It was nearly a quarter of a mile from the shed where Puller had spread them their brave bite of lunch, hot as hell the sun; and the first man to fall by the wayside was Labour’s respectable Bailie Brown, he sat down and said he would take it on trust, the workers knew that he was their friend, he was awful tired and would need a bit sleep. So they shook him a bit and syne left him snoring like a pig let loose overlong on a midden, and went on a bit further till the Dean of Guild, he’d been swaying a bit with his meikle solemn face, suddenly wheeled round on wee Councillor Clarke and told him he’d never forgiven him, never, for that time he had voted an increase in the tramwaymen’s wages the last year of the War—September, it was. And wee Clarke said the Dean was a havering skate, it wasn’t the last year, but the year afore; and they started to argue the matter out till wee Clarke had enough, he punched the Dean one, all the folk around you may well be sure looking shocked as hell and enjoying themselves, the Dean sat down of a sudden on the path and looked solemner than ever and syne started to sing; and the Lord Provost who’d been looking on at it all, very intent, but with both eyes crossed, got fairly as mixed in his mind as his eyes and thought he was down at the Beach Pavilion adjudicating on the Boxing Finals, and started a speech about the manhood of Duncairn, how pleased he was to see the young men were taking up the manly art of defence, and not rotting their minds with seditious doctrines. And Ake, standing by and wondering quiet what the hell they’d do if they ever met in with a real booze-up, he himself was as drouthy as a lime-kiln, near, saw Mr Piddle, with a fuzzy bit look, taking it all down in his little note-book with a carbon copy for the Tory Pictman; and they left the Dean singing that his Nannie was awa’, and resumed the trek to the High Scaur works.

Well, believe it or not, they never got there, Puller had the wind up by then just awful, he saw he’d drammed up the Councillors over-much, if he took the boozed Bulgars up to the works they’d more’n likely fall head-first in. So he rounded them back to the lunch-shed again, Ake dandering behind with a bit of a laugh, Jimmy Speight stopping every now and again for another bit speech, he was fair wound up. Puller tried to sober them up with coffee, two of the workmen carried the Dean, they found Bailie Brown had started to crawl home and when they tried to get him to stand he said he was only playing at bears, couldn’t a man play at bears if he liked?

Ake saw Mr Piddle taking that down as well, he was just a kind of stenographic machine by then. But the Council wouldn’t have much of the coffee, the Dean said if Puller and Grind expected them to pass the new water-works, the works in the disgraceful state they were in, they were sore mistaken he could tell them that. And Jimmy Speight started his seventeenth speech, this time about corruption rearing its ugly head like the sword of Damocles in every avenue. So Puller called to the waiter childes to bring in the whisky bottles again, they might as well go home soaked as go home soft.