The move caught the eye and apparently the approval of the audience, for it broke into cheers which gathered in volume till by the time that McNish and Captain Jack stood on the platform the great majority were wildly yelling their enthusiastic approval of their action.

McNish stood with his hand raised for a hearing.

Almost instantly there fell a silence intense and expectant.

The Scotchman stood looking in the direction of the excited Cockney with cold steady eye.
"A'm for freedom! The right of public assembly! A'm feart o' nae enemy, not the deevil himself.

This gentleman is a member of my Union and he stays r-r-right he-e-r-re." With a rasping roll of his r's he seemed to be ripping the skin off the little Cockney's very flesh.