th again as soon as they thought he was sufficiently off his guard.

"Back!" he roared again, striking out with his fist as they rose only a
couple of yards ahead. "Back! an' be damned to you," as a whole swarm
larger and larger, so that they lighted up the night, came rushing round
him.

They were hissing and roaring at him this time. They had hitherto been
silent, and he seemed to hear at first a low murmuring whisper, as if
they consulted together as to the best way to attack him. Then the
whisper grew to a louder swishing sound like the noise Mag had made as
her body hurtled from side to side on falling down the shaft. It grew
louder and louder, like the wind coming through far-off trees, gradually
swelling to a roar. The eyes grew in numbers and got larger with the
noise; and finally, with terror clutching at his heart and an oath upon
his lips, he turned to run back, only to find that they had all merged
into two wide, horribly glaring fiery eyes which were bearing down upon
him with the speed and noise of an express train. They were on him
before he could turn, as if they now realized that he was fully at their
mercy, and with the courage of desperation he flung himself bodily upon
them and went down crushed beneath the heavy mass of a motor driven with
reckless speed by a young man rushing to catch a train.

Walker was down before the young man realized what had happened and the
hoot of the horn had merely spurred Black Jock to the last desperate
leap to death, the lights of the motor having taken on the shape of all
the pursuing eyes that had followed him that night.

When he was taken from beneath the wheels, his neck broken and his body
smashed, Black Jock had paid the last penalty, and the eyes which
destroyed him flashed out accompaniment to his departing soul. And the
winking skies, still merry with the stars of night, looked down unmoved,
while the night-birds on the moor answered one another in their flight,
and called a last farewell to the spirit of Black Jock.

CHAPTER XX

THE CONFERENCE

The storm which had been brewing in the industrial firmament grew more
threatening and the clouds grew blacker until it seemed as if nothing
could prevent a commotion on a big scale.

The demand for a fuller life and more security was being made by the
miners all over the country. Organization was proceeding apace, and a
new idea was being glimpsed by the younger men especially, which filled
their he