A Place Called Freedom - Ken Follett [64]
All the coal heaving undertakers were tavern keepers. The three men went first to the Frying Pan, a few yards from the Sun. They found the landlord boiling a ham in the yard. The smell made Mack’s mouth water. “What ho, Harry,” Charlie addressed him cheerfully.
He gave them a sour look. “What do you boys want, if it’s not beer?”
“Work,” Charlie replied. “Have you got a ship to uncoal tomorrow?”
“Yes, and a gang to do it, thanks all the same.”
They left. Dermot said: “What was the matter with him? He looked at us like lepers.”
“Too much gin last night,” Charlie speculated.
Mack feared it might have been something more sinister, but he kept his thoughts to himself for the moment. “Let’s go into the King’s Head,” he said.
Several coal heavers were drinking beer at the bar and greeted Charlie by name. “Are you busy, my lads?” Charlie said. “We’re looking for a ship.”
The landlord overheard. “You men been working for Sidney Lennox at the Sun?”
“Yes, but he doesn’t need us next week,” Charlie replied.
“Nor do I,” said the landlord.
As they went out Charlie said: “We’ll try Buck Delaney at the Swan. He runs two or three gangs at a time.”
The Swan was a busy tavern with stables, a coffee room, a coal yard and several bars. They found the Irish landlord in his private room overlooking the courtyard. Delaney had been a coal heaver himself in his youth, though now he wore a wig and a lace cravat to take his breakfast of coffee and cold beef. “Let me give you a tip, me boys,” he said. “Every undertaker in London has heard what happened at the Sun last night. There’s not one will employ you, Sidney Lennox has made sure of that.”
Mack’s heart sank. He had been afraid of something like this.
“If I were you,” Delaney went on, “I’d take ship and get out of town for a year or two. When you come back it will all be forgotten.”
Dermot said angrily: “Are the coal heavers always to be robbed by you undertakers, then?”
If Delaney was offended he did not show it. “Look around you, me boy,” he said mildly, indicating with a vague wave the silver coffee service, the carpeted room, and the bustling business that paid for it all. “I didn’t get this by being fair to people.”
Mack said: “What’s to stop us going to the captains ourselves, and undertaking to unload ships?”
“Everything,” said Delaney. “Now and again there comes along a coal heaver like you, McAsh, with a bit more gumption than the rest, and he wants to run his own gang, and cut out the undertaker and do away with liquor payments and all, and all. But there’s too many people making too much money out of the present arrangement.” He shook his head. “You’re not the first to protest against the system, McAsh, and you won’t be the last.”
Mack was disgusted by Delaney’s cynicism, but he felt the man was telling the truth. He could not think of anything else to say or do. Feeling defeated, he went to the door, and Dermot and Charlie followed.
“Take my advice, McAsh,” Delaney said. “Be like me. Get yourself a little tavern and sell liquor to coal heavers. Stop trying to help them and start helping yourself. You could do well. You’ve got it in you, I can tell.”
“Be like you?” Mack said. “You’ve made yourself rich by cheating your fellow men. By Christ, I wouldn’t be like you for a kingdom.”
As he went out he was gratified to see Delaney’s face darken in anger at last.
But his satisfaction lasted no longer than it took to close the door. He had won an argument and lost everything else. If only he had swallowed his pride and accepted the undertakers’ system, he would at least have work to do tomorrow morning. Now he had nothing—and he had put fifteen other men, and their families, in the same hopeless position. The prospect of bringing Esther to London was farther away than ever. He had handled everything wrong. He was a damn fool.
The three men sat in one of the bars and ordered beer and bread for their breakfast. Mack reflected that he had been arrogant