So instead of dropping off at Poplar, Crooks accompanied the carman to the works, and he who had tramped the country and London so long in search of a job was at last driven triumphantly to work in a conveyance, "like a Lord Mayor or a judge," as he afterwards described it. On the first pay day, glad at heart, he was about to start for home. The men stopped him. "We always go to 'The Railway Tavern' on Saturdays. A decent chap keeps the 'Railway.' Come and join us." "Not me." "Won't the missus let you?" "No, she won't." Throughout the next week he was mercilessly "chipped" in the workshop and referred to as the man whose missus was waiting for him at the other end. At the close of the next week he was asked after pay-time-- "Did the missus meet you last week?" "Yes, and she'll meet me this week too." "Come along, old chap, no kid, have a parting glass." "No, I can part without the glass." At the end of the third week a fellow-workman whispered: "What time are you going home, Will?" "Same time." "Let me leave with you, will you?" "Certainly. Your missus been at you?" "Yes; the fact is, Will, I stayed drinking down here until I'd blown eight bob last week. It meant my two little girls had to go without their promised pairs of new boots." "All right, Jim; I'll give you a whistle when it's time to go." At the end of six weeks the "Railway" was without a customer from that shop. That work was a stepping-stone to another and a better job at Wandsworth. His new employer urged him to leave Poplar and take a house near the works. "But suppose you pay me off when the busy time passes?" said Crooks. "I shan't do that," was the answer. "I like your work too well." The day came when Crooks was offered work nearer Poplar. When he handed in his notice the Wandsworth employer became wrathful. "Never mind, I'll come back here when I'm out of work again," said Crooks good-naturedly. "Will you? I can promise you there'll be no more work for you here. Leaving me like this!" "Oh, yes, there will. You haven't kept me on for love, you know. I like you, and I'll come here for another job directly I'm out of work again." It was not to be. Crooks was never out of work again in his life. Years later he found himself sitting next to his old Wandsworth employer at a public dinner. "You never came back to claim that job," said the good-natured old man. "I will when I'm out of work--as I promised." "Ah! you don't know how often I wished you would come back. You may have talked to the men a good deal about the rights of Labour, but I never knew the rights of employers to be observed so honourably. You seemed to keep the men more sober and the work up to a higher level of efficiency than I had ever known before. That's why I wanted you to come and live near, thinking to make sure of you. That's why I was so angry when you handed in your notice." CHAPTER VIII THE COLLEGE AT THE DOCK GATES