_The Gathering to its Own_
Had Firmstone known of Hartwell's move, which was to bring affairs to an
immediate and definite crisis, his actions would have been shaped along
different lines.
But the only one who could have given this knowledge blindly withheld it
until it was beyond his power to give. At the mill Firmstone noticed a
decided change in Luna. The foreman was sullen in look and act. He
answered Firmstone's questions almost insolently, but not with open
defiance. His courage was not equal to giving full voice to his sullen
hatred. Firmstone paid little heed to the man's behaviour, thinking it
only a passing mood. After a thorough inspection of the mill, he
returned to the office.
"Mr. Hartwell said, if you inquired for him, that I was to tell you he
had gone for a drive." The man anticipated his duty before Firmstone
inquired.
"Very well," Firmstone replied, as he entered the office.
He busied himself at his desk for a long time. Toward night he ordered
his horse to be saddled. He had determined to go to the mine. He had
decided to move with a strong hand, to force his authority on the
rebellious, as if it had not been questioned, as if he himself had no
question as to whether it would be sustained. Hartwell had refused to
indicate his position; he would force him to act, if not to speak. His
after course events would decide; but half-way measures were no longer
to be tolerated.
As he rode by the Falls, he met Zephyr on his way down. Zephyr was the
first to speak.
"A weather-cock," he remarked, "has a reputation for instability of
character which it does not deserve. It simply pays impartial attention
to a breeze or a hurricane. In fact, it's alive to anything that's going
in the wind line. We call a weather-cock fickle and a man wide-awake for
doing the same thing." He paused, looking inquiringly at Firmstone.
Firmstone was in anything but an allegorical mood, yet he knew that
Zephyr had something of interest to communicate, and so restrained any
manifestation of impatience which he might have felt.
"Well?" he answered.
"Say, Goggles"--Zephyr continued his allegory--"I've studied
weather-cocks. I take note that when one of them so-called fickle-minded
inanimates goes jerking around the four cardinal points and feeling of
what's between, it's just responding to the fore-running snorts of a
pull-up and come-along cyclone. That's why I'm bobbing up and down like
an ant looking for its long-lost brother. There's a cyclone on its way,
Goggles, and it's going to light hereabouts right soon."
"I guess you're right, Zephyr." Firmstone gathered his reins,
preparatory to resuming his way, but Zephyr laid a detaining hand on the
horse's neck.
It was not in Zephyr to make haste easily. His undulating shoulders
indicated a necessity for immediate speech. The words, sizzling from
between closed lips, were a compromise.
"You have more sense than many weather-cocks, and more sand than a
gravel train." Zephyr's face began to twitch. "Wait!" The word came
forth explosively; the detaining hand grasped the bridle firmly. "Say,
Goggles, I was dead wrong. Do you hear? About Elise. You remember? At
the Devil's Elbow. She ain't Pierre's girl. She's as much of a lady as
you are. Keep still! Listen! A hurricane ain't got sense. It'll pull up
a weed as quick as an oak. It's coming. For the love of God and me
especially, if I get pulled, look out for her! Say yes, and go along.
Don't fool with me! You'll swallow a barrel of water to get a drink of
whisky."
Firmstone only stretched out his hand. Zephyr took it for an instant,
then flung it aside. The next moment he was striding down the trail.
Firmstone heard the strain of the jarring reeds of the harmonica shrill
triumphantly, penetrated now and then by louder notes as a plunging step
jarred a stronger breath through his lips.
At the mine, Firmstone found his work cut out for him. On the narrow
platform of the mine boarding-house, the foreman was standing with his
cap shoved far back on his head, his hands in his pockets. There was an
insolent poise to the head that only intensified the sneering smile on
the lips. He was surrounded by a dozen or more of the men whom Firmstone
had marked as makers of trouble.
"Well, what in hell you up here for? Think I can't run a mine?" The
foreman called into play every expression of coarse contempt at his
command.
"Not this one for me. Go into the office, and I'll make out your time."
The foreman did not move.
Firmstone made no threatening gesture as he advanced. The foreman's eyes
wavered, cast behind him at the gaping men, then he turned as Firmstone
ordered.
In the office Firmstone wrote out a time check and tendered it to the
man.
"Now pack up and get down the hill."
There were discordant cries outside that grew nearer and more distinct.
As the foreman opened the door to pass out he flung back a defiant grin,
but his words were drowned by a babel of voices that were surging into
the ante-room from the platform and dining-room. Firmstone closed and
locked the office door behind him. In an instant he was surrounded by a
crowd of gesticulating, shouting men. There was a spreading pressure on
all sides, as men were pushed back from an opening ring in the centre of
the room. A man with blood-stained face rose, only to be again hurled to
the floor by a stunning blow. Firmstone crushed his way into the ring.
"No fighting here."
The man dropped his eyes.
"I ain't going to be called down by no scab."
"If you want to fight, get off the company's grounds!" Firmstone moved
between them.
"I want my time." The man's eyes were still downcast.
"You'll get it."
The ring closed up again.
"Are we let out?"
"The whole push fired?"
A burly, red-faced man pushed his way to the front.
"Say, Mr. Firmstone! Don't make no mistake. This ain't you. You're the
whitest boss that ever looked down my shirt collar. That's so. That's
what the boys all say. Just you pull out from the company and go with
us. We'll carry you right up to glory on the back of a fire-snorting
alligator."
Firmstone paid no attention to the man. He went from end to end of the
room. The men gave way in front, only closing in behind. There was a
hushed silence.
"There's no shut-down. Any man who wants work can have it and be taken
care of. Any one who wants to quit, come for your time right now!"
As Firmstone again turned toward the office he was conscious for the
first time of a thick-set man with kindly eyes, now steely-hard, who
followed his every motion. It was the night-shift boss.
"You're with me?"
"You bet, and plenty more."
"Hold them down. Send the men in, one by one, who want to quit. How
about the magazine?"
"All right. Two men and four guns. They're with you till hell freezes,
and then they'll skate."
It was midnight before the last man called for his time. Firmstone laid
down his pen.
"I'm shy a foreman. Will you take the job?" Firmstone addressed the
shift boss.
"Yes, till you can do better."
"All right. You better move around pretty lively for to-night. I'll stay
in the office till morning."
The man left the office. He had not been gone long before there was a
timid knock at the office door.
"Come in," Firmstone called.
The door was opened hesitatingly and two men entered. They stood with
lowered eyes, shifting their caps from hand to hand, and awkwardly
balancing from foot to foot.
"Well?" Firmstone spoke sharply.
"Me and my partner want our jobs back."
"You'll have to see Roner. He's foreman now."
"Where is he?"
"In the mine."
"Can we take our bunks till morning, sir?"
"Yes."
The men left the office. Outside, their manner changed. Nudging elbows
grated each other's ribs. The darkness hid their winks.
Firmstone had made a sad mistake. He was not omniscient. The men knew
what he did not. They had been down to the Blue Goose and had returned
with a mission.