“You can have twenty minutes, my English-bred gentleman,” snarled Morrissy.  At that moment he would have given a thousand dollars for the strength to whip the man whose ruin he believed he was planning.  “I’m kind of anxious myself to hear what you’ve got to say.

“In fact, I hope you will listen carefully to every word I say,” replied Bennington, with a nod toward the door.

The committee went out solemnly.  Morrissy was next to the last to go down the stairs.  Bennington followed closely behind him.

“Some day I’ll get a good chance at you, Mr. Morrissy, and the devil take care of you when I do.  I shall see to it that the law will be found to fit your case.”

Morrissy shifted over to the balustrade, looking over his shoulder at the speaker.

“Look here, you can’t talk to me that way, Bennington.”

“Can’t I?  I’ll proceed.  In the first place, you’re a damn scoundrel.  You’ve brought about this trouble simply to show that you have power to injure me.  Well, you can’t injure me, Mr. Morrissy, but you will do irreparable injury to these poor men who put their trust in you and your kind.  Chittenden?  That’s a pretty poor excuse.  You’ve always harbored a grudge against my father, and this seems to be your chance.  You’ve the idea that you can intimidate me.  You can’t intimidate me any more than you could my father.  More than all this, McQuade is back of this move; and if I can prove that you accepted a bribe from him, I’ll have you both in court for conspiracy.”

“You’re talking big.  It won’t do you any good.”

“Wait.  I should be willing to wait ten years to call you a thief and a blackguard in public.  But I say to you now, privately, you are both a thief and a blackguard.”

Morrissy stepped back, red in the face.  But he recognized the disadvantage of his position.  He was one step lower than his accuser.

“Go on,” said Bennington, his voice now hard and metallic; “go on down.  There’ll be no rough and tumble here.  I won’t give you that satisfaction.”

“Well, you mark my words, I’ll get satisfaction out of you shortly, and then you’ll talk on the other side of your mouth.  This is business now.  When that’s done, why, I’ll make you eat every one of those words.”

Bennington laughed sinisterly.  He could crush the life out of this flabby ruffian with one arm, easily.

Nothing more was said, and the way to the great molding-room was traversed silently.  Shipley sent out orders, and in a few minutes the men congregated to hear what the boss had to say.  It was, to say the least, an unusual proceeding, this of an employer delivering a speech to his men after they had practically declared a strike.  Morrissy now regretted that he had given Bennington any grace at all, for it was not to be doubted that there was only a small majority of the men who had voted for a strike.  And these were the young men; youth is always so hot-headed and cock-sure of itself.  The older men, the men who had drawn their pay in the shops for twenty years or more, they were not so confident.