Roy Norton

“ Those of the mob who would have jeered were hushed by their fellows. The manager waited until the silence was so complete that the chug-chug of the pumping-machinery came through the boardings.
“This is no longer a strike,” he said quietly; “it’s a lockout. This mine has never opposed a union. It has never tried to import non-union labor. It never had trouble with its own men until you fellows came here from the East. In all the months it has been tied up, it has tried to recover peace. Its old men are honest and want to work as honest men. But you—you dirty crowd of coal-heavers!” ”

“ Sanders felt very moody, and over his freckled face there crept a gloom strangely at variance with the lines of good humor that crinkled the corners of his eyes, and even swept up to the very roots of his red hair.
From the manager’s house in the rear there floated to him through the opened windows McCarthy’s big, booming voice, carrying a note of mingled stubbornness and sorrow.
“It’s not our own old men that are at fault,” the voice said, evidently addressing the Dream Lady. “It’s these new men that have entered the district. ”

“ As waves tossed by a typhoon, the mob surged and billowed to and fro.
The manager seemed to grow more compact, and a deadly light shone in his eyes. A board behind him burst outward, and the gaunt, gray face of the engineer was thrust through, and after it came a hand which tendered McCarthy the weapon. The manager took it automatically, and stood in a crouching attitude waiting for the attack.
Glover appeared at the opening.
“Get back,” the manager commanded. “Stick to the pumps. It’s me they want. The pumps—the pumps—for God’s sake keep them going. Stick to the pumps!” ”

“ And to and fro through the mob he surged wildly, fiercely, deadly, demanding to be shown the man who had thrown the last rock.
From the rear came the voice of the engineer, who did not understand Sanders’ fall or the situation: “Are you going to leave the shaft-house, McCarthy?”
There was no instant’s hesitation in his reply: “To hell with the shaft-house and the mine! I’m going to find the man that did this, and kill him! By God, I'll kill him!” he roared, as he went his way. ”

“ He would have plunged through an opening near Mack, if the latter had not observed him and said hastily and with emphasis: “Sanders, get back in there quick.” He hesitated to obey, and the big man said quietly: “You have never refused to obey me yet. Get back, I tell you, and stay there. This is no place for you.”
Scurrilous epithets were being shouted by the strikers. McCarthy took no heed, but stood as calmly as before. A harsh, insulting voice from the rear of the crowd shouted something in which the name of the manager’s wife was coupled.
The leash on the big man’s temper was breaking. ”

“ Are we going to stand for it? As man to man, did the boss ever fight us but fair? Ain’t there fifty of us that wants to drop the whole fight, go to Mack as men, and say we done wrong; take our medicine, and come back.”
A rumbling of assent swept over the crowd.
“But we’ve got to act quick,” continued the elder man. “There’s a committee of a hundred going up there to-day, and unless Mack gives in—which we all know he won’t do—they will blow her up to-night.”
“Good God!” came from Sanders’ dry throat. Even now they might be there at the mine. A hundred against three. ”

“ I received notice last night that the men, aggravated by our ability to keep the pumps going and the underground workings free from water, are going to resort to violence. There are threats from the worst of them that they will dynamite the boiler house.”
A sharp, low exclamation came from the Dream Lady within, and Sanders hurriedly jumped to his feet and ran into the house. The mine-manager sat with his hands tightly clenched, his gray-fringed head dropped forward, and his whole posture that of despondency. ”

“ They don’t understand conditions, and have swept those who do off their feet and out of reason in their demands. It wouldn’t hurt so much if some of our old men, who used to be such good friends of mine, were not suffering.” The speech ended in a long-drawn sigh, and the twittering of a bird in the tamaracks distracted Sanders’ attention.
“But why are you so worried to-day?” came the Dream Lady’s voice, with an undertone of insistence.
Sanders felt that McCarthy was trying to evade something, and waited impatiently for the answer. ”

“ We all make mistakes, and some are right and some are wrong. The question is, did we old hands join these fellows with the idea that if we were shut out there would be powder used to kick to pieces the plant we helped make? ”