nds.

To the crowd, Brengyn, with gruff sincerity, said, loudly: "Jim Gawley,
he done as I knowed he'd do. He done his best, and he done it prime. We
couldn't ha' got on wi'out him. But first there was Mr. Byng as had
sense and knowledge more than any; an' he couldn't be denied; an' there
was Mr. Stafford--him--" pointing to Ian, who, with misty eyes, was
watching the women go back to their men. "He done his bit better nor
any of us. And Mr. Byng and Jacob and Jabez, they can thank their stars
that Mr. Stafford done his bit. Jim's all right an' I done my duty, I
hope, but these two that ain't of us, they done more--Mr. Byng and Mr.
Stafford. Here's three cheers, lads--no, this ain't a time for
cheerin'; but ye all ha' got hands."

His hand caught Ian's with the grip of that brotherhood which is as old
as Adam, and the hand of miner after miner did the same.

The strike was over--at a price too big for human calculation; but it
might have been bigger still.

Outside the open door of the manager's office Stafford watched and
waited till he saw Rudyard, with a little laugh, get slowly to his feet
and stretch his limbs heavily. Then he turned away gloomily to the
darkness of the hills. In his soul there was a depression as deep as in
that of the singing-woman.

"Al'mah had her debt to pay, and I shall have mine," he said, wearily.

BOOK III

CHAPTER XV

THE WORLD WELL LOST

People were in London in September and October who seldom arrived
before November. War was coming. Hundreds of families whose men were in
the army came to be within touch of the War Office and Aldershot, and
the capital of the Empire was overrun by intriguers, harmless and
otherwise. There were ladies who hoped to influence officers in high
command in favour of their husbands, brothers, or sons; subalterns of
title who wished to be upon the staff of some famous general; colonels
of character and courage and scant ability, craving commands;
high-placed folk connected with great industrial, shipping, or
commercial firms, who were used by these firms to get "their share" of
contracts and other things which might be going; and patriotic amateurs
who sought to make themselves notorious through some civilian auxiliary
to war organization, like a voluntary field hospital or a home of
convalescence. But men, too, of the real right sort, longing for chance
of work in their profession of arms; ready for anything, good for
anything, brave