FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85  
86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   >>   >|  
gled with the gust of wrath and impotent amaze which gripped him. Najib smiled up at him as might a dog that had just performed some pretty new trick, or a child who has brought to its father a gift. But the aspect of Kirby's distorted face there in the dying firelight shocked the Syrian into a grunt of terror. Scrambling to his feet, he sputtered quaveringly. "Tame yourself, howadji, I enseech you! Why are you not rejoiceful? Will it not mean much money for you; and--" "You mangy brown rat!" shouted Kirby in fury. "What in blazes have you done? You know, as well as I do, that such an idea will never get out of those fellaheens' skulls, once it's really planted there. They'll believe every word of that wall-eyed rot you've been telling them! And they'll go on a _genuine_ strike on the strength of it. They'll--" "Of an assuredly, howadji, they will," assented the bewildered Najib. "I made me very assured of that. Four times I told it all over to them, until even poor Imbarak--whose witfulness hath been beblown out from his brain by the breath of the Most High--until even Imbarak understood. But why it should enrouse you to a lionsome raging I cannot think. I bethought you would be pleasured--" "Listen to me!" ordered Kirby, fighting hard for self-control and forcing himself to speak with unnatural slowness. "You've done more damage than if you had dynamited the whole mine and then turned a river into the shaft. This kind of news spreads. In a week there won't be a worker east of the Jordan who won't be a strike fan. And these people here will work the idea a step farther. I know them. They'll decide that if one strike is good, two strikes are better. And they will strike every week--loafing between times." This prospect brought a grin of pure bliss to Najib's swarthy face. He looked in new admiration upon his farsighted chief. Kirby went on: "Not that that will concern us. For this present strike will settle the Cabell mine. It means ruin to our business here, and the loss of all your jobs, as well as my own. Why, you idiot, can't you see what you've done? If you don't take that asinine grin off your ugly face, I'll knock it off!" he burst out, his hard-held patience momentarily fraying. Then, taking new hold on his self-control, Kirby began again to talk. As if addressing a defective child, which, as a matter of fact, he was doing, he expounded the hideous situation. He explained the disloyalty to the
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85  
86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

strike

 

howadji

 

Imbarak

 
control
 
brought
 

strikes

 
loafing
 

prospect

 

Jordan

 

turned


dynamited
 

unnatural

 

slowness

 

damage

 

people

 
farther
 

decide

 

spreads

 

worker

 
momentarily

patience

 
fraying
 

taking

 

asinine

 

expounded

 

hideous

 

situation

 
disloyalty
 

explained

 

addressing


defective

 

matter

 

concern

 

farsighted

 

swarthy

 

looked

 

admiration

 

present

 

settle

 

business


Cabell

 

enseech

 

rejoiceful

 

quaveringly

 

sputtered

 

Syrian

 
terror
 

Scrambling

 

blazes

 

shouted