VIII
N
oah Harper
was not at work the following day nor on any day afterwards and his mates showed no active hostility towards me when I went out to inspect them in the afternoon, though I knew such men too well to think that I had won the final victory over them.
John Griffith called in to see me for a moment before I left to tell me that he had called a Meeting of the Board for Friday, in two days’ time. He was formal but not hostile as before. I greeted his news with as much nonchalance as I could muster and went home to rest.
I remember that the sky was stormy that evening and carried in it some of the menace that I felt in my own heart. When old Mrs. Bassett had wished me goodnight and left I went round the house, seeing that the catches were fast on the windows and that the door
