's what they wouldn't want their daughters to
hear; an' there ain't no dirty back talk, neither. An' I make me own men
civil, too, with a dacint tongue in their heads. I had a young strip of
a lad once who would be a-swearin' round the stables. I told him to mend
his manners or I'd wash his mouth out, an' that I wouldn't have nobody
hit me horses on the head. He kep' along, an' I see it was a bad example
for the other drivers (this was only a year ago, an' I had three of
'em); so when he hit the Big Gray ag'in, I hauled off and give him a
crack that laid him out. I was scared solid for two hours, though they
never knew it."

Then, with an almost piteous look in her face, and with a sudden burst
of confidence, born, doubtless, of a dawning faith in the man's evident
sincerity and esteem, she said in a faltering tone:--

"God help me! what can I do? I've no man to stand by me, an' somebody's
got to be boss."

IV. A WALKING DELEGATE LEARNS A NEW STEP

McGaw's failure to undermine Tom's business with Babcock, and his
complete discomfiture over Crane's coal contract at the fort, only
intensified his hatred of the woman.

Finding that he could make no headway against her alone, he called
upon the Union to assist him, claiming that she was employing non-union
labor, and had thus been able to cut down the discharging rates to
starvation prices.

A meeting was accordingly called by the executive committee of the
Knights, and a resolution passed condemning certain persons in the
village of Rockville as traitors to the cause of the workingman. Only
one copy of this edict was issued and mailed. This found its way into
Tom Grogan's letter-box. Five minutes after she had broken the seal, her
men discovered the document pasted upside down on her stable door.

McGaw heard of her action that night, and started another line of
attack. It was managed so skillfully that that which until then had been
only a general dissatisfaction on the part of the members of the Union
and their sympathizers over Tom's business methods now developed into an
avowed determination to crush her. They discussed several plans by which
she could be compelled either to restore rates for unloading, or
be forced out of the business altogether. As one result of these
deliberations a committee called upon the priest, Father McCluskey, and
informed him of the delicate position in which the Union had been placed
by her having hidden her husband away, thus