Page:Ragged Trousered Philanthropists.djvu/272

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists called 'The Mugsborough Electric Light Supply and Installation Co., Ltd.,' and vowed a solemn vow to drive the Gas 'Bandits' out of the town. With this end in view they bought a piece of town land from the municipality, that is to say, themselves, for half its value, and built the Electric Light Company works thereon. The Municipal Council then passed a measure that the duty on all coal brought into the borough should be raised from two to three shillings a ton, by which manœuvre they piously hoped to drive a final nail in the Gas Company Bandits' coffin.

That was two years ago, and since that time the Electric Light Works had been built and the war against the gasworks carried on vigorously. After several encounters in which they lost a few customers and a portion of the public lighting, the Gasworks Bandits retreated out of the town and entrenched themselves in a strong position beyond the borough boundary, where they erected a number of gasometers from which they were enabled to pour gas into the town at long range without having to pay the coal dues.

This masterly stratagem created something like a panic in the ranks of The Mugsborough Electric Light Supply, Ltd. At the end of two years they found themselves exhausted with the protracted campaign, their movements hampered by a lot of worn out plant and antiquated machinery, and harassed on every side by the lower charges of the Gas Company. They were reluctantly constrained to admit that the attempt to undermine the Gasworks was a melancholy failure, and that the Mugsborough Electric Light and Installation Company was a veritable white elephant. They began to ask themselves what they should do with it; and some of them even urged unconditional surrender, or an appeal to the arbitration of the bankruptcy court.

In the midst of all the confusion and demoralisation, however, there was one man who did not lose his presence of mind, who in this dark hour of disaster remained calm and immovable, and, like a vast mountain of flesh, reared his head above the storm, and perceived a way to turn this apparently hopeless defeat into a glorious victory.

That man was Adam Sweater, the Chief of the Band, and it was to Sweater's office that three harassed directors of the Mugsborough Electric Light Supply and Installation Company Ltd., Messrs Rushton, Didlum and Grinder, met 260