"We'll have you workin' for us." "Then we'll be the workin'-men, and it will be our turn to take over things and set you plutocrats to workin' for us, I suppose. And we'll be just where we are now." This was growing too seesawy for Nuddle, and he turned surly. "Some of you won't be in no shape to take over nothin'." Davidge laughed. "It's as bad as that, eh? Well, while I can, I'll just take over your button." "You mean I'm fired?" "Exactly," said Davidge, holding out his hand for the badge that served as a pass to the yards and the pay-roll. "Come with me, and you'll get what money's coming to you." This struck through Nuddle's thick wits. He cast a glance of dismay at Mamise. If he were discharged, he could not help Easton with the grand blow-up. He whined: "Ain't you no regard for a family man? I got a wife and kids dependent on me." "Well, do what Karl Marx did--let them starve or live on their own money while you prove that capital is as he said, 'a vampire of dead labor sucking the life out of living labor.' Or feed them on the wind you try to sell me." "Aw, have a heart! I talk too much, but I'm all right," Jake pleaded. Davidge relented a little. "If you'll promise to give your mouth a holiday and your hands a little work I'll keep you to the end of the month. And then, on your way!" "All right, boss; much obliged," said Jake, so relieved at his respite that he bustled away as if victorious, winking shrewdly at Mamise--who winked back, with some difficulty. She waited till he was a short distance off, then she murmured, quickly: "Don't jump--but Nicky Easton is coming here in the next few days; I don't know just when. He told Jake; Jake told me. What shall we do?" Davidge took the blow with a smile: "Our little guest is coming at last, eh? He promised to see you first. I'll have Larrey keep close to you, and the first move he makes we'll jump him. In the mean while I'll put some new guards on the job and--well, that's about all we can do but wait." "I mustn't be seen speaking to you too friendly. Jake thinks I'm fooling you." "God help me, if you are, for I love you. And I want you to be careful. Don't run any risks. I'd rather have the whole shipyard smashed than your little finger." "Thanks, but if I could swap my life for one ship it would be the best bargain I ever bought. Good-by." As she ran back to her post Davidge smiled at the womanishness of her gait, and thought of Joan of Arc, never so lovably feminine as in her armor. CHAPTER V Days of harrowing restiveness followed, Mamise starting at every word spoken to her, leaping to her feet at every step that passed her cottage, springing from her sleep with a cry, "Who's there!" at every breeze that fumbled a shutter. But nothing happened; nobody came for her.