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The next evening when Carl visited the O'Grady cottage for his evening meal, Edna
opened the door and her face was puffed and bruised. 'He's not here, Carl,' she said. 'He's at the mine all hours of the day and night now but he should be back sometime this evening. Stay and talk to me, Carl. Tell me what's going on. Nobody in the village will talk to me anymore.' 'I'm going to stop him, Edna,' said Carl. 'He's gone too far this time. But I'll try to save him if I can.' 'It'll be for the best,' she said. 'It's too much for him, you know.' When O'Grady returned he acted like a wild and hunted animal. The door yielded to his assault and crashed against the wall and the nails in his boots dragged across the floor so that the furniture trembled at his proximity. 'What're you doing here, Relyt?' His voice was dull, uncaring, sullen as he slumped into a chair at the table, not opposite where Carl sat but to one side so that he stared past him. 'Is my dinner ready, woman?' O'Grady eat noisily, deliberately so as if he wished to do violence to the very plate itself. In the absence of words Carl became excited. He was conscious of Edna watching them and felt also that he and O'Grady were watched by others. It was as if, as with the men the night before, the house was surrounded. Every man and woman in the valley was there in spirit and it was not only the living, but the Demons of the Past, the whispering Gigamass, that hundred billion of six centuries past of whom he was the last survivor who awaited the consummation of one of their most precious rites: here a man fulfilled his destiny. 'You should be at the mine with the others,' said O'Grady eventually. 'You've no right to get away with it.' Carl said nothing. O'Grady had no power over him. 'Why are you here?' 'To change your mind, O'Grady. You must do so or everything you control will be destroyed. You've already killed one man. How did that help your precious production quota?' Edna did not know a man had been killed. Carl heard her sharp intake of breath from across the room. 'I didn't kill him!' snarled O'Grady. 'It was an accident, that's all! He deserved to be punished.' 'How many more will die, O'Grady?' 'As many as proves necessary! And shut your mouth woman, or I'll shut it for you!' O'Grady screamed as Edna began to cry behind him. He turned suddenly and threw his empty plate in her direction. The plate missed by some distance and clattered against the wall. 'Would you kill Edna too?' said Carl. 'You've no sense, O'Grady. You're an honest man but you've no idea. You're no better than a machine for taking orders.' O'Grady stared at his thumbs. 'Will you see reason?' 'What's reason?' 'Go back to working the men twelve hours a day with one day off in fourteen. You'll get as much production that way as the way you're going now. If you don't the men will soon start to drop, then where will you be? If Bluemud wants more he'll have to find more men.' 'And who'll take them blame when Mr. Bluemud gets back? It's not on your head, Foreman Relyt. Do you know what he'll do to me?' 'I don't. But, whatever it is, it can be stopped. Just as you can be stopped. You've no need to worry, O'Grady, it'll be on my head, not yours, when Bluemud gets back.' 'Yes! That's what you've wanted all along!' said O'Grady bitterly. 'To take over my position.' 'No,' said Carl. 'You'll stay the Chief Foreman, O'Grady. Nothing will be changed except that I'll be between you and Bluemud.' 'Do it, John,' whispered Edna. 'Carl knows how to handle things. You know he's right. He's your friend.' 'It's killing you too, O'Grady,' said Carl. O'Grady looked at Carl for the first time. He stroked his lower lip. There was a glint in his eye. 'What happens if I don't do as you say?' Carl smiled, sensing victory, 'The men will refuse to do any work at all.' For a long time O'Grady stared at Carl in wonderment. Then he began to laugh. He laughed long and loud with his head buried in his arms. Finally he looked up and the glint in his eye had hardened. He picked up his drinking mug and threw it with all the force he could muster at his opponent. Carl had no time to duck and the mug struck him on the forehead just above his hairline making his head ring. The mug rang too as it bounced away and rolled along the floor. 'So be it!' O'Grady was already round the table, behind Carl's chair, seizing him by the collar and shouting 'show us your power then!' As he pulled Carl off the chair Edna screamed and beat her husbands back as he dragged Carl towards the door. 'Show us ALL how strong you are!' O'Grady opened the door and threw Carl bodily out into the night where he staggered a few paces before falling headfirst into a patch of mud. When Carl wiped the mud away and raised his eyes to look among the blackness of the trees and above, the silhouette of the mountains in the night sky, he was glad that neither the miners nor the Demons of the Past were really there to see him. |
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