home. I bag the
back seat and Adrien. It is hard on me, I know, but fifteen minutes
more of Patsy and I shall be counting my tootsies and prattling nursery
rhymes. Here they come," he breathed. "Now, 'a little forlorn hope,
deadly breach act, if you love me, Hardy.' Play up, old boy!"

And with commendable enthusiasm and success, Hugh played up,
supported--as far as his physical and mental condition allowed--by
the enfeebled Vic, till they had safely deposited their charges at the
Rectory door, whence, refusing an invitation to stop for cocoa, they
took their homeward way.

"'And from famine, pestilence and sudden death,' and from the once-over
by that penetrating young female, 'good Lord, deliver us,'" murmured
Vic, falling into the seat beside his friend. "Take me home to mother,"
he added, and refused further speech till at his own door. He waved a
weak adieu and staggered feebly into the house.

CHAPTER XI

THE NEW MANAGER

Grant Maitland sat in his office, plainly disturbed in his mind. His
resolute face, usually reflecting the mental repose which arises from
the consciousness of a strength adequate to any emergency, carried lines
which revealed a mind which had lost its poise. Reports from his foremen
indicated brooding trouble, and this his own observation within the last
few weeks confirmed. Production was noticeably falling low. The attitude
of the workers suggested suspicion and discontent. That fine glow of
comradeship which had been characteristic of all workers in the Maitland
Mills had given place to a sullen aloofness and a shiftiness of eye that
all too plainly suggested evil forces at work.

During the days immediately preceding and following the Great Match,
there had been a return of that frank and open bearing that had
characterised the employees of the Maitland Mills in the old days, but
that fleeting gleam of sunshine had faded out and the old grey shadow
of suspicion, of discontent, had fallen again. To Maitland this attitude
brought a disappointment and a resentment which sensibly added to his
burden, already heavy enough in these days of weakening markets and
falling prices. In his time he had come through periods of financial
depression. He was prepared for one such period now, but he had never
passed through the unhappy experience of a conflict with his own
employees. Not that he had ever feared a fight, but he shrank from a
fight with his own men. It humiliated him. He felt it to