see him dash out and
down the street before the pickets on duty at the gate had seen what was
happening, or had time to prevent his escape, if, indeed, they had wished
to do so. Perhaps they felt that to prevent a man from going to rescue
his property from destruction would be exceeding their duty, or perhaps
they thought they had gone far enough, for they made no attempt to stop
him, and looked after him with not unfriendly faces.

'He may run, but he'll not run so fast as the flames,' said one to the
others.

'And you're a set of blackguards for what you've done, and I'd sooner be
a blackleg any day than a blackguard,' shouted the watch inside the gate
to the watch outside.

'I'd nought to do with it, Ben; I'm only obeying orders standing here,
and there's no denying that the master's driven the lads to it. They've
hot blood, and he's roused it,' replied the picket, who did not seem to
resent the plain speaking of his former mate.

'No one is ever driven to setting other folk's homes on fire,' said the
watchman bluntly.

'George, what do you think he's going to do?' demanded Sarah of her
brother, who was standing, cigarette in mouth, listening with apparent
indifference to the colloquy of the past and present hands.

'Gone to see what they are doing at Balmoral,' observed George.

'Hadn't you better go after him?' suggested his sister.

'I don't think so. Strikes me I'd better keep a lookout for possible
air-ships dropping down upon us here. They'll get a warm reception if
they do,' said George with significance.

'I wonder where they got the air-ships from. Naomi says it's the London
agitators who have done it all,' said Sarah.

'Very likely. Well, it's a miserable business. I don't care for the men
we've got here overmuch, though they do their work very well, and it was
very clever of the governor to have got them here and at work so
promptly,' said George.

'A good deal too clever! And see what the result has been! He tricked the
hands, and the hands have tricked him, and he has come worst off so far,'
retorted Sarah.

'I don't know about that! There's a proverb which says, "He laughs
longest who laughs last," and we've yet to see who that will be. So far,
the men have burnt Balmoral, but that loss is insured against; but they
have not bettered their position, and they are losing money, whereas the
governor is making money by the change.'

'One would think it was you who didn't care now; you stand t