Page:Stanwood Pier--The ancient grudge.djvu/430

Rh word, and any morning I'll march in a gang big enough to start two mills—and maybe more. Just let us have one day of work, and the next day you'll have 'em all coming back."

"I'll try it—on one condition," Floyd replied. "That is this: if when you go down to the works you find yourelves forcibly opposed—your entrance, I mean—you give it up, without a fight. I'd rather have this deadlock go on indefinitely than have it end in violence."

Farrell gave his promise and named the day on which he and his men would be ready to enter the mills.

"Very well; the gates will be opened for you at six o'clock in the morning," Floyd replied.

"But don't give it out," Farrell cautioned him. "We've got to work this on the quiet. Only the right fellows are to know—the fellows that can be trusted."

"Yes, of course. And remember—if there's the least sign of trouble, you're to draw out; I want that understood."

Farrell gave his promise.

Two days before the attempt to reopen the works was to be made, the committee on the Rebecca Halket Hospital competition announced the award. Bennett & Durant of Avalon had won the prize. The newspapers all published elaborate descriptions and reproductions of the successful plans. Stewart read the announcement at breakfast and broke out into a furious invective that appalled Lydia.

"Stewart!" she exclaimed entreatingly. "I'm sorry for your disappointment, dear, but—Stewart!"

He continued without heeding her. Then suddenly she spoke to him in a tone that he had never before heard her use. "Stewart! You say such things to me about Floyd!"

But he was so carried away by wrath and mortification that he ignored the unfamiliar warning in her voice. "That and more too!" he cried. "Ignorance—chicanery—fair competition, indeed! Bennett & Durant!