Part 53 (2/2)

'Oh, no they won't, Rushton's too artful for that. It seems the agent is a pal of 'is, and they worked it between 'em.'

'Wot a b.l.o.o.d.y cheek, though!' exclaimed Harlow.

'Oh, that's nothing to some of the things I've known 'em do before now,' said the man on the pail. 'Why, don't you remember, back in the summer, that carved hoak hall table as Rushton pinched out of that 'ouse on Grand Parade?'

'Yes; that was a bit of all right too, wasn't it?' cried Philpot, and several of the others laughed.

'You know, that big 'ouse we did up last summer--No. 596,' Wantley continued, for the benefit of those not 'in the know'. 'Well, it 'ad bin empty for a long time and we found this 'ere table in a cupboard under the stairs. A b.l.o.o.d.y fine table it was too. One of them bracket tables what you fix to the wall, without no legs. It 'ad a 'arf-round marble top to it, and underneath was a carved hoak figger, a mermaid, with 'er arms up over 'er 'ead 'oldin' up the table top--something splendid!' The man on the pail waxed enthusiastic as he thought of it.

'Must 'ave been worth at least five quid. Well, just as we pulled this 'ere table out, who should come in but Rushton, and when 'e seen it, 'e tells Cra.s.s to cover it over with a sack and not to let n.o.body see it.

And then 'e clears orf to the shop and sends the boy down with the truck and 'as it took up to 'is own 'ouse, and it's there now, fixed in the front 'all. I was sent up there a couple of months ago to paint and varnish the lobby doors and I seen it meself. There's a pitcher called ”The Day of Judgement” 'angin' on the wall just over it--thunder and lightning and earthquakes and corpses gettin' up out o' their graves--something b.l.o.o.d.y 'orrible! And underneath the picture is a card with a tex out of the Bible--”Christ is the 'ead of this 'ouse: the unknown guest at every meal. The silent listener to every conversation.” I was workin' there for three or four days and I got to know it orf by 'eart.'

'Well, that takes the biskit, don't it?' said Philpot.

'Yes: but the best of it was,' the man on the pail proceeded, 'the best of it was, when ole Misery 'eard about the table, 'e was so b.l.o.o.d.y wild because 'e didn't get it 'imself that 'e went upstairs and pinched one of the venetian blinds and 'ad it took up to 'is own 'ouse by the boy, and a few days arterwards one of the carpenters 'ad to go and fix it up in 'is bedroom.'

'And wasn't it never found out?' inquired Easton.

'Well, there was a bit of talk about it. The agent wanted to know where it was, but Pontius Pilate swore black and white as there 'adn't been no blind in that room, and the end of it was that the firm got the order to supply a new one.'

'What I can't understand is, who did the table belong to?' said Harlow.

'It was a fixture belongin' to the 'ouse,' replied Wantley. 'But I suppose the former tenants had some piece of furniture of their own that they wanted to put in the 'all where this table was fixed, so they took it down and stored it away in this 'ere cupboard, and when they left the 'ouse I suppose they didn't trouble to put it back again.

Anyway, there was the mark on the wall where it used to be fixed, but when we did the staircase down, the place was papered over, and I suppose the landlord or the agent never give the table a thought.

Anyhow, Rushton got away with it all right.'

A number of similar stories were related by several others concerning the doings of different employers they had worked for, but after a time the conversation reverted to the subject that was uppermost in their thoughts--the impending slaughter, and the improbability of being able to obtain another job, considering the large number of men who were already out of employment.

'I can't make it out, myself,' remarked Easton. 'Things seems to get worse every year. There don't seem to be 'arf the work about that there used to be, and even what there is is messed up anyhow, as if the people who 'as it done can't afford to pay for it.'

'Yes,' said Harlow; 'that's true enough. Why, just look at the work that's in one o' them 'ouses on the Grand Parade. People must 'ave 'ad more money to spend in those days, you know; all those ma.s.sive curtain cornishes over the drawing- and dining-room winders--gilded solid!

Why, nowadays they'd want all the b.l.o.o.d.y 'ouse done down right through--inside and out, for the money it cost to gild one of them.'

'It seems that nearly everybody is more or less 'ard up nowadays,' said Philpot. 'I'm jiggered if I can understand it, but there it is.'

'You should ast Owen to explain it to yer,' remarked Cra.s.s with a jeering laugh. ''E knows all about wot's the cause of poverty, but 'e won't tell n.o.body. 'E's been GOIN' to tell us wot it is for a long time past, but it don't seem to come orf.'

Cra.s.s had not yet had an opportunity of producing the Obscurer cutting, and he made this remark in the hope of turning the conversation into a channel that would enable him to do so. But Owen did not respond, and went on reading his newspaper.

'We ain't 'ad no lectures at all lately, 'ave we?' said Harlow in an injured tone. 'I think it's about time Owen explained what the real cause of poverty is. I'm beginning to get anxious about it.'

The others laughed.

When Philpot had finished eating his dinner he went out of the kitchen and presently returned with a small pair of steps, which he opened and placed in a corner of the room, with the back of the steps facing the audience.

'There you are, me son!' he exclaimed to Owen. 'There's a pulpit for yer.'

'Yes! come on 'ere!' cried Cra.s.s, feeling in his waistcoat pocket for the cutting. 'Tell us wot's the real cause of poverty.'

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