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Patience Wins; or, War in the Works, a novel by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 19. Pannell Says Nothing |
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_ CHAPTER NINETEEN. PANNELL SAYS NOTHING "Better and better!" cried Uncle Dick, 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 Dick, "_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 Dick. "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 Dick--"certainly not sulkily." "I endorse that," said Uncle Bob; and I gave them both a grateful look. "He shall learn everything we know," said Dick. "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 shirt-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." "Hush! 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?" "No, Pannell," I said; "indeed I don't. You're too good a fellow." "Nay, I'm not," he said, shaking his head. "I'm a downright bad un." "Not you." "Ay, but I am--reg'lar down bad un." "What have you been doing?" "Nowt," he said; and he brought down his hammer with a tremendous bang as if he meant to make a full stop at the end of his sentence. "Then why are you a bad one?" He looked at me, then out of the window, then front the door, and then back at me. "I'm going to Lunnon to get work," he said. "No, don't; we like you--you're such a good steady workman. Why are you going?" "Don't like it," he said. "Man can't do as he pleases." "Uncle John says he can't anywhere, and the masters are the men's servants here." "Nay, lad," he whispered as he hammered away. "Men's worse off than the masters. Wuckman here hev to do what the trade tells him, or he'd soon find out what was what. Man daren't speak." "For fear of getting into trouble with his mates?" "Nay, his mates wouldn't speak. It's the trade; hish!" He hammered away for some time, and his skill with his hammer fascinated me so that I stopped on watching him. A hammer to me had always seemed to be a tool to strike straightforward blows; but Pannell's hammer moulded and shaped, and always seemed to fall exactly right, so that a piece of steel grew into form. And I believe he could have turned out of the glowing metal anything of which a model had been put before his eyes. "Well," I said, "I must go to my writing." "Nay, stop a bit. We two ain't said much lately. They all gone to Kedham?" "Yes; how did you know?" "Oh, we knows a deal. There aren't much goes on as we don't know. Look ye here; I want to say summat, lad, and I can't--yes, I can." "Well, say it, then," I said, smiling at his eagerness. "Going to--look here, there was a rat once as got his leg caught in a trap." "Yes, I know there was," I replied with a laugh. "Nay, it's nowt to laugh at, lad. Rats has sharp teeth; and that there rat--a fat smooth rat he were--he said he'd bite him as set that trap." "Pannell!" I cried, as a curious feeling of dread came over me for a moment and then passed away. "Ay, lad." "You don't mean to say that?" "Me!--I mean to say! Nay, lad, not me. I never said nothing. 'Tain't likely!" I looked at him searchingly, but his face seemed to turn as hard as the steel he hammered; and finding that he would not say any more, I left him, to go thoughtfully back to my desk and try to write. But who could write situated as I was--left alone with about thirty workmen in the place, any one of whom might be set to do the biting in revenge for the trap-setting? For there was no misunderstanding Pannell's words; they were meant as a sort of warning for me. And now what was I to do? I wished my uncles had not gone or that they had taken me, and I nearly made up my mind to go for a walk or run back home. But it seemed so cowardly. It was not likely that anyone would touch me there, though the knowledge the men evidently had of their masters' movements was rather startling; and I grew minute by minute more nervous. "What a coward I am!" I said to myself as I began writing, but stopped to listen directly, for I heard an unusual humming down in the grinders' shop; but it ceased directly, and I heard the wheel-pit door close. "Something loose in the gear of the great wheel, perhaps," I thought; and I went on writing. All at once the idea came upon me. Suppose they were to try and blow me up! I slipped off my stool and examined all the papers beneath my desk and in the waste-paper basket, and then I felt so utterly ashamed that I forced myself back into my seat and tried to go on writing. But it was impossible. The day was bright and sunny and the water in the dam was dancing and glittering, for the wind was off the hills and blew the smoke in the other direction--over the town. There was a great patch of dancing light on the ceiling reflected from the dam, and some flowers in the window looked bright and sent out a sweet perfume; but I could see nothing but men crawling in the dark with powder-cans and fuses; and to make myself worse, I