"That's right!" Watty called, and several men shouted after him.
Pony-Fence moved out from the crowd he was sitting with.
"I vote this meeting records a motion of confidence in Michael Brady," he said. "And when we call Michael in again we'd ought to make it clear to him ... that so far from its being a question of not having as much confidence in him as we had before—we've got more. Michael's stood by his mates if ever a man did.... He's come to us ... he's given himself up to us. He'll stand by what we say or do about him. And what are we goin' to do? Are we goin' to turn him down ... read him a bit of a lecture and tell him to go home and be a good boy and not do it another time ... or are we going to let him know once and for all what we think of him?"
Exclamations of agreement went up in a rabble of voices.
Bully Bryant rose from one of the back forms with a grin which illuminated the building.
"I'll second that motion," he said, pushing back the sleeve on his left arm. "And his own mother won't know the man who says a word against it—when I've done with him."
Watty was sent to bring Michael back to the meeting. They walked to the end of the hall together; and George Woods told Michael as quietly as he could for his own agitation, and the joy which, welling in him, impeded his speech, that men of the Ridge found nothing to censure in what he had done. His mates believed in him; they stood by him. They were prepared to stand by him as he had stood by the Ridge always. The meeting wished to record a vote of confidence....
Cheers roared to the roof. Michael, shaken by the storm of his emotion and gratitude, stood before the crowd in the hall with bowed head. When the storm was quieter in him, he lifted his head and looked out to the men, his eyes shining with tears.
He could not speak; old mates closed round to shake hands with him before the meeting broke up. Every man grasped and wrung his hand, saying:
"Good luck! Good luck to you, Michael!" Or just grasped his hand and smiled with that assurance of fellowship and goodwill which meant more to Michael than anything else in the world.