"'NIGHT, MATE."
As it happened, Mr Tomplin came in that evening, and when he asked how
matters were progressing at the works, Uncle Dick looked round and
seemed to be asking his brothers whether he should speak.
"Ah! I see," said Mr Tomplin; "they have been up to some tricks with
you."
"Tricks is a mild term," said Uncle Jack bitterly.
"They have not tried to blow you up?"
"Indeed but they did!" said Uncle Jack fiercely; "and if it had not been
for the coolness and bravery of my nephew there the place would have
been destroyed."
"Tut! Tut! Tut!" ejaculated Mr Tomplin; and putting on his spectacles
he stared at me in the most provoking way, making me feel as if I should
like to knock his glasses off.
"Is it customary for your people here to fire canisters of gunpowder in
the workshops of those who are newcomers?"
"Sometimes," said Mr Tomplin coolly.
"But such things would destroy life."
"Well, not always life, my dear sir," said Mr Tomplin, "but very often
great bodily injury is done."
"Very often?"
"Well, no, not very often now, but we have had a great many trade
outrages in our time."
"But what have we done beyond taking possession of a building for which
we have paid a large sum of money?"
"It is not what you have done, my dear sirs; it is what you are about to
do. The work-people have got it into their heads that you are going to
invent some kind of machinery that will throw them out of work."
"Nothing of the kind, my dear sir. We are trying to perfect an
invention that will bring a vast deal of trade to Arrowfield."
"But you will not be able to make them believe that till the business
comes."
"And before then, I suppose, we are to be killed?"
Mr Tomplin looked very serious, and stared hard at me, as if it was all
my fault.
"My dear sirs," he said at last, "I hardly know how to advise you. It
is a most unthankful task to try and invent anything, especially down
here. People are so blindly obstinate and wilful that they will not
listen to reason. Why not go steadily on with manufacturing in the
regular way? What do you say, my young friend?" he added, turning to
me.
"Why not ask the world to stand still, sir?" I exclaimed impetuously.
"I say it's a shame!"
He looked very hard at me, and then pursed up his lips, while I felt
that I had been speaking very rudely to him, and could only apologise to
myself by thinking that irritation was allowable, for only last night we
had been nearly blown up.
"Would you put the matter in the hands of the police?" said Uncle Dick.
"Well, you might," said Mr Tomplin.
"But you would not," said Uncle Bob.
"No, I don't think I should, if it were my case. I should commence an
action for damages if I could find an enemy who had any money, but it is
of no use fighting men of straw."
Mr Tomplin soon after went away, and I looked at my uncles, wondering
what they would say. But as they did not speak I broke out with:
"Why, he seemed to think nothing of it."
"Custom of the country," said Uncle Bob, laughing. "Come, Dick, it's
our turn now."
"Right!" said Uncle Dick; but Uncle Jack laid hold of his shoulder.
"Look here," he said. "I don't like the idea of you two going down
there."
"No worse for us than for you," said Uncle Bob.
"Perhaps not, but the risk seems too great."
"Never mind," said Uncle Dick. "I'm not going to be beaten. It's war
to the knife, and I'm not going to give up."
"They are not likely to try anything to-night," said Uncle Bob. "There,
you two can walk down with us and look round to see if everything is all
right and then come back."
"Don't you think you ought to have pistols?" said Uncle Jack.
"No," replied Uncle Dick firmly. "We have our sticks, and the dog, and
we'll do our best with them. If a pistol is used it may mean the
destruction of a life, and I would rather give up our adventure than
have blood upon our hands."
"Yes, you are right," said Uncle Jack. "If bodily injury or destruction
is done let them have the disgrace on their side."
We started off directly, and I could not help noticing how people kept
staring at my uncles.
It was not the respectably-dressed people so much as the rough workmen,
who were hanging about with their pipes, or standing outside the
public-house doors. These scowled and talked to one another in a way
that I did not like, and more than once I drew Uncle Dick's attention to
it, but he only smiled.
