Patience Wins Part 45

I felt a curious flinching as he looked so hard at me, for Uncle Jack was always the most stern and uncompromising of my uncles. Faults that Uncle d.i.c.k would shake his head at, and Uncle Bob say, "I say, come, this won't do, you know," Uncle Jack would think over, and talk about perhaps for two or three days.

"I ought to be very angry with you, Cob," he said. "This was a very rash thing to do. These men are leading us a horrible life, and they deserve any punishment; but there is the law of the land to punish evildoers, and we are not allowed to take that law in our own hands.

You might have broken that fellow's leg with the trap."

"Yes, I see now," I said.

"As it is I expect you have done his leg serious injury, and made him a worse enemy than he was before. But that is not the worst part of it.

What we want here is co-operation--that's a long word, Cob, but you know what it means."

"Working together," I said.

"Of course. You are only a boy, but you are joined with us three to mutually protect each other, and our strength lies in mutual dependence, each knowing exactly what the other has done."

"Yes, I see that, Uncle," I said humbly.

"How are we to get on then if one of the legs on which we stand--you, sir, gives way? It lets the whole machine down; it's ruin to us, Cob."

"I'm very sorry, uncle."

"We are four. Well, suppose one of us gets springing a mine unknown to the others, what a position the other three are in!"

"Yes," I said again. "I see it all now."

"You didn't spring a mine upon us, Cob, but you sprang a trap."

I nodded.

"It was a mistake, lad, though it has turned out all right as it happened, and we have been saved from a terrible danger; but look here, don't do anything of the kind again."

"Shall you go to the police about this?" I said.

"No, and I'm sure the others will agree with me. We must be our own police, Cob, and take care of ourselves; but I'm afraid we have rough times coming."

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

PANNELL SAYS NOTHING.

"Better and better!" cried Uncle d.i.c.k, waving a letter over his head one morning after the post had come in. "All we have to do is to work away.

Our steel is winning its way more and more in London, and there is already a greater demand than we can supply."

"It seems funny too," I said. "I went through Norton's works yesterday with Mr Tomplin, and saw them making steel, and it seemed almost exactly your way."

"Yes, Cob," said Uncle d.i.c.k, "_almost_. It's that trifling little difference that does it. It is so small that it is almost imperceptible; but still it is enough to make our steel worth half as much again as theirs."

"You didn't show them the difference, did you, Cob?" said Uncle Jack, laughing.

"Why, how could I?"

"Ah! I forgot; you don't know. But never mind, you'll arrive at years of discretion some day, Cob, and then you will be trusted with the secret."

"I consider that he could be trusted now," cried Uncle d.i.c.k. "I am quite willing to show him whenever he likes. We make a fresh batch to-morrow."

"No," I said; "I don't want to be shown yet. I can wait."

"Is that meant sulkily, or is it manly frankness?" said Uncle Jack sharply.

"Oh, I'll answer that," replied Uncle d.i.c.k--"certainly not sulkily."

"I endorse that," said Uncle Bob; and I gave them both a grateful look.

"He shall learn everything we know," said d.i.c.k. "It is his right as his father's son. If we have not shown him sooner it is on account of his father's interests, and because we felt that a secret that means property or nothing is rather a weighty one for a lad of his years to bear. Well, once more, Cob, you will not mind being left?"

"No," I said, "you will not be away many hours. The men will hardly know that you have gone, and if they were to turn disagreeable I'm sure Pannell would help me."

"Oh, there's no fear of any open annoyance," said Uncle Jack; "the men have been remarkably quiet since we caught Master Gentles. By the way, anyone know how he is?"

"I know," I said. "I've seen Mrs Gentles every day, and he leaves the infirmary to-morrow."

"Cured?"

"Yes; only he will walk a little lame, that's all, and only for a month or two."

"Well, take care of the place, Cob," said Uncle Jack. "I don't suppose the men will interfere with you, but if they do you can retreat."

"If you thought they would interfere with me," I said, "you would not go."

They all laughed, and, as we had arranged, they left the works one by one, and I went on just as usual, looking in at one place, and then another, to see how the men were going on, before returning to the office and copying some letters left for me to do.

It was a month since the adventure with the trap, and to see the men no one could have imagined that there was the slightest discontent among them.

Pannell had said very little, though I had expected he would; in fact he seemed to have turned rather surly and distant to me. As for the other men, they did their work in their regular independent style, and I had come to the conclusion that my best way was to treat all alike, and not make special friends, especially after the melancholy mistake I had made in putting most faith in one who was the greatest scoundrel in the place.

My uncles had gone to the next town to meet a firm of manufacturers who had been making overtures that seemed likely to be profitable, and this day had been appointed for the meeting.

After a time I went into Pannell's smithy, to find him hammering away as earnestly as ever, with his forehead covered with dew, his throat open, and his s.h.i.+rt-sleeves rolled up, so as to give his great muscles full play.

"Well," he said all at once, "want another trap?"

"No," I said, smiling. "I say, Pannell, what did the men think about it?"

He opened his lips to speak, but closed them directly.

"No," he said shortly; "won't do. I'm on t'other side, you see."

"But you might tell me that," I cried. "I say, I should as soon have thought of catching you as old Gentles."

"Hus.h.!.+ Say rat," he whispered. "Don't name names. And say, lad, don't talk about it. You don't want to get me knocked on the head?"