s done with, and one can"t blame Railton for holding on to his lease. What I hate to feel is, the others plotted to baffle me. The land is mine, but I"d sooner get on well with my tenants."
"One cannot, so to speak, have it both ways," Mrs. Osborn remarked timidly.
"Oh, I know what you mean! But I don"t think I"m a harsh landlord. If money was not quite so scarce, I might be generous. In fact, I don"t know that I"d have agreed to turning Railton out if it hadn"t been for Gerald"s confounded debts and his allowance at Woolwich. That"s a fresh expense."
Mrs. Osborn thought the expense did not count for much by comparison with her husband"s extravagance; but he had been rather patient and she must not go too far.
"Well," she said, "you have got Railton"s fine."
"It is not a large sum," Osborn answered with a frown. "I need the money, but in a sense I"d sooner it had not been paid. Anyhow, I"d sooner it had not been paid like that. The others" confounded organized opposition annoys me."
"They were forced to subscribe to a fund if they wanted to help."
"Just so; but they probably wouldn"t have thought about subscribing if Askew hadn"t suggested it. They"re an independent lot and believe in standing on their own feet. For a time after I got Tarnside, they used a sensible, give-and-take att.i.tude; it"s only recently they"ve met with stupid, sullen suspicion."
"Perhaps it was rather a mistake to give Bell the coal yards" lease."
"The coal yards had nothing to do with it," Osborn declared. "The trouble began earlier, and I"ve grounds for believing it began at Ashness. If I was rich enough, I"d buy the Askews out. They know I"ve no power over them and take advantage of the situation. The old man was a bad example for the others, but his son, with his raw communistic notions, is dangerous. If I could get rid of the meddling fool somehow, it would be a keen relief."
He came back to the table and picked up a cup of tea. Then, grumbling that it had gone cold, he put it down noisily and went out.
CHAPTER VIII
GRACE FINDS A WAY
Soon after the reckoning at Mireside, the snow melted off the fells and for a month dark rain clouds from the sea rolled up the dale. They broke upon the hill tops in heavy showers, gray mist drifted about the wet slopes, the becks roared in the ghylls, and threads of foam that wavered in the wind streaked the crags. In the bottom of the valley it was never really light, water flowed across the roads, and the low-standing farmsteads reeked with damp.