CHAPTER XII.
A RISE AND A FALL.
WHEN Emily looked again two of the strikers, one waving a white rag at the end of a pole, were advancing toward the limp bodies in the centre of the square. They made three trips. Neither shots nor shouts broke the silence. Soon the only evidences of the tragedy were the pools and streaks of blood on the flagging.
Camp was once more at his drawing, rapidly outlining a big sketch of the scene they had witnessed. “Good stuff, wasn’t it?” he said, looking up with an apologetic grin and flush. “It couldn’t have been better if it had been fixed for a theatre.”
“It’ll make a good story,” replied Emily, struggling with some success to assume the calmly professional air and tone. “I’m going to my room. If I hear any more shots, I’ll come again. When Mr. Holyoke returns, please tell him I’d like to see him.”
She had rushed through that hall an hour before, a panic-stricken girl. She returned a woman, confident of herself. She had seen; she had felt; she had lived. She sat at her table, and, with little hesitation, wrote. When she had been at work an hour and a half, Holyoke interrupted her.
“Oh, I see you’re busy,” he began.
“I wanted to say,” said Emily, “that I shall send a little about the trouble a while ago—quite independently of the news, you know. So, just write as if I were not here at all.”
“All right. They’ll want every line we can both send.” Holyoke looked at her with friendly anxiety. “You look tired,” he said, “as if you’d been under a strain. It must have been an awful experience for you, sitting here. Don’t bother to write anything. I’ll sign both our names to my despatch.”
“Thank you, but I couldn’t let you do that. What were the names of those people who were killed out in the square?”
“They were a puddler named Jack Farron, and his son Tom, and Tom’s wife. Tom got married only last week. She insisted on going out with him. They had been scouting, and had news that the militia were moving to take the strikers from the rear and rout them out of their position. You heard about the shooting?”