They
could beat the new men and maim them, but so long as they did not
touch property there would be no call for the militia. They waited.
Mean-time Morrissy wore a new diamond.
One day a cry went up.
"Here's the scabs! Here they come!"
Word was sent immediately to the union's headquarters.
A body of twenty-odd men, carrying shovels and pickaxes and
dinner-pails, moved toward the gates. At their head was Bennington
himself. He placed the great key in the lock and swung the gates
inward. The men passed in quickly. Bennington was last. He turned for
a moment and gazed calmly at the threatening faces of the strikers. An
impulse came to him.
"Men," he said, "up to one o'clock this noon these gates will be open
to you. Each of you can take up your work where you left it, at the
same wages, at the same hours. This is the last chance. Later you will
learn that you have been betrayed."
"How about Chittenden?"
"Chittenden will return at the same time you do."
"The hell he will! Let him show his British face here, and we'll
change it so his mother won't know it."
Bennington went inside and shut the gates.
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