Germinal - Emile Zola [166]
He fell silent, but his other arm was still outstretched, pointing at the enemy in the distance, over there, wherever, somewhere on this earth. This time the cheering of the crowd was so loud that the bourgeois heard it in Montsou and cast anxious glances in the direction of Vandame, thinking that there had been some terrible collapse in the mine. Birds of the night flew up out of the forest into the vast, clear sky.
Étienne decided to bring things to a head:
‘Comrades, what is your decision?…Do you vote to continue the strike?’
‘Yes, yes!’ they screamed.
‘And what action do you propose to take?…We are certain to be defeated if those cowards go back down tomorrow.’
‘Death to the cowards!’ came the reply, like the blast of a storm.
‘So you are resolved to remind them of their duty, of their sworn oath…Then this is what I propose. We shall go to the pits ourselves, and just by being there we’ll shame the traitors into stopping work. And that way we’ll show the Company that we’re all of one mind, that we are ready to die rather than surrender.’
‘Yes, yes! To the pits.’
Since he had started speaking again, Étienne had been trying to catch sight of Catherine among the pale, seething mass of faces beneath him. There was absolutely no sign of her. But he could still see Chaval, who was shrugging his shoulders and pretending to sneer at the whole thing; he was consumed with envy and would have sold himself to the highest bidder if he could have obtained but one small part of this popularity.
‘And if there are any informers among us here, comrades,’ Étienne continued, ‘they’d better watch their step. Because we know who they are…Yes, I can see some Vandame miners here who haven’t left their pit…’
‘I suppose that’s meant for me, is it?’ Chaval asked cockily.
‘You or anyone else…But since it’s you that’s spoken, you might as well understand that people that can eat shouldn’t meddle in the affairs of those that can’t. You’re working at Jean-Bart…’
They were interrupted by a taunting voice:
‘Him? Working?…More like he has a woman who does the working for him.’
Chaval flushed and swore:
‘Christ! Aren’t we allowed to work, then?’
‘No!’ shouted Étienne. ‘At a time when your comrades are going through hell for the good of all, you’re not allowed to be a selfish hypocrite and side with the bosses. If the strike had been general, we’d have been the masters long ago…Should any Vandame miner have gone down when Montsou was out on strike? The great thing would be if the whole area stopped work, at Monsieur Deneulin’s as well as here. Don’t you see? The people working the coal-faces at Jean-Bart are scabs. You’re all scabs!’
The crowd around Chaval was beginning to look menacing; fists were raised, and people began to shout: ‘Kill them! Kill them!’ He had turned very pale. But in his furious desire to outdo Étienne, he suddenly had an idea.
‘Listen to me! Come to Jean-Bart tomorrow, and then you’ll see if I’m working or not!…We’re with you, they sent me here to tell you so. And we must shut down the furnaces and get the mechanics to join the strike too. So much the better if the pumps stop! The water will destroy the pits, and then the whole bloody lot will be ruined!’
He in turn was furiously applauded, and from then on even Étienne was overrun. Speaker after speaker came to the tree-trunk, gesticulating above the noise and making wild proposals.