Page:Stanwood Pier--The ancient grudge.djvu/445

434 of the Affiliated were in session with their literary adviser. Tustin had himself been one of those who had placed Farrell in the milk-wagon, and he was anxious that a fair account of the trouble should be given to the newspapers.

"We had a little fracas here this morning, Mr. Lee," he had begun when Stewart arrived, "and I made bold to telephone and ask if you would n't come out and maybe help us. It's the first violence that's occurred during the lock-out—in spite of all the provocation the men have had. Now we've got to expect that the management will hold this up against us—though it was all of their own making. I thought if you would come out and look into the matter and get at the truth of it, you could write it up in an article that would offset the kind of statements the management will send out. Of course we'll give our side of it to the reporters anyway; but it would help a good bit to have something additional—a kind of independent investigation made by some one on the outside—like yourself."

"What are the facts of the case?" asked Stewart.

"Well, I can only give them to you as I know them and saw them, and I'd rather you would n't go too much by my word, I'd rather you'd ask a lot of others about it—though I guess the stories won't differ very much. I told you we'd been keeping tabs on Farrell, and we knew what to expect. We knew that he'd been treacherous enough to agree with Mr. Halket that he'd try to get a gang of men—soreheads and traitors like himself—to sneak in and start up some of the mills; then they expected the rest of us would weaken and come in. That was the underhanded, tricky game, Mr. Lee, that an employer of labor condescended to conspire with one of his employees—and him the one whose wife—But I mentioned that to you before. Well, we got wind of the plot; you were not the only one that helped to put us next to it—"