"Nay, they can't hear," said the voice again, as if in answer to a
warning; "wheels makes too much noise. I don't care if they did.
They've had warnings enew. What did they want to coom here for?"
"Ay," said another, "trade's beginning to feel it a'ready. If we let
'em go on our wives and bairns 'll be starving next winter."
"That's a true word, lad; that's a true word. When d'yow think it'll
be?"
"Ah, that's kept quiet. We shall know soon enew."
"Ay, when it's done."
"Think this 'll sattle 'em?"
"Sattle! Ay, that it will, and pretty well time. They'll go back to
Lonnon wi' their tails twix' their legs like the curs they are. Say,
think they've got pistols?"
"Dunno. Sure to hev, ah sud say."
"Oh!"
"Well, s'pose they hev? You aren't the man to be scarred of a pop-gun,
are yo'?"
"I d'know. Mebbe I should be if I hev the wuck to do. I'm scarred o'
no man."
"But you're scarred of a pistol, eh lad? Well, I wunner at yo'."
"Well, see what a pistol is."
"Ay, I know what a pistol is, lad. Man's got a pistol, and yo' hit 'im
a tap on the knuckles, and he lets it fall. Then he stoops to pick it
up, and knobstick comes down on his head. Nowt like a knobstick, lad,
whether it be a man or a bit o' wood. Wants no loading, and is allus
safe."
"Well, all I've got to say is, if I have the wuck to do I shall--"
_Churr, churry, screech, and grind_. The noise drowned the words I was
eager to hear, and I stood bathed with perspiration, and hot and cold in
turn.
That some abominable plot was in hatching I was sure, and in another
minute I might have heard something that would have enabled us to be
upon our guard; but the opportunity had passed, for the men were working
harder than ever.
I was evidently in very bad odour with them, and I thought bitterly of
the old proverb about listeners never hearing any good of themselves.
What should I do--stop and try to hear more?
_Jig, jig, tug, tug_ at the top of my rod, and I looked down to see that
the float was out of sight and the rod nearly touching the water.
My fisherman's instinct made me strike at once, and in spite of the
agitation produced by the words I had heard I was ready for the exciting
struggle I expected to follow. I had certainly hooked a fish which
struggled and tugged to get away; but it was not the great carp or tench
I expected to capture, only a miserable little eel which I drew through
the water as I walked slowly along the ledge towards the end of the
works farthest from the wheel, where I climbed on the wall, and, still
dragging my prize, I went right on to the far end, where the water came
in from the stream. There I crossed the wooden plank that did duty for
a bridge, and glanced furtively back at the windows of the works looking
out upon the dam.
As far as I could make out I had not been seen, and I had obtained some
very valuable information that might be useful for our protection.
When I had reached the spot where I had begun fishing I drew in my
capture; but it was not a long eel, but a mass of twined-up, snake-like
fish which had wreathed itself into a knot with my line.
To get it free seemed to be impossible, so I cut off the piece of line
just above the knot and let it fall into the water to extricate itself,
while I went back to the office to have a few words with my uncles about
what I had heard.
"I think we are in duty bound to send you home, Cob," said Uncle Jack,
and the others murmured their acquiescence.
"Send me home!" I cried. "What! Just when all the fun is going to
begin!"
"Fun!" said Uncle Dick, "Fun that the frogs suffered when the boys
stoned them, eh?"
"Oh, but you know what I mean, uncle. I don't want to go."
"But we have run you into terrible risks already," cried Uncle Bob, "and
if you were hurt I should feel as if I could never face your father and
mother again."
"Oh, but I sha'n't be hurt," I cried. "There, I'm ready for anything,
and shall always try to get on the safe side."
"As you always do," said Uncle Jack grimly. "No, my boy, you must not
stay. It is evident from what you overheard that the men have some
design against us on hand. Above all, they have taken a great dislike
to you, and in their blind belief that you are one of the causes of
their trouble they evidently feel spiteful and will not shrink from
doing you harm. And that's rather a long-winded speech," he added,
smiling.
"Can't we make them see that we are working for them instead of against
them?" said Uncle Dick.
