| II.7.081 |
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On July 4th, Bluemud with Elizabeth by his side addressed and assembly of the men at
the Station. Carl was seated with O'Grady and he could see Elizabeth clearly but had no
illusions now that she saw him. Bluemud began, 'I'm glad to see all of you men here in such fine condition. I must congratulate you on surviving the winter and in the improvements you've made in your conditions. I'm sorry I've been unable to see more of you recently but I know you're in good hands with Mr. O'Grady who is doing a fine job and I know you're all proud of him. I would like to add one word of caution to my congratulations, however. You must not allow yourselves to go slack. Production quotas are very low at the moment but you can't expect this situation to continue indefinitely. Soon I will be attending a very important meeting with some customers. The result will be, I sincerely hope, an increased demand for coal. Then you men may be required to work much harder. I may demand from you as much as four hundred tons a week.' 'They can make that easily in nine hours a day,' observed Carl to O'Grady. 'Now, there's another thing which I must speak to you about,' continued Bluemud. 'This concerns your relationship with the women in the village. News of a serious incident in which a Marshal was forced to kill a man reached me recently. Now, I've said it before and I'll say it again: there are rules in this community which are different from those you were used to in your former lives. These rules have a purpose which I have explained to you and you are expected to obey them. I will not tolerate for one moment those who disobey them and, I think, the penalty has been adequately demonstrated in this case.' Bluemud paused for a moment then continued in a more conciliatory tone: 'Today, I am, of course, declaring a holiday and a Special Day so that those who have mates in the village can visit them. 'He paused, and a general murmur of anticipation spread through the assembled men. 'However, I must caution you strongly to remember that you can visit only the woman to whom you have been assigned; there must be no rowdy behavior; no man has any business to be in the village with any other man and that all men must be back in their barracks by midnight. Any one of you found disobeying any of these rules will receive the same treatment as your late friend. The marshals will be armed and out to make sure they do.' He paused again and there was much nodding of heads in agreement. Then he said, 'also, I had hoped to be able to announce my plans for those of you who have not yet been assigned mates but unfortunately, this will not be possible. I can only say that I'm sorry but you must continue to be patient. Because there has been so much pressing work on the foundry, I have had no time to process the information that Mr. O'Grady has provided me. Until I have that time you will have to console yourselves with the thought that, in this valley of Granite Gorge, everything, the success of all our lives, all our enterprise, is on the shoulders of one man, and that man is myself.' Which, in Carl's opinion, in the midst of such widespread disappointment, was a very worrying thing. |
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