icken
family--Misery would contrive to wriggle his unsavoury carcass into the
house of sorrow, seeking, even in the chamber of death, to further the
interests of Rushton & Co. and to earn his miserable two and a half per
cent.

It was to make possible the attainment of this object that Misery
slaved and drove and schemed and cheated. It was for this that the
workers' wages were cut down to the lowest possible point and their
offspring went ill clad, ill shod and ill fed, and were driven forth to
labour while they were yet children, because their fathers were unable
to earn enough to support their homes.

Fifteen years!

Hunter realized now that Rushton had had considerably the best of the
bargain. In the first place, it will be seen that the latter had
bought over one who might have proved a dangerous competitor, and now,
after fifteen years, the business that had been so laboriously built
up, mainly by Hunter's energy, industry and unscrupulous cunning,
belonged to Rushton & Co. Hunter was but an employee, liable to
dismissal like any other workman, the only difference being that he was
entitled to a week's notice instead of an hour's notice, and was but
little better off financially than when he started for the firm.

Fifteen years!

Hunter knew now that he had been used, but he also knew that it was too
late to turn back. He had not saved enough to make a successful start
on his own account even if he had felt mentally and physically capable
of beginning all over again, and if Rushton were to discharge him right
now he was too old to get a job as a journeyman. Further, in his zeal
for Rushton & Co. and his anxiety to earn his commission, he had often
done things that had roused the animosity of rival firms to such an
extent that it was highly improbable that any of them would employ him,
and even if they would, Misery's heart failed him at the thought of
having to meet on an equal footing those workmen whom he had tyrannized
over and oppressed. It was for these reasons that Hunter was as
terrified of Rushton as the hands were of himself.

Over the men stood Misery, ever threatening them with dismissal and
their wives and children with hunger. Behind Misery was Rushton, ever
bullying and goading him on to greater excuses and efforts for the
furtherance of the good cause--which was to enable the head of the firm
to accumulate money.

Mr Hunter, at the moment when the reader first makes his acquaintance