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Now, there's nobody that works in this mine but knows the men don't get their weight. It would cost the company several hundred dollars a day to give us our weight, and nobody should be so foolish as to imagine they'll do it without a struggle. We've got to make up our minds to stand together." "Sure, stand together!" cried Mike. "No get check-weighman!" exclaimed Jerry, pessimistically.
"But I'm the one that's to be paid. It's not for me to talk." "No one else can do it right," declared the woman. "Sure got to be American feller!" said Mike. But Hal insisted. If he did the talking, it would look as if the check-weighman had been the source of the movement, and was engaged in making a good paying job for himself.
And so the protestant resumed his vigil at the mandarin's palace-gates. When the quitting-whistle blew, Mike Sikoria came quickly to join Hal and hear what had happened. Mike was exultant, for several new men had come up to him and offered to join the check-weighman movement.
"Don't fight for fanciulla, fight for check-weighman!" he concluded, with a growl. Another volunteer was a Greek labourer, a talkative young chap who had sat with Hal at lunch-time, and had given his name as Apostolikas.
Without waiting for the superintendent's answer, he walked to the door, followed by his somewhat shocked companions. At the meeting on the night before it had been agreed to spread the news of the check-weighman movement, for the sake of its propaganda value.
If, as the bosses proclaimed, the workers were fully protected by the check-weighman law; if, as all the world was made to believe, the reason there was no check-weighman was simply because the men did not ask for one why, then there would be no harm done.
"You have a good secret-service department!" said Hal. "Before you get through, young fellow, you'll discover that our legal department is equally efficient." "Well," said Hal, "they'll need to be; for I don't see how you can get round the fact that I'm a check-weighman, chosen according to the law, and with a group of the men behind me."
The quarter of an hour which followed was an uncomfortable one for the would-be check-weighman. Outside, in the darkness, the camp-marshal was free to give vent to his rage, and so was Alec Stone. They poured out curses upon him, and kicked him and cuffed him as they went along.
Hadn't the bosses done worse than that, "framing up" a letter from Joe Smith to balk the check-weighman movement? The only thing that would help would be for some of the committee to get into the camp and see the men face to face. "And it got to be quick!" Jerry insisted. "They get notice to work in morning, and them that don't be fired. They be the best men, too men we want to save."
There began to be secret gatherings of the miners and their wives to complain at the conduct of the company; and it was natural that Hal's friends who had started the check-weighman movement, should take the lead in these. They were among the most intelligent of the workers, and saw farther into the meaning of events.
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