d the card--and then flung it with an obscene
curse into Rushton's face, and demanded his back day, which they gave
him without any remark or delay, the other men who were not yet paid
having to wait while he made out his time-sheet for that morning.

The story of this card spread all over the place in a very short time.
It became the talk of every shop in the town. Whenever any of
Rushton's men encountered the employees of another firm, the latter
used to shout after them--'However trifling!'--or 'Look out, chaps!
'Ere comes some of Rushton's pickpockets.'

Amongst Rushton's men themselves it became a standing joke or form of
greeting to say when one met another--'Remember! However trifling!'

If one of their number was seen going home with an unusual amount of
paint or whitewash on his hands or clothes, the others would threaten
to report him for stealing the material. They used to say that however
trifling the quantity, it was against orders to take it away.

Harlow drew up a list of rules which he said Mr Rushton had instructed
him to communicate to the men. One of these rules provided that
everybody was to be weighed upon arrival at the job in the morning and
again at leaving-off time: any man found to have increased in weight
was to be discharged.

There was also much cursing and covert resentment about it; the men
used to say that such a thing as that looked well coming from the likes
of Rushton and Hunter, and they used to remind each other of the affair
of the marble-topped console table, the barometer, the venetian blinds
and all the other robberies.

None of them ever said anything to either Misery or Rushton about the
cards, but one morning when the latter was reading his letters at the
breakfast table, on opening one of them he found that it contained one
of the notices, smeared with human excrement. He did not eat any more
breakfast that morning.

It was not to be much wondered at that none of them had the courage to
openly resent the conditions under which they had to work, for although
it was summer, there were many men out of employment, and it was much
easier to get the sack than it was to get another job.

None of the men were ever caught stealing anything, however trifling,
but all the same during the course of the summer five or six of them
were captured by the police and sent to jail--for not being able to pay
their poor rates.

All through the summer Owen continued to make himself o