'I told you none of you should get into this room, and none of you shall, by God! if I have to treat twenty of you to the same fare as this poor fellow. If you're sane men, pick him up and see to him, and perhaps nothing worse may come to you after all. Remember that every man who does not help to put that fire out breaks the law. For Heaven's sake be reasonable men. There are some here who know me. Do you think I care for this cursed mill? I came down here to save you. Help me to do it.'
The moderate party was a good deal stronger by this time; the axe had been a first-rate argument.
'Well done, sir!' 'Quite right, sir!' 'Hear, hear!' went up from the crowd, and two or three men came forward. Litvinoff resumed his defensive attitude, but they were not for attack. They busied themselves with their wounded friend.
'Is John Hatfield there?' called Litvinoff, seeing that he had prevailed. 'I want him. Hatfield, can't you manage to get a dozen of your friends to put out that fire? The best thing you can do is to knock down the sheds on each side, and then it will burn itself out and do no harm.'
'We will, sir,' Hatfield answered. 'You're right; this has been a mad night's work.'
All danger of further riot was at an end. The men who had been foremost in the work of destruction had made off as quickly as possible, and those who were left worked zealously under Hatfield's orders. The wounded man was carried off on a shutter to the nearest cottage. The fire was effectually put out with water from the reservoir. The men loafed off in twos and threes, and darkness and quiet settled down once more on Thornsett. Litvinoff and Hatfield remained till the last lingerer had left. Then Hatfield said,—
'Ah suppose this means the 'sizes for a goodish few o' us.'
'I hope not,' Litvinoff answered; 'I'll do my best for you—that is, I shall not know who was here to-night. But I advise you to clear out as early as you can to-morrow, and, if your friends who were in this business are wise, they'll do the same. Where have they taken that fellow I knocked over? I'd better go and see after him.'
They turned their back on the mill, and climbed the hill to the cottage, where the doctor who had been sent for was already busy with his patient.
'Is he going to live?' Litvinoff asked sharply.