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lie.

ā€œWell,ā€ he said, ā€œweā€™ve got to thank you for puttinā€™ the thing to us as clear and as square as you have, Mr. Armitage. It gives every man here a chance to see just what youā€™re drivinā€™ at. But I might say here and nowā ā€Šā ā€¦ Iā€™ve got no time for itā ā€Šā ā€¦ neither me nor my mates.ā ā€Šā ā€¦ Itā€™ll save time and finish the business of this meeting if thereā€™s no beatinā€™ about the bush and we understand each other right away. It sounds all rightā ā€”your schemeā ā€”nice and easy. Looks as if there was more for us to get out of it than to lose by it.ā ā€Šā ā€¦ I donā€™t say it wouldnā€™t mean easier timesā ā€Šā ā€¦ more moneyā ā€Šā ā€¦ all that sort of thing. We havenā€™t had the easiest of times here sometimes, and this scheme of yours comesā ā€Šā ā€¦ just when weā€™re in the worst thatā€™s ever knocked us. But speakinā€™ for myself, andā€ā ā€”his glance round the hall was an appeal to that principle the Ridge stood forā ā€”ā€œthe most of my mates, weā€™d rather have the hard times and be our own masters. Thatā€™s what weā€™ve always said on the Ridge.ā ā€Šā ā€¦ Your scheme ā€™d be all right if we didnā€™t feel like that; I suppose. But we doā ā€Šā ā€¦ and as far as Iā€™m concerned, we wonā€™t touch it. Itā€™s no go.

ā€œWeā€™re obliged to you for putting the thing to us. We recognise you could have gone another way about getting control here. You mayā ā€”buy up a few of the mines perhaps, and try to squeeze the rest of us out. Not that I think the boysā€™d stand for the experiment.ā€

ā€œThey wouldnā€™t,ā€ Bill Grant called.

ā€œIā€™m glad to hear that,ā€ George said. He tried to point out that if Fallen Star miners accepted Armitageā€™s offer they would be shouldering conditions which would take from their work the freedom and interest that had made their life in common what it had been on the Ridge. He asked whether a weekly wage to tide them over years of misfortune would compensate for loss of the sense of being free men; he wanted to know how theyā€™d feel if they won a nest of knobbies worth Ā£400 or Ā£500 and got no more out of them than the weekly wage. The percentage on big stones was only a bluff to encourage men to hand over big stones, George said. And that, beyond the word being used pretty frequently in Mr. Armitageā€™s argument and documents, was all the profit-sharing he could see in Mr. Armitageā€™s scheme. He reminded the men, too, that under their own system, in a day they could make a fortune. And all there was for them under Mr. Armitageā€™s system was three or four pounds a weekā ā€”and not a bit of potch, nor a penny in the quart pot for their old age.

ā€œWe own these mines. Every man here owns his mine,ā€ George said; ā€œthatā€™s worth more to us just now than engineers and prospecting parties.ā ā€Šā ā€¦ Well have them on our own account directly, when the luck turns and thereā€™s money about again.ā ā€Šā ā€¦ For the present weā€™ll hang on to what weā€™ve got, thank you, Mr. Armitage.ā€

He sat down, and a guffaw of laughter rolled over his last words.

ā€œAnybody else got anything to say?ā€ Peter Newton inquired.

Mā€™Ginnis stood up.

He had heard a good deal of talk about men of the Ridge being free, he said, but all it amounted to was their being free to starve, as far as he could see. He didnā€™t see that the menā€™s ownership of the mines meant much more than thatā ā€”the freedom to starve. It was all very well for them to swank round about being masters of their own mines; any fool could be master of a rubbish heap if he was keen enough on the rubbish heap. But as far as he was concerned, Mā€™Ginnis declared, he didnā€™t see the point. What they wanted was capital, and Mr. Armitage had volunteered it on what were more than ordinarily generous terms.ā ā€Šā ā€¦

It was all very well for a few shell-backs who, because they had been on the place in the early days, thought they had some royal prerogative to it, to cut up rusty when their ideas were challenged. But their ideas had been given a chance; and how had they worked out? It was all very well to say that if a man was master of his own mine he stood a chance of being a millionaire at a minuteā€™s notice; but how many of them were millionaires? As a matter of fact, not a man on the Ridge had a penny to bless himself with at that moment, and it was sheer madness to turn down this offer of Mr. Armitageā€™s. For his part he was for it, and, what was more, there was a big body of the men in the hall for it.

ā€œIf itā€™s put to the vote whether people want to take on or turn down Mr. Armitageā€™s scheme, weā€™ll soon see which way the catā€™s jumping,ā€ Mā€™Ginnis said. ā€œPeopleā€™d have the nause to see which side their breadā€™s buttered onā ā€”not be led by the nose by a few fools and dreamers. For my part, I donā€™t see whyā ā€”ā€

ā€œYouā€™re not paid to,ā€ a voice called from the back of the hall.

ā€œI donā€™t see why,ā€ Mā€™Ginnis repeated stolidly, ignoring the interruption, ā€œthe ideas of three or four men should be allowed to rule the roost. Whatā€™s wanted on the Ridge is a little more horse senseā ā€”ā€

Impatient and derisive exclamations were hurled at him; men sitting near Mā€™Ginnis shouted back at the interrupters. It looked as if the meeting were going to break up in uproar, confusion, and fighting all round. Peter Newton knocked on the table and shouted himself hoarse trying to restore order. The voices of George, Watty, and Pony-Fence Inglewood were heard howling over the din:

ā€œLet him alone.ā€

ā€œLetā€™s hear what heā€™s got to say.ā€

Then Mā€™Ginnis continued his description of the advantages to be gained by the acceptance of Mr. Armitageā€™s offer.

ā€œAnd,ā€ he wound up, ā€œthereā€™s the women and children to think of.ā€ At

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