enas. I'm not through yet.
You must choose and choose quickly. Stand by the miners or me. If you
forsake me, I'll never see you again. I'll never let you do anything for
me. I'll be as though you never had a daughter. Then what will be the good
of all your money and your saving? There'll be no one to waste it on; no
one to care about you. You know that mother left me enough to live on.
Besides, I can work. Will you go?" She fairly blazed her words at him. She
stamped her foot until the chairs and tables shook.

Dennis O'Day had been her slave since babyhood. She had always had her
way, and had done as she had threatened. He knew, too, that she was the
only one who had a bit of tenderness for him. The men outside cared little
for him. Fear of the consequences was the sole reason that many a miner
had not quietly assisted him into the next world.

Nora came up to him again. She rested her head against his shoulder.
"Listen, daddy, to what I tell you," she said gently, her anger
disappearing. In a few words she told him of her isolation at school, and
how Elizabeth Hobart had befriended her. Her eyes filled as she talked.
Her hearer, too, was moved. When she had finished, she kissed him again.
"I'll be to you the best daughter a man ever had. Go now," pushing him
toward the door. "And tell them that I have brought you news which changes
the program. I'll go with you, daddy. If they harm you, I'll bear the
blows too."

He told her to stay, but she followed close after him. He had no fear of
bodily harm. There would be growls and snarls, and perhaps threats, but
the trouble would end there. Gerani, Colowski, Raffelo, Sickerenza, were
the bell-sheep. He could control them.

Pushing his way to the front of the saloon, he stood in the doorway and
shouted with the full force of his lungs. He spoke Slavic, and they
listened. There were mutterings and growls as might have been expected. He
gave no reason for the delay of the attack, but his words suggested much.

Gerani, in the background, in low tones was urging a group of Slavs to
answer O'Day, and declare that they would go on. O'Day's eyes were on the
big Slav. He understood the conditions. Nothing would please Gerani better
than to have the miners rush upon the speaker and kill him.

O'Day understood. He called out, "Take my word for it, Gerani. We won't
get into this to-night. They've filled the cars on the incline with
dynamite. The moment we set foot there, down comes