RATTLE OF THE LOOMS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume IV, Issue 964, 14 March 1917, Page 5

RATTLE OF THE LOOMS.

By FRANK H. SHAW, Author of "The Love Tides," ''The 3ondage of Hate," etc. CHAPTER XlV,—(Continued.) BROOKE 'S PROPOSAL. On a night when sleet full thickly, ami the moorland wind boomed and crashed through the town, Brookes walked swiftly towards Bridge House. He had made up his mind to a definite conclusion, and the sooner he put his thoughts into action, he said, the better. "I wish to see Miss Benson," he said, when the door opened. "No, not Mr Benson, Miss Benson." lie was shown into the lounge, which was unoccupied. Muriel, who had been in the drawing-room at the piano, frankly surprised at his request, appeared, her amazement showing on her face. Bryan Ilolroyd was absent that night—ho had mada excuse before dinner, and I had driven away in his car. "You wanted to see me, Mr I Brookes?'' asked the girl. '' My father is in his study, he complained of a headache '' "It was not your father I came to see, Miss Muriel. What I have to say is for your ear." She was impressed by his manner. This, she saw, would be more trouble, Ossa piled on Teliou, and she was to be the instrument to break it gently to her father. She went a little white, and threw out her hand, which Brookes promptly seized. "There is no cause for alarm," he said. "This is a personal matter. Miss Benson, Muriel—my dear Muriel, yon must have seen for a long time how it is with me. I love you most devoted!}', and I want you to be my wife." She tore her hand away from him and stood apart, erect, quivering with indignation, all her nature up in arms against something impalpable about, this man to which she could attach no name. "Mr Brookes —I don't think " she began, but he interrupted her impetuously. "I have taken you by surprise, perhaps. But there is no insult in an honest man's love —and I love you with all my heart. I live for you, I dream of you—you have wound yourself about my very being." "With such windy eloquence had he wooed Bessie Briggs to her fall, and had the girl been there she might have recognised the identical words. ".I am afraid that, you have made a mistake, Mr Brookes," began Muriel, faintly, and then, gathering her sel*-' control: "I do not know whether yo:3 wish to be imperinent, or whether yon are merely '' "Stay, don't treat me lightly, I tell you that it is in my power to save your father a considerable amount of trouble, and it all depends on your answer to me to-night." He had said more than he intended, and bit his lip at the discovery. "I don't think you will persuade me by throats," said the girl. There was a eurious, womanly air about her thar had not been present before the strike. "And to save you from unnecessary trouble, I will tell you that—that I cannot give you any reason to hope. I —I did not expect this, Mr Brookes." "You must have known that I've loved you ever since you came back from school," he said impetuously, desperately in earnest, because now that she seemed afar off she was all the more desirable. He possessed the instinct of the hunter that led him to pursue and kill the game he sought. "I'm afraid I never gave the mattir any thought," she said. "And now, if you would like to see my father " "There's time enough yet; you're little else but a child; you don't know your own mind. What's your fauk with me- I'm not old, I'm barely 40, and my heart's young." "I have no fault to find with you, but I cannot compel myself to love you, Mr Brookes.'' And then, quite suddenly, he stepped forward. He had wooed girls of a humbler class in his erratic, career, and believed in the power of the strong arm and the ready heart. Before siie could tell what he would be at his arms closed about her, he was crushing her to his breast and kissing her lips fiercely, cruelly, unheeding her struggles. "I'll make you love me," he said. "Come you've drawn me on enough with those eyes of yours—you beautiful devil, you! " She cried aloud, but no one heard her. He bore her backwards, and the seven devils of bestiality showed in his eyes. She saw his agony of passion, and great, fear snatched at her; but with the fear came a strength she could not have believed herself to possess. She thrust him away from her, she struck him sharply on the mouth, and a little ring on her finger drew blood. And before he could recover from the surprise—other women had feigned anger at his embraces, they had even slapped his cheek, but there was invitation in the blows —she had darted away, up the broad, stout stairs, and so to her own virginal room, where she Hung herself down on the bed and cried as though her heart would break. Every maiden sensibility was outraged; she was frightened; this.was an experience she had never known before. And, curiously enough, it was not of her father or of Bryan Ilolroyd that she thought, but of Farnborough, her father's foremanHe had stood between her and harm before, and if he had been there then — She sobbed again, but the tears wore slow iu coming; her grief was half rage. Meanwhile Brookes, amazed at her vehemence, unsettled as to his future conduct, hesitated in the lounge. '•Curse her!" ho said savagely. "Curse her! I'll bring her to her knees yet. A daughter of Owd Josh daring to give herself airs like this! I'll humble her pride, the jumped-up beggar! I'll make her so that she'll be glad to come to me on hor knees and ask me to many her. I'll—l'll " He fumed himself into calmness, though the warped mind was busy nevertheless. But when Owd Josh, who had been sleeping in his study, came into the hall he found Brookes self-possessed and confident a.-, usual. "Well, Brookes, well—they didn't tell me you were here. Anything wrong —anything fresh?" ' "Nothing particular, sir. But I think they're weakening. Another few days ought to see them grovelling for mercy. There's famine in the town; they've sold all they can sell; they can't endure much longer. Oh, but they've had their lesson —they've had their lesson! " "You think they'll come to heel? You know how it is, Brookes, you know how it is." A lot of the old-time arrogance had banished from Benson's manner now; he knew what he knew, and the knowledge brought him no peace. "Wo can only complete these contracts by working all day and all night; and if we fail—if we fail •" He broke off, and paced quickly up and down the floor. "There's more of our designs been copied, too," he said irrelevantly.

