Bowers went thoughtfully home and; next morning, flung himself into his
work with renewed courage. He had need of it--they all had need of it.
There were now thousands who waited for their pay, and daily these
ranks were swelled by others who drifted in from the woods. Hundreds
of merchants began to refuse credit, though Filmer valiantly used all
his resources. St. Marys was, in truth, stupefied, and when the first
shock began to smooth itself out, the reality of the thing became
grimly apparent, and then arose the first rumor of trouble in
Ironville, that straggling settlement of shacks where dwelt the bone
and muscle of the works.
To the Swede and Polander there was no suggestion of achievement in the
vast buildings in which they labored. It was only the place where they
earned their living. They worked amongst giant mechanisms beside which
they were puny, but theirs was a life of force and strength which took
from them the fear of anything that was merely human. Thus surprise
changed to resentment, and resentment began to resolve itself into a
slow and consuming anger. The works were dead, but in the main office
the accounting staff was bending desperately over statements
imperatively demanded by Philadelphia. The black browed Hungarians saw
the lights at night, and felt that they were being played with by those
more powerful than themselves. If a furnace man was discharged, why
keep on these scribblers?
Outside St. Marys the news ran apace. Toronto papers dwelt on it, and
the Board of Trade read it with regret mingled with thankfulness that
Clark had embarked on no financial campaigns in their own city. Thorpe
went carefully over the Philadelphia acceptances in his vault, and
wondered what they were worth. To St. Marys set out a stream of
representatives of various creditor companies, that filled the local
hotels and journeyed out to the works and came back unsatisfied.
Philadelphia dispatches were devoured, and the word "reorganization"
was one to charm with. One by one, the Company's steamers slid up to
the long docks, made fast and drew their fires, till it seemed that the
works, like a great octopus, was withdrawing every arm and filament it
ever had radiated, and was coiling them endlessly at its cold and
clammy side. Yet, for all of this, it did not seem possible that the
whole structure was tumbling, the structure on which so many years of
labor--so much genius and enthusiasm--so many millions--had been
lavished, until one afternoon a drunken Swede threw a stone into a
butcher's window in Ironville and, putting forth a horny hand, seized a
side of bacon and set forth, reeling, down the street. Two hours later
the startled chief accountant, from a window in his office, saw a swarm
of a thousand men surge through the big gates of the works and,
trampling the guard, flow irregularly forward.
The mob spilt on, a river of big strong men, unaware of its own
strength. They were not bent on willful destruction, but the whole
mass was animated by an inchoate desire to find out something for
itself. At the door of the rail mill stood the superintendent and his
firemen, with drawn revolvers. The rioters liked these men because
they worked with and understood them. They were not associated with
the present trouble. So on to the administration building, where the
office staff looked out, petrified with fear. Here, the mob decided,
was another breed, so there commenced a hammering on the big oaken door
and stones showered through the windows.
At this, Hobbs, stricken with mortal terror, and oblivious of the girls
who gathered around him, lost his head. There was no escape
downstairs, but opposite his desk was a grated iron window that led on
to an adjoining roof. Noting it desperately, he heaved up his soft
body and made a plunge for safety. But such was his bulk that, though
head, arms and shoulders went through, he stuck there, anchored in an
iron grip.
"Help!" he called chokingly, "Help!"
The mob looked up and stared, when from the rear ranks came a bull-like
roar of laughter. Then another burst out and another, till from the
ground spouted a fountain of jeers, hoots and ridicule that reached the
fat man as he hung suspended, with purple face and gesticulating arms.
Clark, in his office, waiting coolly for what might come, caught the
change in the note of riot and, stepping into the next room, saw the
legs of his comptroller brandished in the air. The rest of him was
invisible, and still in the square outside rocked the booming shouts of
Slavic and Scandinavian mirth. A moment later Hobbs was dragged back,
with torn clothing, swollen neck and scratched body. Clark glanced at
him contemptuously and went out. Then the doors opened, and he was on
the front steps.
The mob saw him and held its breath. Few of them had ever been so near
him before. He stood with a quiet smile on his face and a light in his
keen eyes, and, in the momentary hush, began to speak. There was no
fear in voice or attitude. The wind, blowing from the rapids, brought
the echo of their clamor to the upper windows so that the accounting
staff heard not a word, but the mob heard, and presently the big Pole
laughed, just as he had laughed at Hobbs' distorted face suspended
above him. It was contagious, and Clark, playing upon the mood of the
moment, drove home his point.
