For several days heavy bales of cotton had been pouring into the
factory. Adler, expecting a rise in the prices of raw material, had
invested all his available money in the buying up of large quantities.
Only part of it had so far been delivered.
His calculations had not deceived him; a few days after the contract
was signed the prices rose, and they were still rising. Adler declined
the most advantageous offers for re-sale. He rubbed his hands with
pleasure. This was the best stroke of business he had done for a long
time, and he foresaw that, long before all his raw material had been
made up, his capital would have been trebled.
"I shall have finished with the mill soon," he said to himself.
It was a strange thing--from the moment that he saw the goal of his
wishes definitely before him, a hitherto unknown lassitude took
possession of him. He was tired of the mill, and vaguely longed for
other things. Sometimes he begged his son not to go out so much, to
stay at home and talk to him of his travels. More and more often he
would slip over to Pastor Boehme for a talk.
"I am tired out," he said to him. "Goslawski's death and the riots in
the factory stick in my throat like bones. Do you know that sometimes
I even find myself envying your way of living. But that's all
nonsense; it shows I am getting old."
And as Goslawski, on whose grave the earth was still fresh, had
counted the days, so the old mill-owner now counted the months of his
stay at the mill.
"By next July I ought to have made up all the cotton. In June I must
announce the sale of the mill; in August at the latest they must pay
up, for I don't give credit. In September I shall be free. I won't say
anything to Ferdinand until the last moment. How pleased he will be!
Then I shall invest the money and live on the interest; for the rascal
would run through it in a few years' time, and then I should have to
go and be foreman somewhere."
His love for Ferdinand grew stronger and stronger, and he excused his
obvious neglect of his father.
"Why should I force the boy to work at the mill, when I am sick of it
myself? And why should he care if I am longing for his company? He
must have young people to amuse himself with; and my amusement
is--work!"
On the day following the fair the old mill-owner was, as usual, making
the round of all the workshops and offices. Many of his employés had
been in the town, and there was much gossip about the joke Ferdinand
had played upon the neighbourhood. It was said that he had bought up
all the dinners at the hotel, and that every nobleman had to bow to
him before he could obtain anything to eat or to drink. At first Adler
laughed, but when he had reckoned up what this joke was likely to cost
him his face became sullen.
The vanloads of raw cotton were standing in the courtyard, and were
being unloaded by extra hands. Adler looked on for a while, and then
proceeded on his round of inspection, giving strict orders that no one
was to smoke anywhere. When he turned into his office, he saw two
women talking excitedly to the porter; seeing Adler, they ran away.
But he paid no attention to them.
A clerk, looking strangely unnerved, came running out of the office;
the book-keeper, the cashier and his assistant, were talking together
in one corner of the room with obvious signs of excitement. At the
sight of their chief they quickly returned to their desks, bending low
over their books. Even this roused no suspicion in Adler. They had
probably been at the fair and were discussing scandal of some sort.
In his private office Adler found himself face to face with a
stranger. The man was impatient and restless. He was pacing quickly up
and down the room. When the mill-owner entered, he stood still and
asked, in an embarrassed tone:
"Pan Adler?"
"Yes; do you wish to see me?"
For a while the man was silent. His mouth twitched. The mill-owner
looked at him searchingly, trying to guess who he was and what he
wanted. He did not look like a candidate for a post at the mill, but
rather like a rich young gentleman.
"I have an important affair to discuss with you," he said at last.
"Perhaps you would rather speak to me at my own house?" said Adler,
realizing that with such an excited person it might be better to talk
out of earshot of the clerks. He might have some claim on him.
The stranger hesitated for a moment, and then spoke quickly:
"All right; let us go to the house. I have been there already."
"Were you looking for me?"
"Yes; because--you see, Pan Adler, we have taken Ferdinand there."
The thought of a calamity of any kind was so far from Adler that he
asked quite cheerfully:
"Was Ferdinand so drunk that you had to bring him home?"
