me, don't strike for them! Don't turn the whole world upside down
because you want something you can't get! Be sportsmen and play a decent
game! Stick to the rules and you may win! I tell you I'm fighting for
you--I'm fighting hard. And I shan't rest so long as I have a decent
crowd to fight for. But if you're going to follow the rotten example of
the fellows who sacrifice the whole community to their own beastly
greed--who strike like a herd of sheep because a few damned traitors urge
'em to it--who fling duty and honour to the winds on the chance of
grabbing a little worldly advantage--in short, if you're not going to
observe the rules of the game, I've done with the whole show.

"That's the position, men, and I want you to get hold of it, see it as it
really is. Nothing on this earth worth having was ever gained by
disloyalty. Think it out for yourselves! Don't be led by the nose by a
parcel of agitators! Give the matter your own sane and deliberate
thought! Form your own conclusions! Throw off this tyranny of other men's
notions, and be free! If only every man in the kingdom would take this
line and think for himself instead of giving his blind allegiance to a
power that is out to ruin the nation, there would pretty soon be such a
strike against strikes as would kill 'em outright. They're a hindrance to
civilization and a curse to the world at large. They are selfishness
incarnate and a stumbling-block to all national progress. And if there's
any pride of race in you, any sense of an Englishman's honour, any desire
for the nation's welfare (which is at a pretty low ebb just now) join
with me and do your level best to cast out this evil thing!"

He ended as he had begun with clear and spontaneous appeal to the higher
instincts of his hearers. He knew them well, knew their weakness and
their strength; and he knew his own power over them and wielded it with
unfailing confidence.

The hard-breathing silence that succeeded his words dismayed him not
at all. He waited quite calmly for the question he had checked at
the outset.

It came very gruffly from a burly miner immediately in front of him.
"It's all very well," the man said. "But how are we to get our rights any
other way?"

"Oh, you'll get 'em all right," Dick made answer. "This isn't an age of
serfdom. You won't be downtrodden to that extent. You stick to your guns
and have a little patience! Things are not standing still. State your
grievances--if they're ba