Sartwell

“ Fight the devil if you like, but never with fire. When Marsten had said to Gibbons, “Mr. Sart-well knows to a penny how much you have in the bank,” the secretary had answered grandly that Sart-well might see the books of the Union for all he cared, and much good might it do him. The fact that a man like Sartwell thought it worth his while to find out what the enemy was doing, did not suggest to Gibbons that it might not be a bad plan to have a look over Sartwell’s shoulders, and discover just how things were going in the privacy of the manager’s office. ”

“ If the manager expected the young man to propose a compromise, he was disappointed; and when he heard Marsten had been elected secretary of the Union, he smiled grimly, but made no comment. It was to be war to the knife, and Sartwell always admired an able antagonist. He made no motion against the Union, although at that time he could probably have forced seventy-five per cent of his employees to withdraw from it, had he been so minded. ”

“ While he shouted Braunt tore his way through the crowd, and at last reached the knot in the jam where further progress was impossible. Here he stood, and by the simple power of his arms lifted girl after girl straight up, and hurled them over the heads of those in front into Sartwell’s arms, who pushed them on down the stairs.
“For God’s sake, Scimmins,” cried Sartwell, who from his position could see the fear-demented man pressing the crowd on Braunt and hampering him, “be a man, and stand back! Don’t fight! There’s time for all to get out.” ”

“ Gibbons expressed his willingness to withdraw from the conflict, and have a committee of the men appointed to wait upon Sartwell to arrange for the termination of the strike, but asked that his letter be regarded as confidential.
Sartwell, with perhaps unnecessary contempt, returned the letter to Gibbons, saying curtly to the bearer that there was no answer.
It is usually unwise to humiliate unduly a beaten adversary; but Sartwell was not versed in the finer arts of courtesy, and, when he hated a man, he hated him thoroughly, caring little for any reprisal his enemy might attempt. ”

“ Marsten sat down with Edna Sartwell opposite him in the still seclusion of the remotest depths of that walled garden. He would not have exchanged his place for one in Paradise, and he thought his lucky stars were fighting for him. But it is fated that every man must pay for his pleasure sooner or later, and Marsten promptly discovered that fate required of him cash down. ”

“ I may say, however, that I believe Sartwell to be an essentially just man, although he may be mistaken in some things, and I don’t think he would interfere with the personal liberty of his employees.”
“It is very generous of the secretary of our Union to speak well of the honesty of a man who looted our treasury, and we won’t forget that Sartwell has at least one friend among us. It is a little remarkable that that one friend should have been the only man, of all Sartwell’s employees, who was suddenly dismissed, and, as far as we know, without cause. One more question, Mr. Marsten. ”

“ Marsten was silent, the colour rising in his face.
“Of course,” continued Gibbons, calmly, “you are not compelled to answer. I am merely asking what many of us have been thinking. You either know, or you do not. You have called this meeting, and I think you should have the courtesy to answer any question—any reasonable question—asked you. You say you want the support of the men, whose servant you are. That is a reasonable desire; but to bestow that confidence we must have full knowledge of our man. I ask for the second time, do you know why Sartwell discharged you?” ”

“ Then, lad, ye can have enough to live on, and ye can put the pieces o’ th’ Union together ta suit ye.”
“I should like that,” said Marsten, eagerly.
“It shall be done. The men will go in for it when they hear ye’ve got the sack. They still feel sore over the defeat, as if it wasn’t all their own fault; and now their fear of Sartwell’s packing some o’ them off is over, they’ll like to show a little independence by electing you, to prove to the manager that they’re not afraid, which they are. Ah’ll have to convince them that Sartwell won’t strike back or take your appointment as a defiance.” ”

“ I’ll look after my daughter.”
Marsten said bitterly:
“Gibbons, ass as he is, is right when he says that no one is so hard on a workman as one who has risen from the ranks. You were no better off than I am, when you were my age.”
Sartwell sprang to his feet, his eyes ablaze with anger.
“Pay attention, young man,” he cried. “All the things you have done, I have done. All the things you intend to do, I have already done. I have, in a measure, educated myself, and I have worked hard night and day. I have attained a certain position, a certain responsibility, and a certain amount of money. ”

“ In some instances it seemed as if Sartwell had deliberately marked the contrast by bringing the degraded and the elevated into purposeful juxtaposition, so that his design in showing that he held the future of each man in his hand could not be misunderstood by even the most stupid of his employees. ”

“ They’re beaten, and there’s no more to be said. Be easy with them; there’s been talk enough.”
“I quite agree with you,” said Sartwell, in kindly manner. “Don’t be afraid, but gather them together. You have the voice for it. I heard your first shout at the gates in my office.”
As the last man passed through, Sartwell heard Braunt calling them to halt. A few still remained outside,—Scimmins and his fellow-members of the strike committee, listening gloomily to Gibbons’s frantic denunciation of the wholesale defection. ”

“ Habit is strong in the human animal, as has often been pointed out.
No one of all those concerned was more anxious for the strike to end than Sartwell, but none the less was he determined that it should end his way. He saw the openings in his armour through which, with a blindness not understandable to the manager, Gibbons neglected to thrust.
Curiously enough, it was not Gibbons that Sartwell feared in this contest, but Marsten. He knew the young man had been strongly against the strike, but he also knew that he had thrown in his lot with the men ”

“ Oh, there is no need of any secrecy about it, Gibbons. In fact there is little mystery about anything we do, and that is one reason I don’t want to call a public meeting. Things are bad enough as they are. I have found that Sartwell generally knows what we are about to do before many of us know it ourselves. I went to Sartwell because he asked me to go. He knew this strike was coming on, although I had imagined it had only been discussed between myself and some of the others. He offered me the assistant managership of the works if I would resign my position as secretary. ”

