first concern. You will tell your men that they will have double wages
for day work and treble for night work, and whether they belong to the
Volunteers or Yeomanry or Militia they will not be called to the Colours
as long as they keep faith with us; if the experiment turns out all
right, every man who sees it through shall have a bonus of a thousand
pounds.

"But, remember, that this pit will be watched, and every man who signs
on for the job will be watched, and the Lord have mercy on the man who
plays us false, for he'll want it. You must make them remember that, Mr
Bowcock. This is no childish game of war among nations; this means the
saving or the losing of a world, and the man who plays traitor here is
not only betraying his own country, but the whole human race, friends
and enemies alike."

"I'll see to that, Mr Lennard. I know my chaps, and if there's one or
two bad 'uns among 'em, they'll get paid and shifted in the ordinary
way of business. But they're mostly a gradely lot of chaps. I've been
picking 'em out for his lordship for t' last five yeers, and there isn't
a Trade Unionist among 'em. We give good money here and we want good
work and good faith, and if we don't get it, the man who doesn't give it
has got to go and find another job.

"For wages like that they'd go on boring t' shaft right down through t'
earth and out at t' other side, and risk finding Owd Nick and his people
in t' middle. A' tell yo' for sure. Well, good-mornin', yo've a lot to
do, and so have I. A'll get those galleries blocked and bricked up at
once, and as soon as you can send t' concrete along, we'll start at t'
floor."

Lennard's first visit after breakfast was to the Manchester and County
Bank in Deansgate, where he startled the manager, as far as a Lancashire
business man can be startled, by opening an account for two hundred and
fifty thousand pounds, and depositing the title-deeds of the whole of
Lord Westerham's properties in and about Bolton.

When he had finished his business at the Bank, he went to the offices of
Dobson & Barlow, the great ironworkers, whose four-hundred-and-ten-foot
chimney towers into the murky sky so far above all other structures in
Bolton that if you are approaching the town by road you see it and its
crest of smoke long before you see Bolton itself.

The firm had, of course, been advised of his coming, and he had written
a note over-night to say when he would call. The name of Ratliffe
Parmente