Part 17 (1/2)
”Mates, what is your decision? Do you vote for the strike to go on?”
Their voices yelled, ”Yes! yes!”
”And what steps do you decide on? We are sure of defeat if cowards go down to-morrow.”
Their voices rose again with the sound of a tempest: ”Kill the cowards!”
”Then you decide to call them back to duty and to their sworn word. This is what we could do: present ourselves at the pits, bring back the traitors by our presence, show the Company that we are all agreed, and that we are going to die rather than yield.”
”That's it. To the pits! to the pits!”
While he was speaking Etienne had looked for Catherine among the pale shouting heads before him. She was certainly not there, but he still saw Chaval, affecting to jeer, shrugging his shoulders, but devoured by jealousy and ready to sell himself for a little of this popularity.
”And if there are any spies among us, mates,” Etienne went on, ”let them look out; they're known. Yes, I can see Vandame colliers here who have not left their pit.”
”Is that meant for me?” asked Chaval, with an air of bravado.
”For you, or for any one else. But, since you speak, you ought to understand that those who eat have nothing to do with those who are starving. You work at Jean-Bart.”
A chaffing voice interrupted: ”Oh! he work! he's got a woman who works for him.”
Chaval swore, while the blood rose to his face.
”By G.o.d! is it forbidden to work, then?”
”Yes!” said Etienne, ”when your mates are enduring misery for the good of all, it is forbidden to go over, like a selfish sneaking coward, to the masters' side. If the strike had been general we should have got the best of it long ago. Not a single man at Vandame ought to have gone down when Montsou is resting. To accomplish the great stroke, work should be stopped in the entire country, at Monsieur Deneulin's as well as here. Do you understand? there are only traitors in the Jean Bart cuttings; you're all traitors!”
The crowd around Chaval grew threatening, and fists were raised and cries of ”Kill him! kill him!” began to be uttered. He had grown pale. But, in his infuriated desire to triumph over Etienne, an idea restored him.
”Listen to me, then! come to-morrow to Jean-Bart, and you shall see if I'm working! We're on your side; they've sent me to tell you so. The fires must be extinguished, and the engine-men, too, must go on strike. All the better if the pumps do stop! the water will destroy the pits and everything will be done for!”
He was furiously applauded in his turn, and now Etienne himself was outflanked. Other orators succeeded each other from the tree-trunk, gesticulating amid the tumult, and throwing out wild propositions. It was a mad outburst of faith, the impatience of a religious sect which, tired of hoping for the expected miracle, had at last decided to provoke it. These heads, emptied by famine, saw everything red, and dreamed of fire and blood in the midst of a glorious apotheosis from which would arise universal happiness. And the tranquil moon bathed this surging sea, the deep forest encircled with its vast silence this cry of ma.s.sacre. The frozen moss crackled beneath the heels of the crowd, while the beeches, erect in their strength, with the delicate tracery of their black branches against the white sky, neither saw nor heard the miserable beings who writhed at their feet.
There was some pus.h.i.+ng, and Maheude found herself near Maheu. Both of them, driven out of their ordinary good sense, and carried away by the slow exasperation which had been working within them for months, approved Levaque, who went to extremes by demanding the heads of the engineers. Pierron had disappeared. Bonnemort and Mouque were both talking together, saying vague violent things which n.o.body heard. For a joke Zacharie demanded the demolition of the churches, while Mouquet, with his crosse in his hand, was beating it against the ground for the sake of increasing the row. The women were furious. The Levaque, with her fists to her hips, was setting to with Philomene, whom she accused of having laughed; Mouquette talked of attacking the gendarmes by kicking them somewhere; Mother Brule, who had just slapped Lydie on finding her without either basket or salad, went on launching blows into s.p.a.ce against all the masters whom she would like to have got at. For a moment Jeanlin was in terror, Bebert having learned through a trammer that Madame Ra.s.seneur had seen them steal Poland; but when he had decided to go back and quietly release the beast at the door of the Avantage, he shouted louder than ever, and opened his new knife, brandis.h.i.+ng the blade and proud of its glitter.
