_Tuesday, June 9th_
I have not written you since Saturday, because there was nothing new to
report, and I didn't want to take up your time with any more
discussions on Labor versus Capital. I am receiving a liberal
education in these matters, very salutary. After working at my bench
all day I find my point of view much changed. But I do not like that
Mullen fellow!
I am pretty well shaken into my job by now. The local union is
considering my application for membership favourably, so I am not a
bone of contention in the shop. But I hope there is something more
exciting than this ahead.
I have neither seen nor heard anything suspicious in any of my
fellow-employees. I would be willing to swear they are all honest, but
you have told me, others too, that I'm too ready to believe the best of
my fellow-creatures, so I'm keeping an open mind.
To-day there was a little shake-up in the shop on account of vacations.
I got a step up. Ashley put me at the bench where jewels are removed
from old settings on orders to be reset. This is exactly what we need
to carry out our plans, and it comes sooner than he hoped--but not too
soon for me. However, I do not mean to rush things, but will proceed
with due caution.
My heart still yearns every time I pass a first-class restaurant. J.M.
15
At this stage I cannot better carry my story forward than by continuing
to quote from the reports of different operatives. To me these are
fascinating documents. Their sober matter-of-factness is more
thrilling than the most exciting yarn. With a wealth of seemingly
irrelevant detail they build up a picture more convincing than any
except those of a master of fiction. One has to be in the secret, of
course. The operatives themselves are not supposed to know what it is
all about, though they may guess a little. But to be in the secret of
a case and to read the reports bearing on it from a hundred angles,
gives one a strange sense of power.