The protector looked at him coolly; he spat deliberately over the
railing. "Fer what? He's only telling the truth. You are a scab, now,
ain't you?" He scolded the enraged striker. "Go on, Jimmy. Cool off
somewhere. That ain't no way to talk to a motorman from the Yaleses
college, that ain't. You don't wanter get run in."
The man cursed himself out of their sight. Pelham drove in more
thoughtfully.
Paul, when he learned of it, was not too proud of his son's performance.
There was no use in getting one's head cracked unnecessarily, he wrote.
But he was as pleased as Pelham at the successful crushing of the
strike, which came with startling quickness after the men had been out
five days. The union officials made some agreement with the company,
and vanished to Boston. Some of the men were taken back, some were not.
Sheff resumed its normal placidity.
"Your life is too valuable, Pelham," said his father's letter, "to risk
in direct contact with the white trash that gather when a strike is
declared. Some of the men on the mountain are just as worthless and
discontented. We know how to handle them here....
"You might visit Senator Todd Johnson when you pass through Washington.
He is a good man to keep in touch with.
"Mary and the two youngest got off to St. Simon's Island yesterday. The
girls follow on Monday. That will leave us to keep the work up during
the summer.
"The first report shows 291 tons from the Forty this month, and nearly
as much from the other property. We're getting started slowly.
"I shall be glad when you get back and down to work."
Pelham took the first train South, after commencement was over.