"No," said Uncle Bob. "No one can teach prejudiced workmen. The light
comes to them some day, but it takes a long time to get through their
dense brains. I think Cob must go."
"Oh! Uncle Bob," I exclaimed.
"I can't help it," my lad. "There seems to be no help for it. I shall
regret it horribly, for your uncles are very poor company."
"Thankye," said Uncle Dick.
"Nice remark from the most stupid of three brothers," grumbled Uncle
Jack.
"But you ought not to be exposed to these risks," continued Uncle Bob,
"and now that by your own showing there is something worse on the way."
"Oh, it can't be worse than it has been; and besides, the men said I was
always the first to find anything out. You see I have this time--
again."
"Yes, with a vengeance," said Uncle Jack.
"And I'm sure you can't spare me."
"No, we can ill spare you, Cob," said Uncle Dick, "but we should not be
doing our duty if we kept you here."
"Now, uncle," I cried, "I believe if I went home--though, of course,
they would be very glad to see me--my father would say I ought to be
ashamed of myself for leaving you three in the lurch."
"Look here! Look here! Look here!" cried Uncle Bob. "We can't sit
here and be dictated to by this boy. He has run risks enough, and he
had better go back to them at once."
"Oh, you see if I would have said a word if I had known that you would
have served me like this!" I cried angrily. "Anyone would think I was
a schoolgirl."
"Instead of a man of sixteen," said Uncle Bob.
"Never mind," I cried, "you were sixteen once, Uncle Bob."
"Quite right, my boy, so I was, and a conceited young rascal I was,
almost as cocky as you are."
"Thank you, uncle."
"Only I had not been so spoiled by three easy-going, good-natured
uncles, who have made you think that you are quite a man."
"Thank you, uncle," I said again, meaning to be very sarcastic.
"Instead of a soft stripling full of sap."
"And not fit to stand against the blows of oak cudgels and the injured
Arrowfield workmen," said Uncle Dick.
"Oh, all right! Banter away," I said. "I don't mind. I shall grow
older and stronger and more manly, I hope."
"Exactly," said Uncle Jack; "and that's what we are aiming at for you,
my lad. We don't want to see you scorched by an explosion, or hurt by
blows, or made nervous by some horrible shock."
"I don't want to be hurt, of course," I said, "and I'm not at all brave.
I was terribly frightened when I found the powder canister, and when I
fell in the wheel-pit. I believe I was alarmed when I heard the men
talking about what they were going to do; but I should be ashamed of
myself, after going through so much, if I ran away, as they said you
three would do."
"How was that?" cried Uncle Bob.
"With your tails between your legs, regularly frightened away like
curs."
"They may carry us to the hospital without a leg to stand upon, or take
us somewhere else without heads to think, but they will not see us
running away in such a fashion as that," quoth Uncle Dick.
"Boy," said Uncle Jack, in his sternest way, "I would give anything to
keep you with us, but I feel as if it has been a lapse of duty towards
you to let you run these risks."
"But suppose I had been made a midshipman, uncle," I argued, "I should
have always been running the risks of the sea, and the foreign climate
where I was sent, and of being killed or wounded by the enemy."
"If there was war," suggested Uncle Bob.
"Yes, uncle, if there was war."
"Cob, my lad," said Uncle Dick, "that's a strong argument, but it does
not convince us. Your Uncle Jack speaks my feelings exactly. I would
give anything to keep you with us, for your young elastic nature seems
to send off or radiate something brightening on to ours; and, now that
you are going away, I tell you frankly that your courage has often
encouraged us."
"Has it, uncle?" I cried.
"Often, my lad."
"Ay that it has," said Uncle Jack. "I've often felt down-hearted and
ready to throw up our adventure; but I've seen you so fresh and eager,
and so ready to fight it out, that I've said to myself--If a boy like
that is ready to go on it would be a shame for a man to shrink."
"Yes," said Uncle Bob, "I confess to the same feeling."
"Well, that is shabby," I cried.
"What is, boy?" said Uncle Jack.
"To send me off like this. Why, you'll all break down without me."
"No, no; that does not follow," said Uncle Bob.