"He is wounded," replied the stranger.
They were now in front of the house. Adler stopped.
"Who is wounded?" he asked.
"Ferdinand."
The old man did not comprehend.
"Has he broken his leg or his neck, or what do you mean?"
"It is a bullet wound."
"A bullet? How?"
"He has had a duel."
The mill-owner's red face now flushed the colour of brick. He threw
down his hat in the portico and hurried through the open door. He did
not ask who had wounded his son. What did that matter?
He found the servants and another stranger in the room. Pushing them
aside, he stepped up to where Ferdinand was lying on the couch. The
wounded man was without coat or waistcoat, and his face was so
dreadfully changed that at first the father scarcely recognized his
own son. The doctor was sitting at the head of the couch. Adler
stared, and then fell upon a chair, leant forward with his hands on
his knees, and asked in a stifled voice:
"What have you been doing, you scamp?"
Ferdinand gave him a look of indescribable sadness; then he took his
father's hand and kissed it. He had not done this for a long time.
Adler shuddered and was silent. Ferdinand began to speak in a low
voice and with pauses:
"I had to ... father ... I had to. Everyone spoke against us, the
nobility, the newspapers, even the waiters. They were saying that I
was squandering the money while you sweated the workpeople. Before
long they would have spat in our faces."
"Do not exert yourself," whispered the doctor.
The old man listened with the greatest astonishment and sorrow. His
thick lips were parted.
"Save me ... father...!" cried Ferdinand with raised voice. "I have
promised ten thousand roubles to the doctor."
A cloud of displeasure flashed across Adler's face. "Why so much?" he
asked mechanically.
"Because I am dying ... I feel I am dying."
The old man started up from his chair.
"You are mad!" he exclaimed. "You have done a foolish thing, but you
are not going to die!"
"I am dying," the wounded man groaned.
Adler, in utter bewilderment, pulled his fingers till the joints
cracked.
"He is mad! Good Lord! he is out of his mind! Tell him he is silly,
doctor--he speaks of dying.... As if we should allow him to die! You
have been promised ten thousand roubles: that is not enough,"
feverishly continued the old man. "I will give a hundred thousand for
my son, if there is the slightest danger. But mind you, I am not going
to pay if he is merely silly. What is his condition?"
"It is not exactly dangerous," replied the doctor; "yet we must be
careful."
"Of course! Do you hear him, Ferdinand? Now, don't bother yourself and
me.... Johann! Send a wire to Warsaw for all the best doctors. Send to
Vienna and Berlin--to Paris, if necessary. Let the doctor give you the
addresses of the most famous men. I will pay ... I have enough
money...."
"Oh, I feel so terribly ill," Ferdinand groaned, tossing about on the
couch. His father hurried to his side.
"Compose yourself," said the doctor.
"Father!" cried the dying man; "my father, I cannot see you any more!"
Blood appeared on his lips. His eyes were dilated with despair.
"Air!" he cried.
He jumped up, and with hands outstretched like a blind man he turned
towards the window. Suddenly his arms dropped; he staggered and fell
upon the couch, striking his head against the wall. Once more he
turned towards his father, and opened his eyes with difficulty. Large
tears stood in them. Adler, utterly overcome and trembling all over,
sat down near him, and wiped the tears from his eyes and the froth
from his lips with his large hands.
"Ferdinand ... Ferdinand," he whispered, "be quiet.... You shall
live.... You shall have all I possess."
Suddenly he felt his son getting heavy on his arms and dropping.
"Doctor! Bring him round! He is fainting!"
"Pan Adler, you had better go out of the room," said the doctor.
"Why should I go out of the room when my son is in need of my help?"
"He is no longer in need of it!"
Adler looked at his son, gripped him tightly, shook him. A large patch
of blood had appeared on the bandage which covered his chest.
Ferdinand was dead.
