UNDERWOOD. [With meaning slowness.] This house'll be the warmest
place they've been in this winter.

WILDER. Well, I hope we're going to settle this business in time for
me to catch the 6.30. I've got to take my wife to Spain to-morrow.
[Chattily.] My old father had a strike at his works in '69; just
such a February as this. They wanted to shoot him.

WANKLIN. What! In the close season?

WILDER. By George, there was no close season for employers then! He
used to go down to his office with a pistol in his pocket.

SCANTLEBURY. [Faintly alarmed.] Not seriously?

WILDER. [With finality.] Ended in his shootin' one of 'em in the
legs.

SCANTLEBURY. [Unavoidably feeling his thigh.] No? Which?

ANTHONY. [Lifting the agenda paper.] To consider the policy of the
Board in relation to the strike. [There is a silence.]

WILDER. It's this infernal three-cornered duel--the Union, the men,
and ourselves.

WANKLIN. We need n't consider the Union.

WILDER. It's my experience that you've always got to, consider the
Union, confound them! If the Union were going to withdraw their