"Ah, won't it! You'll see," I said.
"Look here, Cob, be reasonable," exclaimed Uncle Jack, walking up and
down the room in a very excited way. "You see, ever since you were born
we've made a sort of playmate of you, and since you grew older, and have
been down here with us, you know we have not treated you as if you were
a boy."
"Well, no, uncle, I suppose you have not."
"We have talked with you, consulted with you, and generally behaved
towards you as if you were a young man."
"And now all at once you turn round and punish me by treating me as if I
were a little boy."
"No, no, my lad; be reasonable. We have been consulting together."
"Without me."
"Yes, without you; because we felt that we were not doing you justice--
that we were not behaving as good brothers to your mother, in letting
you go on sharing these risks."
"But there may be no more, uncle."
"But there will be a great many more, my boy," said Uncle Jack solemnly;
"and what would our feelings be if some serious accident were to happen
to you?"
"Just the same, Uncle Jack," I cried, "as mine would be, and my father's
and mother's, if some accident were to happen to you."
Uncle Jack wrinkled up his broad forehead, stared hard at me, and then,
in a half-angry, half amused way, he went to the table, took up an
imaginary piece of soap and began to rub it in his palms.
"I wash my hands of this fellow, boys," he said. "Dick, you are the
oldest; take him in hand, dress him down, give him sixpence to buy
hardbake and lollipops, and send him about his business."
"Make it half-a-crown, uncle," I cried, with my cheeks burning with
anger; "and then you might buy me a toy-horse too--one with red wafers
all over it, and a rabbit-skin tail."
"My dear Cob," said Uncle Jack, "why will you be so wilfully blind to
what is good for you?"
My cheeks grew hotter, and if I had been alone I should have burst into
a passion of tears, but I could not do such a thing then, when I wanted
to prove to these three that I was fit to be trusted and too old to be
sent home.
"We do not come to this conclusion without having carefully thought it
out, boy," cried Uncle Bob.
"Very well, then!" I cried, almost beside myself with passion.
"Confess now," said Uncle Bob; "haven't you often felt very much alarmed
at having to keep watch of a night in that lonely factory?"
"Of course I have."
"And wished yourself at home?" said Uncle Dick.
"Scores of times, uncle."
"Well, then, now we wish you to go, feeling that it is best for you, and
you turn restive as that jackass we hired for you to ride down in
Essex."
"Haven't you three fellows been teaching me ever since I was a little
tot, to try and be a man?"
"Yes," said Uncle Dick.
"When I've tumbled down and knocked the skin off my knees haven't you
said `don't cry: be a man!'"
"Oh yes! Guilty!" said Uncle Dick.
"If I fell out of the swing didn't you hold your cool hand to the great
lump on my head and tell me that I must try to bear it without howling:
like a man?"
"Yes, boy, yes."
"And when I broke my arm, after getting up the rock after the gulls'
eggs, didn't you tell me about the Spartan boys?"
"I did, Cob, I did."
"Yes, of course you did," I cried indignantly. "You were all three
alike: always teaching me to bear pain and be courageous, and master my
natural cowardice and be a man. Now didn't you?"
"Ay, ay, ay! Captain Cob," they chorused.
"And here," I cried passionately, "after fighting all these years and
making myself miserable so as to do exactly what you all taught me, now
that there is a chance of showing that I know my lesson and have done
well, you all treat me like a mollycoddle, and say to me by your looks:
`you're a poor cowardly little cub; go home to your mother and be
nursed.'"
"Have you done with the soap?" said Uncle Dick, turning to Uncle Jack,
as I stood there, feeling angry, passionate, excited, and carried out of
myself.
"Eh?" said Uncle Jack staring.
"I say, have you done with the metaphorical soap? I want to wash my
hands of him too."
"It's too bad, uncle," I cried.
"Here, Bob," said Uncle Dick in his grim way, "you take him in hand."
"No, thank you," said Uncle Bob. "I'll trouble you for the soap when
you've done."
"And now," I cried, speaking to them as I had never done before, "you
make worse of it by laughing at me."