The money was coming, and he himself would stay there till it came. In
the meantime, the money would be slower to arrive if there was trouble,
and that was all he had to say.
There followed a little hesitation, then an indefinite movement, and
the crowd began to shuffle toward the shattered gates. As it dwindled
Clark glanced over his shoulder and saw a man within twenty feet, both
hands thrust eloquently into his bulging coat pockets.
"Thanks very much, Belding, I'm glad it wasn't necessary," he said
crisply, and vanished inside the big doors.
The engineer knew better than to follow, but was bitterly disappointed.
He had hoped for some word of comfort, but to not a single employee had
Clark said anything of explanation. It was not his habit, and he
looked to the intelligence of each man to carry him through. And this
was typical of his invariable attitude toward those with whom he came
in contact. He gauged them by the degree to which they contributed to
the work on hand, and just now the only work on hand was that which
none but himself could carry out. In personalities Clark was not
interested, but identified them only by some very definite achievement
he was able to hang round their necks like a label.
Belding saw to it that his own offices were guarded and walked to the
head of the rapids. He felt numbed. If Clark had conceived the works,
he himself had built them, and, as they grew under his hand, he felt
that something of his own existence went forth with every stroke of a
drill, and that a fragment of his brain lay in every course of masonry.
Like all true engineers, he delighted in the physical expression of his
ability, and here had been such an opportunity as few engineers ever
realized. He felt not so much dejected as dumbfounded that so much
skill and labor could be brought to a full stop just as it reached its
permanent stride. In his eyes the figure of Clark had long achieved
titanic proportions. Innumerable things had been demonstrated to be
possible, and to be chief engineer of such an enterprise had been,
thought Belding, all that any man could ask. It was true that in the
fatigue of work he had often imagined that Clark was going too fast,
but always the thing had been done. Now it seemed the ironical jest of
the gods that a shade too much carbon in a steel rail should wreck the
whole endeavor.
And there was Elsie. He had never been able to give her up. Against
the glamour of his chief's personality he had nothing to put forward
except a whole souled worship, and Elsie, it appeared, preferred the
invitation of the older man's romantic career. Subconsciously, Belding
decided that the thing was wrong and against nature, for he was marked
by a certain simple belief in the general fairness of life. He clung
to the doctrine of compensation, and held himself trustingly open to
whatever good influences might reach him. Elsie was the highest
influence of all. In Clark he had found a stimulus that nerved his
brain to great accomplishments. But Elsie and Clark had together
wounded his very spirit.
Clark, in the quiet of his private office, was thinking not of Belding
or Elsie, but of the mob that had trailed so uncertainly out of the big
gates. He had played for time and he had won--but that was all.
Sooner or later, driven by the impossibility of living without pay, the
mob would return, and in a less placable mood. He turned to the
telephone. "I want Mr. Filmer." In a moment he was speaking to the
mayor.
"What happened up here to-day is but a taste of what's coming. You'd
better get out the militia, if Manson can't handle it. Bowers tells me
I can do very little from a point of law, and we look to you for
protection."
"The militia won't help you much." Filmer's voice was a little shaky.
His son was in the militia, but he himself had never taken that body
very seriously. It was a matter of uniform, a band and a field day or
two in the year--that was all.
"Well, Bowers tells me that if we kill any one in protecting the place
we'll have a nasty time of it, so it's up to you. If the local militia
are no good, get some up from Toronto. I warn you they'll be needed.
Ask Belding if you like, he saw it all."
He leaned back and began a cold blooded survey of the situation. He
was not in any way desperate, but he turned involuntarily to the
resources of his own brain for some solution. It was certain that no
immediate help could be expected from Philadelphia. He was left quite
officially and deliberately to stem the tide as best he could, and, in
spite of the gravity of the moment, smiled at the thought that his
directors leaned on him in their extremity. They did not know what to
do, therefore he must know. Then suddenly his mind reverted to Semple,
and he spent the next few moments in profound thought. "Get hold of
Mr. Semple," he said to his secretary, "and bring him here."
In half an hour Semple appeared, flustered and a little pale. A visit
to the works just now filled him with apprehension. It seemed like
smoking in a magazine.
"What's the matter?" said Clark, smiling at his agitation.
Semple drew a long breath and, noting the thickness of the office
walls, felt a little safer.
"That's what I was going to ask _you_."