Frenzy seized the old man. He jumped up from the couch, kicked over
the chair, knocked against the doctor, and ran out into the courtyard
and from there into the road. On the road he met one of the
van-drivers bringing in the cotton. He seized him by the shoulders.
"Do you know my son is dead?" he shouted.
He flung the man on the ground and ran on to the porter's lodge.
"Hallo, there! Call up all the men! Let them all come in front of my
house!"
He ran back to his dead son's room as fast as he had run out of it,
sat down, and looked and looked at him in silence for half an hour.
Then he suddenly started up.
"What does this silence mean?" he asked. "Has the machinery broken
down?"
"You ordered all the hands to be called up, sir," answered Johann, "so
they stopped the machinery, and are now waiting in the yard."
"What for? There is no reason for them to wait! Let them go back to
work, and weave and spin and make a noise...."
He clasped his head with both hands.
"My son!... My son!... My son!..."
Someone had sent for the pastor, and he now came hurrying into the
room, weeping.
"Gottlieb!" he cried, "God has greatly afflicted you; but let us trust
His mercy."
Adler gave him a lingering glance, then pointed to his son's dead body
and said:
"Look, Martin! that is myself; it is not his corpse, it is my own.
There lies my factory, my fortune, my hope. But no! ... he is
alive!... Tell me that, and I shall be calm. How my heart aches!..."
The pastor led him away into the garden, the doctor and the seconds
left, the servants dispersed.
"Do you know what is the worst of it?" continued Adler. "In a year's
time, or perhaps sooner, the doctors will discover a way of curing
such wounds; but what will be the good of that to me? I would have
given everything now for such a discovery."
The pastor took his hand.
"Gottlieb, how long is it since you have prayed?"
"I don't know ... thirty--forty years."
"Do you remember your prayers?"
"I remember that I had a son."
"Your son is with the Lord."
Adler's head dropped.
"How greedy he is, this Lord!"
"Do not blaspheme. The time will come when you will meet Him."
"When?"
"When your hour strikes."
The old man looked thoughtful. Then he took his watch from his
pocket, wound it up, listened to the ticking and said:
"My hour has struck already.... Now you go home, Martin; your wife and
daughter and your church are waiting for you. Go and enjoy yourself,
look after your services, drink your hock, and leave me alone. I am
waiting for the collapse of the whole world, and I shall perish with
it. I have no need of friends, and still less of a pastor. Your
frightened face bores me."
"Gottlieb, be calm! Pray!"
"Go to the devil!"
Adler jumped up, slipped through the garden gate and ran into the
fields. The pastor did not know what to do. He returned to the villa,
feeling that Adler ought to be watched; but the servants were afraid
of their master. He sent for the old book-keeper, and told him he
feared the mill-owner had gone out of his mind and run away.
"Oh, that doesn't mean anything," said the book-keeper; "he will tire
himself out and come back in a better frame of mind. He often does
that when he is upset."
The hours passed and evening came, but the old cotton-spinner did not
appear. Never had there been anything like the present excitement in
the factory. Goslawski's death had shaken them, brought home to them
the wrongs they were suffering, and set them against their merciless
employer. But now their feelings were of a different kind.
The first impression that Ferdinand's sudden death made upon the mill
hands was dismay and fright. They felt as if a thunderbolt had struck
the factory and it were trembling in its foundations, as if the sun
had stood still in the sky. Ferdinand dead? He--so young and strong, a
man who had never had to work, never attended to a machine--the son of
their almighty employer? Quicker than a miserable workman like
Goslawski, he had perished, shot like a hare! To these poor, simple,
dependent people Adler was a severe deity, and more powerful than the
State. They were seized with fear. It seemed to them that this small
landowner and country judge, Zapora, had committed a sacrilege in
shooting Ferdinand. How dared he shoot him, before whom even the
boldest of them had to give way?
