Patience Wins Part 46

"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 pa.s.sed 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 gra.s.s 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 cla.s.s.

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 c.h.i.n.ks 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.