c-house; and in that
public-house a small parlor upstairs, and in that parlor a man, who
watched the funeral rites with great interest; but not in a becoming
spirit; for his eyes twinkled with the intensest merriment all the time,
and at each fresh stage of the mournful business he burst into peals of
laughter. Never was any man so thoroughly amused in the City before, at
all events in business hours.

Richard Martin's executor waited a decent time, and then presented his
claim to the Gosshawk. His brother proved a lien on it for L300 and the
rest went by will to his wife. The Gosshawk paid the money after the
delay accorded by law.

CHAPTER XXXI.

Messrs. Bolt and Little put their heads together, and played a prudent
game. They kept the works going for a month, without doing anything
novel, except what tended to the health and comfort of their workmen.

But, meantime, they cleared out two adjacent rooms: one was called the
studio, the other the experiment-room.

In due course they hired a couple of single men from Birmingham to work
the machine under lock and key.

Little with his own hands, affected an aperture in the party-wall, and
thus conveyed long saws from his studio to the machine, and received
them back ground.

Then men were lodged three miles off, were always kept at work half an
hour later than the others, and received six pounds per week apiece, on
pain of instant dismissal should they breathe a syllable. They did the
work of twenty-four men; so even at that high rate of wages, the profit
was surprising. It actually went beyond the inventor's calculation, and
he saw himself at last on the road to rapid fortune, and, above all, to
Grace Carden.

This success excited Bolt's cupidity, and he refused to contract the
operation any longer.

Then the partners had a quarrel, and nearly dissolved. However, it
ended in Little dismissing his Birmingham hands and locking up his
"experiment-room," and in Bolt openly devoting another room to the
machines: two long, two circular.

These machines coined money, and Bolt chuckled and laughed at his
partner's apprehensions for the space of twenty-one days.

On the twenty-second day, the Saw-grinders' Union, which had been
stupefied at first, but had now realized the situation, sent Messrs.
Bolt and Little a letter, civil and even humble; it spoke of the new
invention as one that, if adopted, would destroy their handicraft, and
starve the craftsmen and