must go to Uncle Jack's cupboard and look at the can that we had found by Gentles that night, just as it had been picked up, with a long fuse hanging out of the neck and twisted round and round. I went back after locking it up and taking out the key, and after opening the window I stood looking out to calm myself, wishing the while that I was right away among the hills far from the noise of whirring stones and shrieking metal. I knew the sun was shining there, and the grass was green, and the view was spread out for miles; while from where I stood there were the great black buildings, the tall shafts, and close beneath me the dam which, in spite of the sunshine, suggested nothing but men coming down from the head on rafts of wood to work some mischief. The situation became intolerable; I could not write; I could not get calm by walking up and down; and every time there was a louder noise than usual from the upper or lower workshop I started, and the perspiration came out upon my face. What a coward! You will say. Perhaps so; but a boy cannot go through such adventures as fell to my lot and not have some trace left behind. I stood at last in the middle of the little office, and thought of what would be the best thing to do. Should I run away? No; that would be too cowardly. I came to the right conclusion, I am sure, for I decided to go and face the danger, if there was any; for I said to myself, "Better to see it coming than to be taken unawares." Now, please, don't think me conceited. In place of being conceited, I want to set down modestly and truthfully the adventures that befell me while my lot was cast among a number of misguided men who, bound together in what they considered a war against their masters, were forced by their leaders into the performance of deeds quite opposed to their ordinary nature. It was a mad and foolish combination as then conducted, and injured instead of benefiting their class. Urged by my nervous dread of coming danger, I, as I have said, determined to see it if I could, and so be prepared; and in this spirit I put as bold a face on the matter as possible, and went down the long workshop where the men were grinding and working over the polishing-wheels, which flew round and put such a wonderful gloss upon a piece of metal. Then I went down and into the furnace-house, where the fires were glowing, and through the chinks the blinding glare of the blast-fed flame seemed to flash and cut the gloom. The men there gave me a civil nod, and so did the two smiths who were forging knives, while, when I went next into Pannell's smithy, feeling all the more confident for having made up my mind to action, the big fellow stared at me. "Yow here agen?" he said. "Yes." "Well, don't stay, lad; and if I was you I should keep out of wet grinders' shop." "Why?" I said. He banged a piece of steel upon his anvil, and the only answers I could get from him were raps of the hammer upon the metal; so I soon left him, feeling highly indignant with his treatment, and walked straight to his window, stepped up on the bench, and looked down, wondering whether it would be any good to fish from there. The water after some hours' working was much lower, so that a ledge about nine inches wide was laid bare and offered itself as a convenient resting-place; but I thought I would not fish while my uncles were away, especially since they had left me in charge. So I walked right to the very place I had been warned to avoid, and found the men as busy as usual, and ready enough to say a few civil words. And so the afternoon wore away, and telling myself that I had been scared at shadows, I felt a great deal more confident by tea-time when the men were leaving. I sat in the office then as important as if I were the master, and listened to their leaving and crossing the yard. I could hear them talking to the gate-keeper, and then I fancied I heard a rustling noise outside the building, but it was not repeated, and I began listening to the last men going, and soon after, according to his custom, old Dunning the gate-keeper came to bring his key. I heard the old fellow's halting step on the stairs, and trying to look very firm I answered his tap with a loud and important "Come in!" "All gone, Mester Jacob, sir," he said. "I s'pose you'll tek a look round?" "Yes; I'll do that, Dunning," I replied. "Then, good-night, sir!" "One moment, Dunning," I cried, as he turned to go. "I know you don't mix with the quarrels between masters and men." "Not I, Mester Jacob. I just do my bit o' work here, which just suits me, being a worn-out sort o' man, and then goes back home to my tea and my garden. You've nivver seen my bit o' garden, Mester Jacob, sir. You must come." "To be sure I will, Dunning; but tell me, how do the men seem now?" "Bit tired, sir. End o' the day's wuck." "No, no; I mean as to temper. Do you think they are settling down?" "O ay; yes, sir. They'd be quiet enew