And a strange thing happened. These same people who had daily cursed
the mill-owner and his son now cursed his destroyer. Some of them
shouted that this fiend ought to be shot like a dog. But had the
"fiend" suddenly appeared in their midst, they would certainly have
run away.
As the discussions went on, some of the foremen explained that Zapora
had not murdered Ferdinand, but that there had been a fight, and
Ferdinand had been the first to shoot. It even transpired that the
cause had been a quarrel about the workpeople--that Ferdinand had
been killed because he spent the money which had been got by wronging
the people. God had punished Adler; their curses had been heard.
Thus within a few hours a legend was formed round the incident. The
voice of human blood had gone up to the throne of the Almighty, and a
miracle had been worked. They were filled with awe.
What would happen now? Would their employer cease to wrong them?
Someone suggested that the machinery should be stopped under these
unusual circumstances, but the old book-keeper fell upon him. Stop the
machinery and irritate the boss even more, when he is not quite in his
right mind? He himself had felt quite odd when the machinery had been
stopped before, and they had all gone up to the house. When there is
the clatter it makes one feel easier, and one thinks nothing has
happened.
The others agreed.
In the evening Adler returned, and entered the office like a ghost.
Nobody knew when he had come. He was covered with mud, as if he had
been rolling on the ground. His eyes were bloodshot, and his short
flaxen hair stood on end: he was gasping for breath. Hurriedly he ran
through the offices, snapping his fingers. The frightened clerks
pretended to go on with their work. A young man was reading a wire.
Adler went up to him, and asked in a quiet though changed voice:
"What is that?"
"Cotton is still going up," the clerk replied. "To-day we have made
six thousand----"
He did not finish. Adler had torn the message from his hands and
thrown it in his face.
"You low vermin!" he shouted. "How dare you tell me such a thing! The
very dogs run away from my grief with their tails between their legs,
and you talk to me of six thousand roubles!... Can you bring back a
day--even half a day--to me?"
Boehme came running into the office.
"Gottlieb," he cried, "the carriage is waiting; come to my house with
me."
The mill-owner drew himself up to his full height and put both his
hands in his pockets.
"Oh, you are there, St. Martin!" he said ironically. "No, I will not
go with you to your house! I will say even more. Not a single farthing
shall I leave to you or your Józio! Do you hear? I dare say you are a
servant of the Lord, and His wisdom speaks through your tongue, but
not a farthing will you get from me. My fortune belongs to my son."
"What are you talking about, Gottlieb?" the pastor said, shocked.
"I am talking plainly. This is a plot to put your son in here to order
the factory people about.... You have killed my son, and you would
like to kill me; but I am not one of those fools who want to spend
their money on the salvation of their souls...."
"Gottlieb, you suspect me--_me_?"
Adler seized his hands and looked into his eyes with hatred.
"Do you remember, Boehme, that you threatened me with God's
punishment? Formerly the Jesuits used to do the same to trick people's
fortune out of them. But I was too clever!... I would not be tricked;
therefore God has punished me. It is not long ago since you threw
corks and sticks on the water, and said the wave would return. But my
poor son will not return."
Adler had never been so eloquent as at the moment when his reason was
leaving him. He seized the pastor by the shoulders and pushed him out
of the door. Restlessly he began to walk up and down again, and at
last left the office. The gloom of dusk swallowed him up, and the
noise of the machinery drowned his footfalls.
The clerks were panic-stricken. No one thought of watching him--they
had all lost their heads. They knew how to attend mechanically to
their duties, but no one would have dared to take any responsibility.
Pastor Boehme dared not give orders either. To whom should he have
given them? Who would have listened to him?
Events meanwhile took their course. One of the workmen noticed that
the small door leading to the cotton warehouse was open. Before he
could give notice to the foreman, it had been shut again. The
workpeople whispered to one another about thieves and Ferdinand's
repentant ghost. But the clerks rushed to the office to see what had
become of the master-key, and found it gone.
