Meanwhile, Mr. Bacon had placed his faithful allies in charge of the mill property, and driven off up town. A directors' meeting had been called at ten o'clock that morning in anticipation of this very trouble with the help. The meeting was a long one, for the problem the directors tried to solve was how to still conciliate the employés, and arrange for their best interests. The decision finally was to attempt a compromise with the strikers by lessening the per cent. of reduction. An extra force of police was, however, secured as a precautionary measure, and sent down to the Forge to protect the mill property, and to keep the peace until the compromise was effected. All attempts at a compromise on the part of the directors during the long weeks that followed, were, however, unsuccessful. The help, inspired by a few hot-headed leaders, who pointed out to them that these concessions on the part of the corporation were a sign of its yielding, strenuously demanded full pay before they would return to work. It now seemed probable that the mills would remain shut down for an indefinite period. But when October came, Hyde, and Blake, and Willis, and some of the other instigators of the strike suddenly left the Forge, apparently for new places of labor. The mill corporation, therefore, ventured to put its property into a condition for starting, and placards announced that on the first of November work would be given all who were willing to accept the reduced wages. No sooner were these notices out, however, than Hyde and Blake re-appeared at the Forge, and a few days later huge posters were stuck up on every side, threatening all who accepted the offer of the mill corporation. It became evident, therefore, that the mills could not be re-started on the plan proposed, without great risk to both property and life; but as the work of putting the mills in readiness went steadily forward, it seemed probable that the corporation would take that risk. CHAPTER XIV. GEORGE BRANFORD'S HOME. A low sigh, that was all, but the quick ears of Betsy Branford heard it, and she looked toward the table at which her husband, with bowed head, was sitting, and then a heavier sigh escaped her own lips. She sat in a low rocker near one of the windows of their humble kitchen, paler and thinner than usual, for at her feet was a cradle in which a babe of only a few weeks lay. The babe slept quietly, however, and after that sigh escaped her, she turned and gazed out of the window and off toward the hills, with the same troubled look that had been in her eyes all the morning.