"It did not occur to those in whose employment I am, or to me, to offer you a single sixpence.

I am here to offer you, if you send your people out on strike within the next week--the coal strike, the railway strike, the ironfounders, the smelters, from the Clyde southwards--one million pounds as a subscription to your strike funds." "You have it with you ?" Maraton enquired, after a moment.
"I have four drafts for two hundred and fifty thousand pounds each, in my pocket-book at the present moment," Mr.Beldeman declared.

"They are payable to your order.

You can accept my offer and pay them into your private banking account or the banking account of any one of your Trades' Unions.

There is not the slightest doubt but that they will be met." "Are there any terms at all connected with this little subscription ?" "None," Beldeman replied.
"And your object," Maraton added, "is to benefit through our loss of trade ?" "Entirely," Mr.Beldeman assented, without a quiver upon his face.
Maraton was silent for a moment.
"I do not see my way absolutely clear," he announced, "to recommending a railway strike at the present moment.