right specimen for yer! An Atheist! didn't believe in no God or
Devil or nothing else. A pretty state of things there would be if
these Socialists could have their own way: for one thing, nobody would
be allowed to work overtime!

Crass and Slyme worked and talked in this manner till ten o'clock, and
then they extinguished the fire by throwing some water on it--put out
the gas and locked up the shop and the yard, dropping the key of the
latter into the letter-box at Rushton's office on their way home.

In this way they worked at the blinds nearly every night for three
weeks.

When Saturday arrived the men working at 'The Cave' were again
surprised that nobody was sacked, and they were divided in opinion as
to the reason, some thinking that Nimrod was determined to keep them
all on till the job was finished, so as to get it done as quickly as
possible; and others boldly asserting the truth of a rumour that had
been going about for several days that the firm had another big job in.
Mr Sweater had bought another house; Rushton had to do it up, and they
were all to be kept on to start this other work as soon as 'The Cave'
was finished. Crass knew no more than anyone else and he maintained a
discreet silence, but the fact that he did not contradict the rumour
served to strengthen it. The only foundation that existed for this
report was that Rushton and Misery had been seen looking over the
garden gate of a large empty house near 'The Cave'. But although it
had such an insignificant beginning, the rumour had grown and increased
in detail and importance day by day. That very morning at
breakfast-time, the man on the pail had announced that he had heard on
the very best authority that Mr Sweater had sold all his interest in
the great business that bore his name and was about to retire into
private life, and that he intended to buy up all the house property in
the neighbourhood of 'The Cave'. Another individual--one of the new
hands--said that he had heard someone else--in a public house--say that
Rushton was about to marry one of Sweater's daughters, and that Sweater
intended to give the couple a house to live in, as a wedding present:
but the fact that Rushton was already married and the father of four
children, rather knocked the bottom out of this story, so it was
regretfully dismissed. Whatever the reason, the fact remained that
nobody had been discharged, and when pay-time arrived they set out for
the office