The Ironmaster's Daughter.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8305, 7 December 1906, Page 2

The Ironmaster's Daughter.

f"The Ironmaster's Daughter" was commenced on October 17th.]

CHAPTER XXVl,—Continued.

For these indiscretions he had to suffer. Several times he broke up the open-air meetings held by Duke Deverell, punched a score cf heads, and was badly disfigured himself. That he considered to be part of his duty. Side by side he and Miss Morns •were walking, the evening after Dick Tressidy's attack of fever. Bill was worried over it, and talked of giving the young master a call. "He'd see me —he knows old Bill's ? one of staunchest Hello ! -what's up here ? Another meeting! Come along, Polly." "No," Polly said, "I hate troubles. Look at your face now. WaVe not lit to be seen in daytime." "It's all for the master," Bill answered proudly. "I feel like a hero Covered with medals. Oh, it isn't any speechmaking," he added disappointedly. "Only a concert. And blessed if Mr Benson and Miss Craven aren't coming!" Polly became interested at once, and spoke pleasantly to Hilda Craven, while Bill nodded to the chief clerk. Mr Benson and Bill Hebden appreciated each other's qualities. Both were loyal subjects to his majesty, but when Bill gave a toast it was "Dick Tressidy and the king! " and the chief clerk mutely assented "Are you going to the concert?" asked Mr Benson. "No, sir," said Bill. "Polly's got to be home by nine." "Good-nights" were said, and Polly looked thoughtful. "Mr Benson doesn't look happy," she remarked. "He couldn't if he tried, with that long face of his," smiled Bill cheerfully. "Fancy his hitching on to that flirt." "Bill!" Poll y"exclaimed indignantly. "Miss CraVen is a lady." "Yes, I know all about it," scornfully. "I've seen her sort afore today. When I was a soldier, them sort used to run after my red coat," He sniffed contemptuously. "A flatcatcher, I call her." "She's the best friend I've got," objected Poily. "Then you'd be better off in the poorhouse," snorted Bill. "Don't you make friends with that lot. Now look here, Polly, I've got my eyes on her. When I was a policeman I got hold of the detective instinct, and I spotted Miss Craven at once, as being out of her class doin typewriting. She's too high-falutin', and would look better behind the bar of a swell hotel, a-sparkin' the dudes." "You are talking nonsense. Miss Craven is quiet and modest." "She soon hooked Benson." "He wouldn't let her alone. He was simply infatuated, from the day she came." Bill laughed softly, wickedly. "I s'pose I'll have to give him a caution," he said, half to himself. "But I want to let him down gentty" / "Good gracious, Bill! You are making me'miserable." '•The young master says to me: 'Bill, you keep your eyes skinned; I'm in the thick of a pretty stiff fight,'and he laughed in a way I .understood. We know one another Polly. Why, I taught him to use his dukes —his gloves, I mean, when he was a kid—a youth, I should say. That was when I came out of the , army " ■'But what has all this to do 'lvith Miss Craven?" Bill hesitated, and looked Polly squarely in the eyes. "Not a word?" be said. "Honour bright." "Well, believe me or believe me not, Polly, I saw her kiss Christopher Stanley on his own doorstep ! And his wife might have seen 'em from the window, if she'd beon looking. I followed her to Stanley's house, and I waited till she came out. I Avas disgusted," he added, proudly. Polly was amazed, horrified. Christopher Stanley—the firm's bitter enemy and rival. "There'll be some more plans missing soon," added Bill, oracularly, "and I shall know who's got em'.. You watch her. But, there, what's Jjthe good, when the head clerk kisses and slops over her in the private office." They were now standing at the door of Polly's home, and after talking for a little while, Polly suggested' that he might come in. Bill said no; he felt too-fidgity. "To-morrow evening, at the usual time." "Shall we go to church," she asked. "After the ejection, and when the young master is well again. He's promised us a lift in the furnishing line." "You know I didn't mean that," said Polly, blushing and crying all at once. And she ran indoors in high dungeon, while Bill chuckled. 1 "I feel like going to church," he muttered. "With the parson jawing about forgiving everybody, and turning both' sides <p' your face round to be thumped At once. It ain't-in human nature to stand it." X flaring poster caught his eyes: "Vote 'for Isaacs, the Working-man's Friend." He stripped it off the fence, the light of battle in v his eye. ' Then he strolled in the direction of the/iiew works, to have a talk with the night-watchman. Within two hundred yards of the

Bv OWEN MASTERS. t&ril tr of " Clyda's Dream," " Nina's . Repentance t " " Her Soldier Xover, !f "The Mystery of Woodcroft," *' For Love of Marjorie," etc.

works a big benzoline lamp illumined the street, and the grimy faces of a mob of men and boys. Upon a raised platform half-a-dozen welldressed fellows were grouped. They were speaking in turn, and their leader was Duke Deverell. It was the old cry of shorter hours, higher wages, cheaper food, and social equality. No foreigners, no foreign workmen, no foreign goods, and no machinery that displaced men. Covert references were made to Tsessidy's new works, and the mob howled. Duke Deverell sprang in from of the platform and cried : "It's the first of its kind, men, and it rests with you to prevent more of such infernal contrivances robbing your honest hands of work. If I had my way the machinery would be sma-hed up as quick as it was made. There may be a compositor here who remembers the days before stereotyping was brought to this country. In those good times the compositor was a well-to-do man. Now there are thousands of thep.l in the poorhouse, and starving in the street." • [to be continued.]