“Noo, jist keep yoursel’ cool a bit,” he said, holding up his hand as Rundell made to speak.  “We did gey well,” he resumed in his even monotone, like a man who was repeating something he had learned by heart.  “But gey soon I found that I was expected to spend a good share o’ my pay in drink, while Walker took a’, an’ never spent a penny.  So it was, that for a’ the money we made we’ve been gey little the better o’t, an’ very much the worse o’ it.  Without exception we shared penny aboot with Walker on every bargain we got, an’ I ken he has a guid bank balance, while I hae nane.

“Noo, this is a rotten story frae end to end o’t,” he went on after a short pause to wipe his face with a handkerchief.  “I allowed him to ruin my wife’s character.  I kent it was gaun on a’ the time; but like mony mair I hae kent, a manager’s favor was mair to me than the honor o’ a wife.  I let him tak’ a share o’ the money I made, an’ spent my ain to keep him up on drink.  But noo it’s ended a’.  A wheen o’ weeks syne, a man ca’d Tam Granger came to the place and his wife being young an’ fresh, an’ guid-looking, besides being free, Walker’s fancy was ta’en wi’ her.  So you ken what it means, when a gaffer carries on like that, an’ the man is saft enough as weel as the woman being willin’.  Tam got my contracts this week, an’ I have to gang back into a common place and howk coals.

“Weel, the wife couldna’ stand being slighted like thet, an’ Granger’s wife had been tantalizin’ her too, you ken hoo women rave when they are slighted.  So she opened oot on Walker yesterday mornin’ an’ followed him up the row, the hale place being turned oot to hear her exposure o’ him.  She fair gaed mad wi’ anger I think, an’ lost a’ control o’ hersel’ an’ she followed him shouting so that a’ the neighbors could hear her tauntin’ an’ jibin’ at him, till he could staun it nae langer, an’ he turned an’ struck her, knockin’ her doon on the green, an’ then kickin’ her, till she’s a’ bruised ower the body.  She has an’ awfu’ lookin’ face too, an’ she came in bleeding like a sheep.

“So that’s the hale ugly story, Mr. Rundell.  As I said I’m gaun to mak’ nae excuses.  There’s nane tae mak’; an’ I’m cheap served for it a’.  I should hae stood by the wife and protected her.  But I’ll dae it noo.  She’s mine, an’ if she’s no guid it is me that is to blame.  I’m leavin’, an’ I’m gaun awa’ doon the country the morn to look for work; but I thocht I’d tell you the whole rotten story first, then I’ll get Walker, an’ hae a reckonin’ wi’ him an’ be off the morn.  I’ll pay off that black-hearted brute this day afore I leave Lowwood an’ then my conscience will be easier.”

Mr. Rundell sat stupefied and amazed at the story just told him by Robertson, and just as both men sat staring at each other and before another word could be said, a miner burst into the room, almost exploding with excitement, crying:—­

“Oh, Mr. Rundell, you’ve to come to the pit at once.  A woman has flung herself doon the shaft.”