“You won’t, eh?” Fred Bingham said, turning sharp upon him. “You will do as I order you, Maynard, or you leave these works.”
“Very well,” Frank said, calmly; “then I do leave them. I have worked here, Fred, as I don’t believe any other man in the world would have worked for the same pay. You know that I have got your work done more cheaply for you than you could have got it done any other way.”
“I suppose the pay suited you, or you would not have stayed,” Fred Bingham answered. “Do you mean what you say? Because if you do, you can go to the office and get your money.”
“I quite mean it,” Frank said, calmly. “From this moment I am no longer in your employ. And now, Fred Bingham, as you are no longer my master, I can speak out. You have treated me, as I believe never was man treated before. Your father persuaded me to come down here. You took advantage of the delay in the works to grind me down to a salary you would not have offered to the commonest man. Worse, you have taken advantage of my position, knowing my circumstances, and that I was under your thumb, to say things to me, and to treat me as you no more dare have done under other circumstances, than you dare have flown. I know why: you hated me, because I was popular here and you are not; because people were ready to be friends with your paid inspector, who would not be friends with you; because I was liked and you were hated. You hated me for this. I have put up with it in silence; I have borne your petty insults, and you dared not, no, dared not, go beyond a certain point; but now, thank God, I am free. You thought you were to be a petty god here, and you hated me because I would not bow down at your feet. You petty tyrant, you miserable, insignificant little despot, I have done with you for ever, and you may thank your fates that I go without giving you the thrashing you so richly merit.”
Fred Bingham had grown very white as Frank spoke, but he only said, “Keep your heroics, Frank. The sooner you go the better I shall be pleased. Don’t you lay a hand on me, Maynard, or you will regret it,” he said, as Frank made a step towards him.
“You miserable, paltry little cur,” Frank said, contemptuously, “I should despise myself if I were to touch you. Lads, come here!” he shouted in a loud voice; and the men, many of whom had looked curiously on during the evidently warm colloquy between the man they looked upon as their master and the contractor, drew round. “Look here, my lads,” Frank said, “you see this miserable, little undersized cur. He is my cousin; you would hardly think it, but it’s a fact. He has cheated and deceived, and insulted me, time after time, lads. Thank God, I am able at last to leave him; and I want you all to hear me tell him, that he is a loathsome little blackguard. I don’t thrash him now as my fingers itch to do, because he would have the law upon me, and I have other things to see to; but I warn him solemnly, if ever I get the chance, I will thrash him to within the last inch of his life. And now, lads, good-bye. We have got on, I hope, well together; I have liked you, and I hope you have liked me. I am sorry to leave you all, but I can’t stand this any longer. I wish you all well, lads, and I never expect to get a better lot of men under me. Good-bye, lads, I leave at once.”
Amidst a chorus of “Good-bye, your honour,” and many a hearty shake of a rough hand, Frank moved out of the crowd of men who surrounded him, and strode homewards.
Fred Bingham had stood without saying a word while this scene was going on, and without one of the men paying the slightest attention to him. The men, after a few words to each other, separated to finish their dinners. Fred Bingham stood by the side of the cutting and looked down. Presently he saw one or two of the men put on their jackets, and the following colloquy ensued, evidently intended for his ears:—
“What are you up to, Bill?”
“I’ve jacked up,” the man said; “I’m off to the office, Bob, to get what’s owing to me. After working for a real gentleman, I ain’t going to work for such a —— as that thing on the top there.”