"Oh! of course. Well, we shall see what we shall see. That's oracular, if it doesn't convey much information. What about your scheme of Co-operative production on advanced lines? Is that to die an untimely death? It seemed to me a most promising essay in social economics. So long as you were content to work like a slave and be a poor man, with no prospect of being anything but a poor man, the system seemed flawless." "Systems for the regulation of human affairs will never be flawless, Mr. Sykes, till the men and women who are the flesh and blood of all systems are also flawless. Now I am far from being that." "I presume not," said the lawyer, with something like a sigh. "I suppose you've got tired of this sacrificial altar and have secured a lucrative berth, and, like all the others, are going to worship the golden calf. _Sic transit gloria mundi_. I shed a tear to the memory of Co-op Mill and all the high resolves it enshrines. Who shall write its cold '_Hic jacet_.'" "Nay, Mr. Sykes, I am not a Latin scholar; but if you will change your goose quill for the graver's chisel, you shall inscribe on the corner stone of Co-op Mill a proud, a defiant _Resurgam_." "What! You intend to try again?" "Certainly, I am already looking for premises _below_ Mr. Tinker's Mill. Unless the Holme takes to flowing uphill, I shall be safe from my present adversary, at all events." Mr. Sykes rose and grasped his client's hand warmly. "That is good hearing, Mr. Pinder; you are a man. Ah! I don't wonder at Miss --"; but here the man of law checked himself. "Confound it. The murther was nearly out," he muttered. "I'll write to Wimpenny at once," he said, "but I mustn't seem too hot for a settlement or he'll hold out for all he knows. I shall begrudge him every penny that goes from your pocket to his. Well, good day. I wish I were a manufacturer, I'd turn world-mender too." "Oh! If you shew the world the example of one lawyer who has an idea beyond his bill of costs, you'll have done your share," laughed Tom. "Convert nine others and Huddersfield need not fear the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah." Pinder had more trouble with Ben Garside and his colleagues than he had encountered from his solicitor. Ben was for a fight to the finish. "Tinker's shewing th' blue feather," he opined. "What's come ovver thee, Tom? Tha'rt nooan bahn to duff when things are lookin' up a bit? Besides, th' best terms we can mak 'll be to pay us own 'torney an' gi' up Co-op Mill. We med as weel be hanged for a sheep as a lamb, and if we're to be ruined we med as well be ruined gradely as hauf ruined. Aw reckon th' bailies 'll be bun to leeave us a bed to lig on, an we'st scrat along some rooad till they put th' coffin lid ovver us. Aw say feight to th' deeath. Talk abaat bowin' th' knee to Baal?" "Baal!" quoth Hannah curtly. "Baal wer' a respectable sort compared wi Jabez Tinker; an' as for that Wimpenny, oh! If aw wer' a man, wouldn't aw just. That's all."