No doubt Adler himself had taken it. But where was he? The porter had
seen him pass through the gateway, but had not noticed him go out
again, though he said he had been watching closely for him. Who would
undertake to find him in the huge building?
This time the old book-keeper guessed the danger which threatened the
factory. He called up the foremen, ordered that watchmen should be set
outside the main doors, that the engines should be stopped and the
hands withdrawn from the workshop. But before these orders could be
carried out the sound of the alarm bell was heard from the warehouses.
Smoke and flames were issuing from the openings. The hands, already
demoralized, were seized with panic and left the workrooms in a crowd.
So precipitate was their flight that they forgot to turn out the
lights, left all the doors open, and did not stop the engines. But
they had only just saved themselves when the fire began to break out
in the warehouses containing the manufactured goods.
"What is this? Someone is setting fire to the mill!" they cried.
"It is the boss himself! He is setting fire to it!"
"Where is he?"
"Nobody knows."
The fire was breaking out in the spinning and weaving departments.
"Surely it is Adler himself who is setting the mill alight!"
"Why should we save it, when he is destroying it?"
"Who tells you to save it?"
"But what are we going to eat to-morrow?"
The shouts of men and the weeping of women and children rose from the
dense crowd of hundreds of human beings, powerless in the face of this
calamity. Rescue was, indeed, impossible. The people looked on
stupefied while the fire spread rapidly.
The gloomy background of a dark autumn night threw into relief the
burning buildings, lit by fierce, red flames, which burst from all the
openings like torches and played over the crowd gathered in the
courtyard below. Of the main building in the shape of a horseshoe, the
left wing was on fire in the fourth story, and the right on the ground
floor. The workrooms in the middle part of the building were brightly
lighted by gas-lamps, so that the power-looms could be seen moving
quickly to and fro. The walls of the warehouses had almost disappeared
behind a thick veil of smoke and flames. Now the roof of the left wing
was ablaze; on the right the fire had reached the first floor, and the
flames were bursting from the windows. A continuous murmur, scarcely
human, rose from the crowd below.
Suddenly it stopped. All eyes were turned towards the middle building,
which was still untouched. On the second floor the shadow of a man was
moving backwards and forwards among the looms. Wherever it stopped the
room became lighter. The yarn, the wooden frames of the looms, the
floors soaked with grease, caught fire with incredible rapidity.
Within a few minutes the second floor was alight, and the shadow moved
to the third floor, disappeared, and was seen again on the fourth.
"Look! It is he!" A shout burst from the terrified crowd.
Window-panes were blown out, and the glass fell clinking on to the
pavement; floors collapsed under the heavy machinery. In the midst of
the hellish noise, the rain of sparks and the clouds of smoke, the
shadow of the man on the fourth floor was moving about like an
inspector watching workmen. Sometimes it stopped at one of the many
windows, and seemed to look out towards the house and the people.
The roof of the left wing broke down with a terrific crash. Sheaves
of sparks rose to the sky. Two stories of the cotton warehouse fell
in. The air became unbearably hot. Some of the machines began to move
with a grinding noise, and finally rolled over. The big wheel of the
power-engine, encountering no more resistance, turned with a crazy
rapidity, uttering a weird kind of howl. Walls collapsed; the chimney
fell, and bits of masonry rolled towards the receding crowd.
From the direction of the gasometer came the dull sound of an
explosion. The gas went out; the middle part of the building was fully
ablaze; the fire reigned supreme.
Prosperous and full of life an hour ago, the mill was now a raging
furnace, in which its owner sought and found his grave....
The wave had returned....
FOOTNOTES:
[24] "Eagle."
BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD, ENGLAND
* * * * *
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:
Fixed all missing or incorrect punctuation.
Unusual spellings and hyphenations in original preserved.
P. viii, dittos changed to "English" or "French"
P. 69, "thoroughtly" to "thoroughly" (at last he thoroughly)
P. 83, "wihch" to "which" (but to which the whole nation)