"Trickery everywhere; and nothing coining in. I tell you what it is j Brookes: if we don't, complete those con- i tracts on time we'll bo ruined —ruined,! d'ye hear? Joshua's share iu the mill | has to be realised—that's a fresh drain. I can't get anyone to buy his share unless we can show a big balance; times have been bad, and the strike! " "The strike wili soon be over." "I hope so. If it isn't—l don't know. There'll be only one thing for | it, and that is to meet the men and sur-j render. Every day means a nail in my j coffin." "But you won't weaken now—now, when we're on the brink of victory, Mr Benson! Tt would be absurd! You'd! have them out again in a month, asking for more. There's no limit to their! powers of asking. But my advice is to. drive the lesson home." "Yes, yes, you're right. We must stand up for our rights, cost what it may. But 1 wish " Brookes hammered home forceful arguments that to I a man in the first flush of his strengtn and brain-power might have sounded mere rantings!; but Owd Josh was growing old, and his mind did not seem so clear as it. once had been. "And I'll give you a hint, Mr Benson. There's that man,,Farnborough— he's dangerous. Playing a double game. I firmly believe he did kill your brother. Those who swore to his alibi were worthless—people of bad repute, so I hear. The woman was a flame f his; he's notoriously immoral; and the sooner he 'a got rid of the better. I 've hear.l a word here and a word there which shows me how the wind blows. He's as much at the bottom of this strike as any one." "Farnborough? But he helped us here when the devils attacked the house, and at the mill, too. They discharged him without a stain on his character." " ¥"e3, yes. The man is superficially all right, but it's only superficial. He preaches loyalty to you, but he preaches rank anarchy to the men. I'd dismiss him; not that lie's actually in your employ now, but he comes and goes at the mill as if the place belongs to him." "He can't be what you say. It was Farnborough who brought that bomb here. Wc never followed that matter up, by the way. And he helped against the strikers. He fought well." "Just a pose. He hopes to be admitted to your favour, and then he'll try to bring you to sympathise with his fellows. A bad lot, I call him, and some of these days you'll find my words true." "Well, maybe, maybe; he shan't be employed again. A pity, a pity; Joshua liked him. But I'll bear it in mind, and now—l'm tired, Brookes." "I'll go, sir, I'll go. Shall I tako it, then, that you're going to hold out?" "Yes, yes, for a little white. But we can't hold out much longer, we can't hold out much longer." Brookes let himself out. His experience of women led him to believe that Muriel would keep to herself the story of what had happened iu her father's absence. Women did not tell these tilings; they locked them up in the secret places of the heart. And in a little while, now that the new plan had come into his brain, there would be no need to hide it at all. He would not be the suppliant then—he could dictate terms arrogantly, bring that wench on her knees iu pleading humiliation—it was a pleasing dream, and his face was twitched into an ugly smile as he walked down the drive, through the ruined garden. At the gate he paused an. 1 , looked back towards the house. "So you're beginning to weaken, are you, Owd Josh? That won't do, that won't do. We can't start work yet a bit; we mustn't finish those contracts. And I know the way to stop it —and that spells ruin for you. Yes, yes, it's quicker and better, and I want you ruined; I want tiiat girl of yours to grovel in the,mud." He was of the melodramatic type, he loved a situation; he was able to imagine Muriel entreating him to save her father's good name. And he would do it —on conditions. "That young whelp of a Ilolroyd won't look at her when she's penniless," he thought, swinging away down the road. "And then I come in." (To be continued.)