Page:Stanwood Pier--The ancient grudge.djvu/325

314 employer has talked to the laboring-man for two thousand years—the thing with whose power behind me I now demand, Colonel Halket, that here and now you announce the Halket Steel Company will not be a party to any combination."

Men climbed on the seats and shouted, waving their hats; everywhere throughout the hall men were standing, cheering and stamping; it was applause that came up to Colonel Halket like the roar of merciless wild beasts. Tustin stood looking, with his crooked smile, out upon the throbbing, tossing tumult; Colonel Halket stood waiting with bowed head, resisting only Floyd, who plucked entreatingly at his arm. At last Tustin raised both hands above his head and waved them out and down, out and down, until he had hushed the audience to a sullen grumble.

"We are waiting to hear you speak, Colonel Halket," he said; and almost instantly the hall became still. "And if I refuse?" said Colonel Halket, without raising his head, and in a voice so low that only those in the front part of the hall could hear.

"If you refuse!" repeated Tustin in his loud, triumphant voice. "That moment I proclaim a strike, and you will see how all these men respond." Another roar of applause broke out, but Tustin quelled it before it had risen to its height. "A strike, Colonel Halket; and where will your combination be? Who will buy your stock? A strike now, Colonel Halket, and we will force you to confess publicly failure and defeat."

"Tell them to strike and be damned!" Floyd shouted the counsel in his grandfather's ear while the audience raised again its intimidating applause.

But Colonel Halket stood silent and dazed, murmuring aloud, "If I refuse! Told that I want to cheat my men! Threatened with a strike! If I refuse!" He stood murmuring such disjointed, feeble exclamations to himself even when quiet had fallen on the audience. Sharp cries of "Answer!" "Answer!" broke from the hall.