"No, no," cried Uncle Dick; "we were not laughing at you, but we do
now;" and starting with a tremendous "Ha-ha-ha!" the others joined in,
and I stalked out of the parlour and went up to my room, where I set to
work, and in about ten minutes had all my belongings carefully packed in
my little carpet-bag--the new one that had been bought for me--and the
little brass padlock on and locked.
Just then the parlour door opened as I was looking out of my bed-room
window at the smoke and glow over the town, and thinking that after all
I liked the noise and dirt and busy toil always going on, knowing, as I
did, how much it had to do with the greatness of our land.
"Cob!" came up Uncle Dick's big voice.
"Yes, uncle," I said quietly.
"Tea's ready."
"I don't want any tea," I said.
"Yes, you do, lad. Fried ham and eggs."
"Come," I said to myself, "I'll let them see that I can behave like a
man. Perhaps I shall have to go home by the last train to-night or the
first in the morning. Poor old Piter," I thought, "I should like to
have taken you!"
So I went down quite coolly and walked into the parlour, where my uncles
were waiting for me before seating themselves at the table.
That touched me; it was so full of consideration and respect for the boy
they were going to send away.
Plump, comfortable Mrs Stephenson was just ready to take off the bright
tin dish-cover, and as she did so there was a perfect pile of fried ham
and eggs, looking brown and white and pink and orange, and emitting a
most appetising odour.
"Is Mr Jacob a bit sadly, gentlemen?" said Mrs Stephenson, looking at
me with interest.
"Oh no," I said quickly; and a bit touched too by Mrs Stephenson's
respectful way and the _Mr_ "Only tired. I shall be all right when
I've had my tea."
"That's bonnie," she cried nodding. "I'd better butter a couple more
cakes, hadn't I, gentlemen?"
"That you had," said Uncle Bob. "Let's eat well, or we shall never be
able to fight it out with your fellow-townsmen."
"Ah, deary me, gentlemen," she cried; "it's sore work, that it is! I'm
sure if they only knew what I do they'd behave better to you. Them
trades is doing more harm than good."
She bustled out of the room, and as soon as the door was closed Uncle
Dick turned to me.
"Shake hands, Cob, my boy," he said.
I held mine out frankly, for I had had my say, and I was determined to
show them that I could act like a man.
"Now with me," said Uncle Jack in his hard stern way.
"And with me," said Uncle Bob.
I shook hands all round; but in spite of every effort my lip would
quiver, and I had to bite it hard to keep down the emotion I felt.
"Shall I speak?" said Uncle Jack.
Uncle Dick nodded.
"Why not wait till after tea?" said Uncle Bob.
"No, I shall tell him now," said Uncle Jack grimly. "I'm hungry, and we
may as well spoil his tea and get his share, for he will not be able to
eat after what I've said. Cob, my lad, we've been talking this over
again very seriously."
"All right, uncle!" I said quietly. "I'm quite ready to go. I've
packed up, but I'd rather go to-morrow morning. I want to go and shake
hands with Pannell and bid Piter `good-bye.'"
"You have packed up?" he said rather sternly.
"Yes, uncle."
"Did you do that in a fit of passion or sulks?"
"No," I said sharply; "but because I wanted to show you to the very last
that I had not forgotten what you taught me about self-denial and all
that."
"God bless you, my lad!" he cried, hurting me horribly as he shook hands
exceedingly hard. "I'm glad to hear you say that, for we've been saying
that if we want to win in this fight we can't afford to part with one
quarter of the Company. Cob, my lad, we want you to stay."
"Uncle!" I cried.
"Yes, my lad, you are older in some things than your years, and though
I'd do anything rather than run risks for you, I do feel that with right
on our side, please God, we shall win yet, and that it would be cowardly
for us even to let you turn tail."
I don't know what I should have said and done then, as Uncle Jack
exclaimed:
"Have I said right, Dick, Bob?"
"Yes, quite," said Uncle Dick warmly; "and for my part--"
"Hush! Sit down," cried Uncle Bob, hastily setting the example so as to
end the scene. "Yes, two eggs, please. Quick, here's Mrs Stephenson
coming with the cakes."