"'The master,' always 'the master!' Can't you find another name for this Berkow? You used not to call him so, but ever since he has told you to your faces that he is, and will be, the first person here, you have not an opinion of your own about it. I tell you, if we go through with the thing, we shall be masters, he will only have the name then, and we shall have the power. He knows it very well; that is why he resists so strongly, and that is why we must persevere until he grants us all we ask. We must go on at any cost."
"Try it," said the Manager briefly. "See if you can turn the world topsy-turvy all by yourself. I have given up talking about it this long while."
Lawrence took his cap from the window-sill, and prepared to go.
"You must know best, if we are likely to succeed or not. You are our leader."
Ulric's face grew dark.
"Yes, I am, but I thought it would have been easier to keep you in hand. You make the work hard enough for me."
The young miner exclaimed indignantly,
"We! you can hardly complain of us. Every word you say is obeyed instantly."
"Obeyed!" And Ulric turned a dark and searching gaze upon his friend. "Yes, obedience is not wanting, and it is not that I am complaining of. But we are not as we used to be. Even you and I, Karl, are not as we used to be together. You are all of you so distant now, so cold and shy; it seems to me often as if you were all afraid of me, and--and that's all."
"No, no, Ulric!" Lawrence resented the reproach vehemently, it almost appeared as if the other had hit the right mark. "We have perfect trust in you, and you alone. No matter what you may have done, you did it for us, not for yourself. We know that, all of us, we none of us forget that."