"He's put it to you. You've heard what it is. All I've got to say now is, don't touch it. Don't have anything to do with it.... It'll break us ... the spirit of the men here ... and it'll break what we've been working on all these years. If it means throwing that up, don't let us see which side our bread's buttered on, as Mr. M'Ginnis says. Let us say like we always have—like we've been proud to say: 'We'll eat bread and fat, but we'll be our own masters!'"
"We'll eat bread and fat, but we'll be our own masters!" the men who were with Michael roared.
He sat down amid cheers. George and Watty turned in their seats to beam at him, filled with rejoicing.
Armitage rose from his chair and shifted his papers as though he had not quite decided what he intended to say.
"I'm not going to ask this meeting for a decision," he began.
"You can have it!" Bully Bryant yelled.
"There's a bit of a rush at Blue Pigeon Creek, and I'm going on up there," John Armitage continued. "I'm due in Sydney at the end of the month—that is, a month from this date—and I'll run up then for your answer to the proposition which has been laid before you. I have said all there is to say about it, except that, notwithstanding anything which may have been asserted to the contrary, I hope you will give your gravest consideration to an enterprise, I am convinced, would be in the best interests of this town and of the people of Fallen Star Ridge. I think, however, you ought to know——"
"That Michael Brady's a liar and a thief!" Charley cried, springing from his corner as if loosed from some invisible leash. "If you believe him, you're believing a liar and a thief. Mr. Armitage knows ... I know ... and Paul knows——"
"Throw him out."
"He's mad!"