We came back from the scene of desolation ready to make light of our own trouble, and the way in which my uncles worked to help the sufferers down in the lower part of the town gave the finishing touches to the work of many months.
There was so much trouble in the town and away up the valley, so much suffering to allay, that the firing of our works by the despicable scoundrels who worked in secret over these misdeeds became a very secondary matter, and seemed to cause no excitement at all.
“But you must make a stir about this,” said Mr Tomplin. “The villains who did that deed must be brought to justice. The whole affair will have to be investigated, and I’m afraid we shall have to begin by arresting that man of yours—the watcher Searby.”
But all this was not done. Searby came and gave a good account of himself—how he had been deluded away, and then so beaten with sticks that he was glad to crawl home; and he needed no words to prove that he had suffered severely in our service.
“Let’s set the prosecution aside for the present,” said Uncle Jack, “and repair damages. We can talk about that when the work is going again.”
This advice was followed out, and the insurance company proving very liberal, as soon as they were satisfied of the place having been destroyed by fire, better and more available buildings soon occupied the position of the old, the machinery was repaired, and in two months the works were in full swing once more.
It might almost have been thought that the flood swept away the foul element that originated the outrages which had disgraced the place. Be that as it may, the burning of our works was almost the last of these mad attempts to stop progress and intimidate those who wished to improve upon the old style of doing things.
I talked to Pannell and Stevens about the fire afterwards and about having caught sight of three men landing from a raft and going down towards the river just before the flood came.
But they both tightened their lips and shook their heads. They would say nothing to the point.
Pannell was the more communicative of the two, but his remarks were rather enigmatical.