A Promise for Tomorrow by Judith Pella

Author:Judith Pella [Pella, Judith]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2010-01-03T20:00:00+00:00

26

The Strike

Carolina was the first to hear the pounding that signaled someone at the back door of the house. Groggily, she shook her husband and heard him moan in recognition of her touch.

“James, someone is knocking at the kitchen door.”

“Huh?”

She shook his shoulder again. “James, listen. Someone is raising quite a ruckus downstairs. Miriam is probably half out of her wits.”

“All right,” James replied, sleepily sitting up.

Carolina had already slipped from the warmth of her bed to don her robe. “Hurry, James. It must be very important if they’re waking us up before sunrise.”

By this time, James was starting to come fully awake. “It had better be important,” he muttered. “I feel like my head barely touched the pillow.”

They hurried downstairs and met Miriam coming upstairs to find them.

“Don’t know who’d be a-callin’ at this hour,” Miriam told James as he took the lighted lamp from her hands.

“Who is it?” James questioned before opening the door.

“Kiernan. Please hurry and let me in.”

James opened the door. “Do you know what time it is?”

“I’d not have come if it weren’t important.” Kiernan took his cap off and twisted it nervously in his hands. “I had to warn ya.”

“Warn me of what?”

“There’s gonna be trouble at the tunnel today. Ya’d do best to stay here and let matters resolve themselves without interferin’.”

“What sort of trouble are we talking about?” James questioned.

Carolina felt her heart in her throat. Trouble had already reared its head on more than one occasion, but for the past month things had been peaceful, almost serene. After the November riots a few of the ringleaders had been caught and arrested. But others, including Red, had eluded arrest and, after a time, had returned to work. For the sake of the work, the bosses had been willing to let things slide. Moreover, they feared if they fired Red, all the other Connaughtmen, who made up the majority of the work force, would quit in protest, leaving construction seriously delayed.

Had they all been lulled into a false sense of security? The contractors had even declared that there was no longer a need for the armed guards hired to watch over the Kingwood Tunnel after the last November riots and had let them go. But now for Kiernan to feel the need to risk his own safety in order to warn James, Carolina knew the trouble must be serious, and it left her feeling weak in the knees. Without the armed patrolmen, they would be at the mercy of the Irish.

“Red said the men are gonna strike, but because a great many of the Corkians will be against the Connaughts in this matter, he’ll have to convince them.”

“In other words, he plans to beat them into submission, is that it?” James fairly growled the words.

“Ya know me brother well.”

“Well, it makes no sense to me that you people have to fight each other. At any rate, I’ll not stand idly by and watch work on the tunnel come to a standstill. We’ve got a railroad to build, and I’ll be hanged if I let Red O’Connor dictate the course of our plans.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.