ay. Let us conclude by trusting that we shall be as warm friends as
ever although our relations towards each other are necessarily changed."

Three rousing cheers greeted the conclusion of Jack's speech, after
which he drove off with Mr. Brook. As the men gathered round the top of
the shaft, an old miner exclaimed: "Dang it all, I ha' it now. I was
wondering all the time he was speaking where I had heard his voice
before. I know now. As sure as I'm a living man it was Jack Simpson as
beat us back from that there engine-house when we were going to stop the
pumps in the strike."

Now that the clue was given a dozen others of those who had been present
agreed with the speaker. The event was now an old one, and all
bitterness had passed. Had it been known at the time, or within a few
months afterwards, Jack's life would probably have paid the penalty,
but now the predominant feeling was one of admiration. Those who had,
during the last few weeks, wearily watched the pumping out of the
Vaughan, felt how fatal would have been the delay had it occurred when
the strike ended and they were penniless and without resources, and no
feeling of ill-will remained.

"He be a game 'un; to think o' that boy standing alone agin' us a', and
not a soul as much as suspected it! Did'st know o't, Bill Haden?"

"Noa," Bill said, "never so much as dream't o't, but now I thinks it
over, it be loikely enoo'. I often thought what wonderful luck it were
as he gave me that 'ere bottle o' old Tom, and made me as drunk as a
loord joost at th' roight time, and I ha' thought it were curious too,
seeing as never before or since has he giv'd me a bottle o' liquor, but
now it all comes natural enough. Well, to be sure, and to think that lad
should ha' done all that by hisself, and ne'er a soul the wiser! You may
be sure the gaffer didn't know no more than we, or he'd a done summat
for the lad at the time. He offered rewards, too, for the finding out
who 't were as had done it, and to think 'twas my Jack! Well, well, he
be a good plucked un too, they didn't ca' him Bull-dog for nowt, for it
would ha' gone hard wi' him had 't been found out. I'm main proud o'
that lad."

And so the discovery that Jack had so wished to avoid, when it was at
last made, added much to the respect with which he was held in the
Vaughan pit. If when a boy he would dare to carry out such a scheme as
this, it was clear that as a man he was not to be trifled with. The
reputation w