The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-22
CHAPTER XXI. Wind-RloWn StraWs

cubus, Romer X Go. But the l Lord was to get a second chance The originator of the company had been | certain Johann Inkob, who had To- cated the coal and bought the land. His daughter, Sophia, married one Jacob Gorm of Thorsby a man filled with the love of gold; and after him his nephew, Jacob Gorm Romer had de- yeloped the small workings of the Dus- seldorf chemist into the vast coal and iron combination known as the Incu- bus companies. It had occurred to the founder when he married to Latinise his name, if only for his wife's sake. Mrs Johann Inkob" had a strange new foreign sound, but Mrs. John h. cubus" proclaimed aloud, sounded rath CT like the wife of possible peer.
 Still, 1t was the. money made by Jacob Gorm at the docks of Thorsby that had been utilized to develop tn he discoveries of the original Inkob., The iron lay very deep and the working of it was expensive. .
 But under his nephew, Jacob Romer, little by little everything had taken shape. He had the great gift of se- lecting suitable instruments. For in- stance, he needed James Kahn, because an interruptions man was a necessity to him. Hector McKill, a leading elder in the Valley Kirk, was one of the chief standbys. He had chosen him because Scotland is a land of pious peo- pie, and Hector possessed that repute. But Scotland is also country of up- roaring good cheer, where the bottle circles, and where song and unbound mirth mock the frigidity of Calvanistic manners.
 For this reason Walter Grinding was manager of No. 2. Grinding had no use for prayer meetings. He made not the faintest pretensions to religion. So the two managers did not fin any. way interfere with each other. Hector Mo Kill worked the piety wing of the bus mess, and he did it to perfection. Wal ter Grinding did the like with the so- cial and hospitable. It does not do, in the most thriving concern, to over run any department.
 In the Incubus pits this division of labor did very well on the whole. If it were desired to get rid of any man who was a church member or fre- quented prayer meetings MT. Manager Grinding dismissed him. He informed him that he had been taking up with ranters to the neglect of his own prop CT business.
 If the undesirable and unprofitable servant cared for none of these things, then Senior Manager McKill called him into his office, sighed, wrestled With him in the spirit, even prayed With him for his souls good, charged him with "carousing," and finally dismissed him without a character.
 And on the whole the men so dealt with which they came to compare notes, agreed in preferring Grindling's rough: "We've no use for you here-get out of this" to the sauver methods of Hec- tor McKill.
 As Phil Calmont went home. that night. once more "out of a job" though not without purpose In the world, he paused and looked at the dreary mounds of refuse and sha1e spread out everywhere the complexity of level crossings and multi-colored railway signals the tall stagings of the pits. with swiftly spinning wheels, whirl- ing and reversing they wound and unwound the endless steel cords. Phil had the gift of imagination and he could see beneath him the braes or Kirktown before all this came to pass the quiet old-fashioned white washed hamlet, the serired rows of the corn stocks, the shy questing bairns with tn cir mouths stained with black berry juice in the autumn-all now passed away to give place to rows on rows of brick built houses, each ex- actly the pattern of all the others, In which lived the "employes or the III cubus company-gardenless, pleasure less. almost crushed out of sight or heaven by the vast mound of debris which represented the tailings or the Romer millions ,
 But beyond these the woods still stood up untainted all about-except, that is. for a dingy skrting of pines and larches struggling about the smelting. banks. The lower branches of these had been burned brown by the furnace fumes, whereupon one or the neiehboring landlords having threat ened proceedings Jacob Romer had bought up his property, lock, stock ana barrel This, however, was mere fringe It seemed as if the smell or vernal woodlands, of the unwinding croziers of the ferns, of the glades where shy rabbits played and leaped and battered, were able to form bar Tier against the encroachments of the desecrated lower valley, which, at the bidding of Inubus & Go. had been given up to smoke and flame and rubb1sh heaps.
 Day followed day, and always at the Glebe End Cottage Vida saw Jacob Romer's horses pass at full speed, down the avenue, the wheels making no noise over the elastic Ncarpet of pine needless: then, with sudden rasp of gravel and the noise of hoofs drum ming on hard macadam turning at right angles toward the Incubus Works in the valley.
 These were the days when Vic Nor ris, a disgraced man, was seeking any rest for the sole of his foot. and when Jacob Romer. glad of an outlet for his natural faculty for organization, went and came to Kirktown, sometimes twice in one day No change had been made in Dick Finnans position by the departure of Vic Morris. He had in- deed, a greater responsibility than be- fore. Because, in the absence of a reg ular underground engineer. James went down every day and so far as Pit No. 2 was concerned, Dick F'innan carried out his orders, or modified them according to his liking
 For though Dick only saw Vic for short moments and at long intervals, Phil Calmont came to the Glebe End Cottage every evening in his place. And so far as Dick and the other over seers had any power. they still did the will of Vic Morris. The pity was that their power was limited. Because 1t was with grim characteristic energy that Jacob Romer ruled, when at last, weary of tools, he set his own hand to the plough, as in the days of yore.
 Of coure, Phil was seen coming and going to the Glebe Cottage. Every thing was public property in Kirk town. Everything commented on. But then Phil had no position. His engin- eering ambitions were not known. He had always been considered as a worth ruS<b