”Mates! mates!” repeated the exhausted Etienne, hoa.r.s.e with the effort to obtain a moment's silence for a definite understanding.
At last they listened.
”Mates! to-morrow morning at Jean-Bart, is it agreed?”
”Yes! yes! at Jean-Bart! death to the traitors!”
The tempest of these three thousand voices filled the sky, and died away in the pure brightness of the moon.
Part 5
Chapter 1.
AT four o'clock the moon had set, and the night was very dark. Everything was still asleep at Deneulin's; the old brick house stood mute and gloomy, with closed doors and windows, at the end of the large ill-kept garden which separated it from the Jean-Bart mine. The other frontage faced the deserted road to Vandame, a large country town, about three kilometres off, hidden behind the forest.
Deneulin, tired after a day spent in part below, was snoring with his face toward the wall, when he dreamt that he had been called. At last he awoke, and really hearing a voice, got out and opened the window. One of his captains was in the garden.
”What is it, then?” he asked.
”There's a rebellion, sir; half the men will not work, and are preventing the others from going down.”
He scarcely understood, with head heavy and dazed with sleep, and the great cold struck him like an icy douche.
”Then make them go down, by George!” he stammered.
”It's been going on an hour,” said the captain. ”Then we thought it best to come for you. Perhaps you will be able to persuade them.”
”Very good; I'll go.”
He quickly dressed himself, his mind quite clear now, and very anxious. The house might have been pillaged; neither the cook nor the man-servant had stirred. But from the other side of the staircase alarmed voices were whispering; and when he came out he saw his daughters' door open, and they both appeared in white dressing-gowns, slipped on in haste.
”Father, what is it?”
Lucie, the elder, was already twenty-two, a tall dark girl, with a haughty air; while Jeanne, the younger, as yet scarcely nineteen years old, was small, with golden hair and a certain caressing grace.
”Nothing serious,” he replied, to rea.s.sure them. ”It seems that some bl.u.s.terers are making a disturbance down there. I am going to see.”
But they exclaimed that they would not let him go before he had taken something warm. If not, he would come back ill, with his stomach out of order, as he always did. He struggled, gave his word of honour that he was too much in a hurry.
”Listen!” said Jeanne, at last, hanging to his neck, ”you must drink a little gla.s.s of rum and eat two biscuits, or I shall remain like this, and you'll have to take me with you.”
He resigned himself, declaring that the biscuits would choke him. They had already gone down before him, each with her candlestick. In the dining-room below they hastened to serve him, one pouring out the rum, the other running to the pantry for the biscuits. Having lost their mother when very young, they had been rather badly brought up alone, spoilt by their father, the elder haunted by the dream of singing on the stage, the younger mad over painting in which she showed a singular boldness of taste. But when they had to retrench after the embarra.s.sment in their affairs, these apparently extravagant girls had suddenly developed into very sensible and shrewd managers, with an eye for errors of centimes in accounts. Today, with their boyish and artistic demeanour, they kept the purse, were careful over sous, haggled with the tradesmen, renovated their dresses unceasingly, and in fact, succeeded in rendering decent the growing embarra.s.sment of the house.
”Eat, papa,” repeated Lucie.
Then, remarking his silent gloomy preoccupation, she was again frightened.
”Is it serious, then, that you look at us like this? Tell us; we will stay with you, and they can do without us at that lunch.”
She was speaking of a party which had been planned for the morning, Madame Hennebeau was to go in her carriage, first for Cecile, at the Gregoires', then to call for them, so that they could all go to Marchiennes to lunch at the Forges, where the manager's wife had invited them. It was an opportunity to visit the workshops, the blast furnaces, and the c.o.ke ovens.
”We will certainly remain,” declared Jeanne, in her turn.
But he grew angry.
”A fine idea! I tell you that it is nothing. Just be so good as to get back into your beds again, and dress yourselves for nine o'clock, as was arranged.”
He kissed them and hastened to leave. They heard the noise of his boots vanis.h.i.+ng over the frozen earth in the garden.