if the trade would let 'em alone." "No threats or anything of that sort?" "Well, you see, sir, I've no right to say a word," he replied, sinking his voice. "If they thought I was a talker, mebbe they'd be falling upon me wi' sticks; but you've always been a kind and civil young gentleman to me, so I will tell you as Gentles says he means to pay you when he gets a chance." "Then I must keep out of Mr Gentles's way," I said, laughing outside, for I felt very serious in. "Ay, but that arn't it, Mester Jacob, sir," said old Dunning, to make me more comfortable. "You see, sir, you nivver know where to hev a man like that. He might hit at you wi' his own fisty, but it's more'n likely as he'll do it wi' some one else's, or wi' a clog or a knobstick. You can nivver tell. Good-night, Mester Jacob, sir. Keep a sharp look-out, sir, and so will I, for I shouldn't like to see a nice well-spoken young gentleman like you spoiled." I followed Dunning down to the gate, and turned the key after him, feeling horribly alarmed. Spoiled--not like to see a boy like me spoiled. What did spoiling mean? I shuddered at the thought, and though for a moment I thought of rushing out and getting home as quickly as I could, there was a sort of fear upon me that a party of men might be waiting at one of the corners ready to shoot me. "I must wait a bit, and get cool," I said; and then looking about me, I shivered, for the great works looked strange and deserted, there was a horrible stillness in the place, and I had never felt so lonely and unpleasantly impressed even when watching in the middle of the night. Just then there was a whine and a bark, and Piter gave his chain a jerk. There was society for me at all events, and, going to the kennel, I unhooked the spring swivel and set the dog free, when, as usual, he showed his pleasure by butting his great head at me and trying to force it between my legs. I was used to it and knew how to act, but with a stranger it would have been awkward and meant sitting down heavily upon the dog unless he leaped out of the way. Of course I did not sit down on Piter, but lifted a leg over him, and as soon as he had become steady made a sort of inspection of the place to see that nothing was wrong, feeling that it was a sort of duty to do, as I was left alone. Piter kept close to me, rubbing my leg with one ear as we went all over the place, and as I found no powder-cans and fuses, no bottles full of fulminating silver, or any other deadly implement, my spirits rose and I began to laugh at myself for my folly. There was only the lower workshop with its grindstones to look through, and lit up as it was by the evening sun there did not seem to be anything very terrible there. The floor was wet, and the stones and their frames and bands cast broad shadows across the place and on the opposite wall, but nothing seemed to be wrong, only I could hear the hollow echoing plash of the water falling from the wheel sluice down into the stone-walled pit. There was nothing new in this, only that it seemed a little plainer than usual, and as I looked I saw that the door had been left open. That was nothing particular, but I went on to close it, not being able to see the bottom, the view being cut off by a great solid bench in the middle of the floor. On passing round this, though, I saw that there was something wrong; two or three bands had gone from as many grindstones, and had evidently been hastily thrown into the wheel-pit, whoever had done this having left one on the floor, half in and half out, and keeping the door from shutting close. "That couldn't be Gentles," I said aloud as I threw back the door, and my words echoed in the great black place, where the sunlight was cutting the shadow in a series of nearly horizontal rays as it came in past the wheel. I could see at a glance the amount of the mischief done: one band was evidently down in the water, and hung hitched in some way on to the band upon the floor. It had been intended to be dragged in as well, but it had caught against the iron of the rail that surrounded the bracket-like platform the width of the door and projecting over the water, which was ten feet below. I recalled standing upon it to catch eels, when I contrived to catch the lost bands as well, and thinking that perhaps after all there were several of the straps sunken below me, I stooped down, took hold of the band, and pulled. It would not come, being caught somehow at the edge of the platform; so gathering it closely in my hands rather unwillingly, for it was a wet oily affair, I stepped on to the platform, uttered a shriek, and fell with a tremendous splash into the water below. I felt the platform give way, dropping at once from beneath my feet, and though I snatched at it my hands glided over the boards in an instant and I was down amidst a tangle of bands in the deep black water. _ |
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