"We're strangers," he said. "They'll get used to us by and by."
There was not a soul near the works as we walked up to the gate and were
saluted with a furious fit of barking from Piter, who did not know our
steps till the key was rattled in the gate. Then he stopped at once and
gave himself a shake and whined.
It was growing dusk as we walked round the yard, to find everything
quite as it should be. A look upstairs and down showed nothing
suspicious; and after a few words regarding keeping a sharp look-out and
the like we left the watchers of the night and walked back.
"Cob," said Uncle Jack as we sat over our supper, "I don't like those
two poor fellows being left there by themselves."
"Neither do I, uncle," I said. "Why not give up watching the place and
let it take its chance?"
"Because we had such an example of the safety of the place and the
needlessness of the task?"
"Don't be hard on me, uncle," I said quickly. "I meant that it would be
better to suffer serious loss than to have someone badly injured in
defending the place."
"You're right, Cob--quite right," cried Uncle Jack, slapping the table.
"Here, you make me feel like a boy. I believe you were born when you
were an old man."
"Nonsense!" I said, laughing.
"But you don't talk nonsense, sir. What are you--a fairy changeling?
Here, let's go down to the works."
"Go down?" I said.
"To be sure. I couldn't go to bed to-night and sleep. I should be
thinking that those two poor fellows were being blown up, or
knob-sticked, or turned out. We'll have them back and leave Piter to
take care of the works, and give him a rise in his wages."
"Of an extra piece of meat every day, uncle?"
"If you had waited a few minutes longer, sir, I should have said that,"
he replied, laughing; and taking his hat and stick we went down the
town, talking about the curious vibrations and throbbings we could hear;
of the heavy rumbling and the flash and glow that came from the
different works. Some were so lit up that it seemed as if the windows
were fiery eyes staring out of the darkness, and more than once we
stopped to gaze in at some cranny where furnaces were kept going night
and day and the work never seemed to stop.
As we left the steam-engine part behind, the solitary stillness of our
district seemed to be more evident; and though we passed one policeman,
I could not help thinking how very little help we should be able to find
in a case of great emergency.
Uncle Jack had chatted away freely enough as we went on; but as we drew
nearer to the works he became more and more silent, and when we had
reached the lane he had not spoken for fully ten minutes.
Eleven o'clock was striking and all seemed very still. Not a light was
visible on that side, and the neighbouring works were apparently quite
empty as we stood and listened.
"Let's walk along by the side of the dam, Cob," said Uncle Jack. "I
don't suppose we shall see anything, but let's have a look how the place
seems by night."
I followed close behind him, and we passed under the one gas lamp that
showed the danger of the path to anyone going along; for in the darkness
there was nothing to prevent a person from walking right into the black
dam, which looked quite beautiful and countrified now, spangled all
over, as it was, with the reflections of the stars.
I was going to speak, but Uncle Jack raised his hand for me to be
silent, and I crept closer to him, wondering what reason he had for
stopping me; and then he turned and caught my arm, for we had reached
the end of the dam where it communicated with the river.
Just then two men approached, and one said to the other:
"Tell 'ee, they changes every night. Sometimes it's one and the boy,
sometimes two on 'em together. The boy was there last night, and--
Hullo! 'Night, mate!"
"'Night!" growled Uncle Jack in an assumed voice as he slouched down and
gave me a shake. "Coom on, wilt ta!" he said hoarsely; and I followed
him without a word.
"I tried it, Cob," he whispered as we listened to the retreating steps
of the men. "I don't think they knew us in the dark."
"They were talking about us," I said.
"Yes; that made me attempt to disguise my voice. Here, let's get back.
Hark! There's the dog. Quick! Something may be wrong."
We set off at a trot in the direction that the men had taken, but we did
not pass them, for they had gone down to their right; but there was no
doubt existing that the affairs at the works were well known and that we
were surrounded by enemies; and perhaps some of them were busy now, for
Jupiter kept on his furious challenge, mingling it with an angry growl,
that told of something being wrong.