"Sure, it is like a war," he repeated. "What is it but a war
between us and them, and we hit back where we best can."
There was high revel in the lodge room at the Union House that
night, not only over the killing of the manager and engineer of
the Crow Hill mine, which would bring this organization into line
with the other blackmailed and terror-stricken companies of the
district, but also over a distant triumph which had been wrought
by the hands of the lodge itself.
It would appear that when the County Delegate had sent over five
good men to strike a blow in Vermissa, he had demanded that in
return three Vermissa men should be secretly selected and sent
across to kill William Hales of Stake Royal, one of the best
known and most popular mine owners in the Gilmerton district, a
man who was believed not to have an enemy in the world; for he
was in all ways a model employer. He had insisted, however, upon
efficiency in the work, and had, therefore, paid off certain
drunken and idle employees who were members of the all-powerful
society. Coffin notices hung outside his door had not weakened
his resolution, and so in a free, civilized country he found
himself condemned to death.
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