“ Sartwell, ‘“always wanted” against my better judgment.... A houseful of “always wanteds”! How can a man be expected to stand in the midst of six people, always wanting in different directions?’
‘I hate to be an added trouble to you,’ Elbert said in his unruffled way, ‘but there’s no use of my trying to go into the business, the way I feel.’
‘What is it now?’
Still addressing the mirror, the younger man outlined with some embarrassment that he hadn’t been able to get over his ardor to tackle life on a cattle range. ”

“ A howl of derision greeted his appearance, and the howl of an angry mob is a sound that, once heard, a man never wishes to hear again.
“There he is,” shouted Gibbons, whose speech Marsten’s entrance had evidently interrupted. “There he is, and let him deny it if he can!”
“Deny what?” cried Marsten.
“Deny that you have been in communication with the enemy! Deny that Sartwell’s daughter has only this moment left you!”
“That has nothing to do with you, nor with this strike. England is a free country; a man may talk with whom he pleases.” ”

“ CHAPTER XVIII. On the day after Marsten’s failure to win a majority of the men to his side in the strike controversy, the young man went to Wimbledon, hoping to find consolation for his defeat in the company of the girl he loved. He felt that he was perhaps taking a rather unfair advantage of Sartwell in thus making a clandestine appointment with his daughter, but he justified himself, as lovers have always justified themselves, by claiming that a man was a fool to lose a trick when he had the card in his hand to take it. ”

“ The soberer heads among the men, who had been thrust into the background during the agitation, were in every instance given promotion and higher pay; and as these changes took place one after another—for Sartwell was not the man to disorganize the works by any sweepingly radical changes—the general conclusion was that the manager merely desired to show the men that those whom they had valued lightly were the workmen whom he prized. ”

“ What particular fad was on this time?”
“I should think you would be ashamed to speak like that about your employer’s wife, when she did your wife the honour to consult her——”
“About what? That is the point I want to get at.”
“About the strike.”
“Ah!” A glint of anger came into Sartwell’s eyes, and his wife looked at him with some uneasiness.
“Mrs. Hope is a woman who goes about doing good. She is much interested in the men at the ‘works,’ and thinks of calling on their wives and families to see for herself how they live. She thinks perhaps something may be done for them.” ”

“ Gibbons retired with his captains to headquarters, where a consultation was held. There was a chance that Sartwell, during the first week, when it was supposed he was putting in new machinery, had also been building dormitories for his new men, and that he was going to keep them inside the gates, free from the influence of the Union.
This plan had not been foreseen by Gibbons, and he was unprepared for it.
“The men must come out sooner or later, and when they do we will have a talk with them,” said the secretary. ”

“ Marsten cared little for public sympathy, which Gibbons had considered of great importance; and Sartwell cared for it nothing at all. The public took small interest either way. It was known that the company had voluntarily advanced the wages of the men a short time before, and employers generally said that this showed the folly of sentimentality in business; that no master should advance wages until he was forced to do so. There was no gratitude on the part of the workingman, they averred, and some of the newspapers took the same tone. ”

“ So Gibbons quietly, with his eye, gathered up his trusty henchmen, who were scattered in different parts of the hall to give an appearance of unanimity to the shouting when the proper time came, and these men had now gradually edged to the front during the speaking. One or two had silently mounted the platform and held a whispered conference with the secretary, after which they and some others took their places behind the seated committee. When Sartwell was alluded to, Gibbons arose.
“Mr. Chairman,” he said, “I cannot allow——”
Braunt turned on him like a raging lion. ”

“ I’m just in dread o’ me life. Sit t’other end o’ the seat, gal; and do you, Mr. Scarlett, sit in between us, and keep the peace. It’s fearful, this livin’ alone with a dar’ter that thumps me.” The old fellow chuckled internally, and threatened to explode with suppressed merriment. “Some day I shall die o’ laffing,” he said, as he pulled himself together. “But you was asking about Sartoris.” He had now got himself well in hand. “Sartoris is like a pet monkey in a cage, along o’ Chinamen, Malays, Seedee boys, and all them sort of animals. ”

“ Once more Sartoris shaded his eyes with his hand. Field could see his fingers shaking. In a hard voice Sartoris asked if the girl meant the family solicitor.
"No, I don't," she said without the slightest hesitation. "As a matter of fact the family solicitor would have nothing to do with Sir Charles—he found him too expensive. It was some little man in one of the Inns, Gray's Inn or Clement's Inn, who kept his creditors at bay. But more than that I am afraid I cannot tell you."
Sartoris muttered something that might have been the strangling of an oath. Field began to understand. ”

“ Sartoris laughed.
"Cautious man," he said. "Always be on the safe side. Hang the girl, is she going to stay here all night? Go, I tell you; take your white face from me. Go."
The door closed behind Mary Sartoris, and something like a sob came from the hall. With a sudden fury and new strength Berrington darted to the table again. Once more he might have been successful, but the keen eye of Sartoris was upon him; the cripple seemed to read his thoughts. Like a flash the invalid chair caught Berrington on the shin, and sent him sprawling across the floor ”

“ I think I shall make Mr. Stratton guess. What do you think, Mr. Stratton?... You never guess on principle! Well, we're all very high principled. (Fresh exploratory movements of the lorgnette.) Mr. Stratton, tell me; is that little peaked man near Lady Ladislaw Mr. Roperstone? I thought as much!"
All this chatter is mixed up in my mind with an unusual sense of hovering attentive menservants, who seemed all of them to my heated imagination to be watching me (and particularly one clean-shaven, reddish-haired, full-faced young man) lest I looked too much at the Lady Mary Christian. ”