“Shall you warn the police?” I whispered.
“No,” said Uncle Jack sharply. “If we warn the police the scoundrels will get to know, and no attack will be made.”
“So much the better,” I said. “Isn’t it?”
“No, my lad. If they did not come to-night they would be here some other time when we had not been warned. We are prepared now, so let them come and we may give them such a lesson as shall induce them to leave us in peace for the future.”
“Do you mean to fight, then?” I asked.
“Most decidedly, boy. For our rights, for our place where we win our livelihood. We should be cowards if we did not. You must play the dog’s part for us with your sharp eyes and ears. Recollect we have right on our side and they have wrong.”
“Let’s put the fort in a state of defence,” said Uncle Dick merrily. “Perhaps it will turn out to be all nonsense, but we must be prepared. What do you say—divide in two watches as we proposed, and take turn and turn?”
“No: we’ll all watch together to-night in case anything serious should be meant.”
It did seem so vexatious that a small party of men should be able to keep up this system of warfare in the great manufacturing town. Here had my uncles brought a certain amount of prosperity to the place by establishing these works; the men had found out their worth and respected them, and everything was going on in the most prosperous way, and yet we were being assailed with threats, and it was quite possible that at any moment some cruel blow might be struck.
I felt very nervous that night, but I drew courage from my uncles, who seemed to take everything in the coolest and most matter-of-fact way. They went round to the buildings where the fires were banked up and glowing or smouldering, ready to be brought under the influence of the blast next day and fanned to white heat. Here every precaution was taken to guard against danger by fire, one of the most probable ways of attack, either by ordinary combustion or the swift explosion of gunpowder.