So far their only successes had been obtained by threats rather
than deeds, for many manufacturers had been deterred from adopting
the new machinery by the receipt of threatening letters signed "King
Lud," saying that their factories would be burned and themselves
shot should they venture upon altering their machinery.

The organ of communication between the members of the society at
Varley and those in other villages was the blacksmith, or as he
preferred to be called, the minister, John Stukeley, who on weekdays
worked at the forge next door to the "Spotted Dog," and on Sundays
held services in "Little Bethel"--a tiny meeting house standing
back from the road.

Had John Stukeley been busier during the week he would have had
less time to devote to the cause of "King Lud;" but for many hours
a day his fire was banked up, for except to make repairs in any of
the frames which had got out of order, or to put on a shoe which a
horse had cast on his way up the hill from Marsden, there was but
little employment for him.

The man was not a Yorkshireman by birth, but came from Liverpool,
and his small, spare figure contrasted strongly with those of the
tall, square built Yorkshiremen, among whom he lived.

He was a good workman, but his nervous irritability, his self
assertion, and impatience of orders had lost him so many places that
he had finally determined to become his own master, and, coming
into a few pounds at the death of his father, had wandered away
from the great towns, until finding in Varley a village without
a smith, he had established himself there, and having adopted the