had been placed in the hands of his humbler but more energetic rival.
Its departure was hailed by the shouts and threats of a gang of pitmen
from the Blackett colliery, but nothing like another fight occurred,
thanks to the vigilance of Fairburn the elder.




CHAPTER II

THE ATTACK ON THE COLLIERY


Not often has Europe been in a greater state of unrest than it was at
the time this story opens. James II, the exiled King of England, had
lately died in his French home, and his son, afterwards famous as the
Old Pretender, had been acknowledged as the new English king by Louis
XIV of France, to the joy of the many Jacobites England still
contained, but to the dismay of the majority of Englishmen. There was
likely to be dire trouble also respecting the vacant throne of Spain.
There had been originally three candidates for the throne of the
weakling Charles, not long dead--Philip of Anjou, whose claims had the
powerful support of his grandfather, the ambitious Louis; Charles, the
second son of the Emperor Leopold of Austria; and Joseph, the
Electoral Prince of Bavaria. But the last mentioned had died, leaving
the contest to Philip and Charles, the French and Austrian claimants.
The rest of Europe was naturally in alarm when the already
too-powerful Louis actually placed his grandson on the Spanish throne.
Practically the step amounted on the part of France to an annexation
of the once predominant kingdom of Spain with all its appanages. And