"Only a slight difficulty that you will help to put right."
Semple stared with astonishment. The bottom had apparently fallen out
of the works, but Clark was as cool as ever.
"Help?" he demanded, puzzled. Clark evidently did not stand to lose
much in the smash. "You're holding these fellows, aren't you?"
"Yes, for the immediate present, but we'll have to do more. That's
where you come in."
The member for Algoma was at sea, and said so.
"You represent the Government here," went on Clark, "and we've spent
seventeen million dollars in these works. Do you see the conclusion?"
"No, I don't."
"Your government must help us over the stile. Just so long as those
men remain unpaid, life won't be very safe in St. Marys."
Semple looked round apprehensively. "But my government doesn't live
here. What have I got to do with it?"
"I don't know, but, by virtue of pressure you will exert, the
Government must help. What's the Liberal majority in Ontario?"
"One. I'm it."
"Then you keep the Premier in power, and he's hanging on to power like
grim death."
"But I don't see--"
"It's simple enough. If you settle this affair to the satisfaction of
local people, you'll secure Algoma to the Liberal party, so long as
that party wants it."
"By God!" said Semple, startled.
Clark apparently did not hear him. "There's another thing--to set
those works in motion again will be the biggest advertisement any
government in Canada ever had. It will swing the labor vote--it will
secure the merchants' support." He paused, then leant forward and
poured into Semple the full pressure--the accumulated effort of mind
and spirit. "Ample security is available. I will make repayment the
first obligation of the Company--it will forestall bonds and everything
else. What I want, and what you will find for me, is only a fraction
of the sum that has been put straight into this Province; and it's not
much more than we have already paid in mineral and lumber dues and
taxes."
"How much?" said Semple in a fascinated whisper.
"Two million dollars."
"But--"
"There aren't any buts."
"Do you owe that in wages?" Semple was aghast.
"Wages are only a small part of what must be paid at once."
"Where does Philadelphia come in?"
"Philadelphia," smiled Clark, "has left the entire matter to me in the
meantime. They are making arrangements which may not be consummated
for some months. We can thank a prominent American speculator for most
of this. But the Province of Ontario owes us something. Doesn't it
occur to you," he added slowly, "how your personal reputation will be
affected?"
Semple blinked several times and very rapidly. "I'll wire at once," he
said, with a long breath.
"You'll do nothing of the kind. You'll go down yourself this
afternoon. You know your man, and I know him; and he knows the works.
He's been here several times. Put the matter straight,--tell him that
we are dealing with forces that can only be met in one way. It's
either this, or destruction and bloodshed. I've asked Filmer to wire
for troops. Mr. Semple, what you are about to make is a new move on
the chessboard. Your man is shrewd enough to see it, and it's the new
moves that win. This is not so much politics as economics--tell him
that. I'd go with you--but I must not leave St. Marys just now. Wire
me as soon as possible--you've just time to catch your train."
The color climbed into Semple's cheeks, and he went quickly out with
his head up. Clark glanced after him and his lips twisted into a smile.
"I give him forty-eight hours. If it doesn't come by that--we'll ring
down the curtain," he said to himself thoughtfully.
He went out and walked, for hours, through the deserted buildings.
They were full of hollow mockery. Watchmen, posted by Belding at
strategic points, glanced after him curiously. He seemed lonely and
diminutive in this mechanical wilderness of his own creation. They
wondered how a man felt in such a position as his at a time like this.
He dared not go to the rapids, lest he read in their uproar some new
and menacing note. He thought lingeringly of Elsie. She seemed far
from this crisis, and at the same time curiously a part of it. Never
did he feel more certain of the girl's affection than now, and it came
to him what a refuge a woman's breast might be for a man in such case
as himself. In the moment his forceful brain protested at the thought
of refuge.
He tramped on with a slow wonder at the magnitude of his own
activities. Here and there, individual buildings stimulated poignant
memories of the occasion that brought them forth. The sulphur plant
assumed an aspect of derision. Beneath the huge dimensions of the
head-race he seemed to discern the obliterated canal over which St.
Marys came to grief. Was he himself to be brought down by its titanic
successor? He stared up the lake, comparing himself with the voyageur
who had once floated out of this wide immensity to trade at St. Marys.
He, too, had been trading at St. Marys. "Big magic!" old Shingwauk had
said, when his dark eyes beheld the works. Was it, after all, barely
possible they were nothing but magic?