'Thank you, sir. But there's work for all on us nowadays,' said the
woman placidly.
Then the Squire, with Gregson's help, set himself fiercely to the
business. In little more than an hour, and with the help of some
pieces of rope, the gate had been firmly barricaded with hurdles and
barbed wire, wicket-gate and all, and the Squire, taking a poster in
large letters from his pocket, affixed it to the outside of the
gate. It signified to all and sundry that the Chetworth gate of
Mannering Park could now only be opened by violence, and that those
offering such violence would be proceeded against according to law.
When it was done, the Squire first addressed a few scathing words to
the pair of park-keepers, who smoked imperturbably through them, and
then transferred a pound-note to the ready palm of Gregson, who was,
it seemed, on the point of accepting work as a stock-keeper from
another of the Squire's farmers--a brother culprit, only less
'hustled' than himself by the formidable County Committee, which was
rapidly putting the fear of God into every bad husbandman throughout
Brookshire.
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