A short time later, Tom stood up to leave. ‘I’d best be off now. Thanks, old feller.’

‘What’s bothering you, son?’

Made uneasy by the observation, Tom replied firmly, ‘Nothing’s bothering me. What makes you ask?’

Jack slurped the remains of his tea and wiped finger and thumb down his moustache to catch the drips. ‘I never tell what’s told me. Never have, and never will.’

‘There’s nothing to tell.’

‘I’ve been a bad enemy to some in my time. But I can be a good friend when I’m called on. Do you need a friend, Tom? Are you in some kinda trouble?’

‘No trouble.’ Tom flexed his muscles. ‘Sitting here so close to the fire makes a man lazy.’

‘No need to rush away. There’s time enough yet.’ He glanced at the clock on the nearby factory. ‘You’ve a good half-hour afore the others start arriving.’

‘All the same, I’d best be off. Before you know it they’ll be at the gates and a man won’t have time to call his own.’

‘Well, I’ve time enough yet. I shall sit here and contemplate, warm me arse and have another drop of brandy. Then I shall go home and climb in bed aside o’ my missus.’ Winking cheekily, he laughed, ‘Happen she’ll warm me arse a bit more, if you know what I mean.’

As he walked away, Tom muttered enviously, ‘You lucky old bugger. It seems all your troubles are behind you.’ A quiet smile crossed his face. ‘And so are yours, Tom Mulligan,’ he whispered. ‘God willing, so are yours.’

The old man watched him go. ‘There’s summat troubling that young feller.’ He saw Tom take the key from the wall of the storehouse, and he saw him go in. But he didn’t notice him come out.

A short time later Ted Louis arrived. ‘Mulligan’s been here ages,’ Jack told him. ‘Couldn’t sleep, that’s what he said.’

‘Is that right?’ Ted was still sporting the black eye given him by Tom the night before. ‘Gone in the storehouse, has he?’

‘That’s right.’

Ted squared his shoulders. ‘The sly bastard’s trying to get on the right side of the foreman, I shouldn’t wonder. He might wish he hadn’t come in at all today. But now that he has, I’d best root him out. Me and him have a score or two to settle.’

More quarrymen were making their way down the lane. ‘I’ll be off soon,’ the old man said. Truth was, he didn’t want to witness any violence. He glanced at the clock on the factory. ‘Five minutes, then I’m away.’ And the way things were shaping up, the five minutes couldn’t pass quickly enough.

Ted’s raised voice could be heard all over the site. ‘Mulligan! Are you in there? Come out, ye bugger, we’ve business to finish.’ The old man hurriedly scooped up a handful of dust and threw it on the fire. When it sizzled out, he gathered up his belongings and prepared to leave. ‘A man-sized fried breakfast then a warm bed,’ he muttered, ‘and let the buggers fight it out among theirselves. Old Jack’s off out of it, quick as a wink.’