l kill a man at once,' he protested as he wiped the
tears from his eyes, 'you might as well kill a man at once as choke 'im
to death.'

'And now I've got a bit of good news for you,' said the Chief as he put
his empty glass down.

The others became serious at once.

'Although we've had a very rough time of it in our contest with the
Gasworks Company, and although we've got the worst of it, it hasn't
been all lavender for them, you know. They've not enjoyed themselves
either: we hit them pretty hard when we put up the coal dues.'

'A damn good job too,' said Grinder malignantly.

'Well,' continued Sweater, 'they're just as sick of the fight as they
want to be, because of course they don't know exactly how badly we've
been hit. For all they know, we could have continued the struggle
indefinitely: and--well, to make a long story short, I've had a talk
with the managing director and one or two others, and they're willing
to let us in with them. So that we can put the money we get for the
Electric Light Works into gas shares!'

This was such splendid news that they had another drink on the strength
of it, and Didlum said that one of the first things they would have to
do would be to totally abolish the Coal Dues, because they pressed so
hard on the poor.

Chapter 31

The Deserter

About the end of January, Slyme left Easton's. The latter had not
succeeded in getting anything to do since the work at 'The Cave' was
finished, and latterly the quality of the food had been falling off.
The twelve shillings Slyme paid for his board and lodging was all that
Ruth had to keep house with. She had tried to get some work to do
herself, but generally without success; there were one or two jobs that
she might have had if she had been able to give her whole time to them,
but of course that was not possible; the child and the housework had to
be attended to, and Slyme's meals had to be prepared. Nevertheless, she
contrived to get away several times when she had a chance of earning a
few shillings by doing a day's charing for some lady or other, and then
she left everything in such order at home that Easton was able to
manage all right while she was away. On these occasions, she usually
left the baby with Owen's wife, who was an old schoolmate of hers.
Nora was the more willing to render her this service because Frankie
used to be so highly delighted whenever it happened. He never tired of
playing with the child, and