“When can you get off?” asked Hall.
“To-morrow morning.”
Bernard Hall smiled for the second time during the interview.
“Not such a hurry as all that.”
So it was fixed and Bertram shook hands on the understanding. As he was leaving, Nat Verney, the Miners’ leader in the House of Commons, came in and gave him a friendly nod.
“Good article of yours, Pollard, ‘The Mind of the Men,’ I agreed with every word of it.”
“How’s the Lock-out?” asked Bernard Hall, and Bertram noticed that he avoided the word ‘Strike.’
Nat Verney laughed.
“You read of my evidence before that private meeting in the House of Commons? Most of the members were bowled over by the facts I gave ’em, and admitted the strength of the men’s case, for at least a compromise. That’s how it’s going to end. A good old British compromise! The wicked thing is that it ought to have begun with that. But the owners didn’t give us a chance. Just flung an ultimatum at our heads with a ‘Take it or leave it!’ Well, we damn well left it!”
“What about the Triple Alliance?”