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- 5. ©2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 99 Chapter 8 Training the Workforce CHAPTER OVERVIEW Organizations face several questions with respect to training. For example, they have to respond to "How can we effectively and efficiently deliver training to employees?" and "Should training programs cut across functional or craft lines?" These and other questions are addressed in this chapter. The chapter distinguishes between training and development. The major challenges managers face in trying to improve workers' performance through training are also presented. In addition, the chapter offers suggestions on managing the three phases of the training process, explores particular types of training, and considers ways to maximize and evaluate training's effectiveness. The chapter closes with a discussion of new employee orientation. CHALLENGES After reading this chapter, students should be able to deal more effectively with the following challenges: 1. Have familiarity with key training issues. 2. Become aware of training versus development. 3. Recognize challenges in training. 4. Learn practices for managing the training process. 5. Become aware of a special case: orientation and socialization. ANNOTATED OUTLINE CHALLENGE 1 Have familiarity with key training issues. I. Key Training Issues 1. How can training keep pace with a changing organizational environment? 2. Should training take place in a classroom setting or on the job? 3. How can training be effectively delivered worldwide? 4. How can training be delivered so that trainees are motivated to learn? CHALLENGE 2 Become aware of training versus development. II. Training versus Development Although training is often used with development, the terms are not synonymous. Training typically focuses on providing employees with specific skills or helping them correct deficiencies in their performance. In contrast, development is an effort
- 6. ©2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 100 to provide employees with the abilities that the organization will need in the future. Figure 8-1 in the text summarizes the differences between training and development. CHALLENGE 3 Recognize challenges in training. III. Challenges in Training Upgrading employees' performance and improving their skills through training is a necessity in today's competitive environment. The training process brings with it many questions that managers must answer. Included in these questions are: Is training the solution to the problems? Are the goals of training clear and realistic? Is training a good investment? Will the training work? A. Is Training the Solution? A goal of training is to eliminate a problem or improve performance. Training, however, may not always be the solution. B. Are the Goals Clear and Realistic? Clear and realistic goals will guide the program’s content and determine the criteria by which its effectiveness is to be measured. C. Is Training a Good Investment? If training is well designed and implemented appropriately then it can pay off in more capable and loyal employees. D. Will Training Work? Successful training includes good participants and managers who support training and its purpose. CHALLENGE 4 Learn practices for managing training programs. IV. Managing the Training Process Effective training can raise performance, improve morale, and increase an organization's potential. Poor, inappropriate, or inadequate training can be a source of frustration for everyone involved. To maximize the benefits of training, managers must closely monitor the training process. A. The Needs Assessment Phase
- 7. ©2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 101 The overall purpose of the assessment phase is to determine if training is needed and, if so, to provide the information required to design the training program. Assessment consists of three levels of analysis: organizational, task, and person. The objectives of training must be clarified, related to the KSAs identified in the task analysis, and should be challenging, precise, achievable, and understood by all. B. Clarifying the Objectives of Training The objectives for a training program should be based on the assessment phase. Objectives should be stated in terms of behavior and the criteria for judging the training program’s effectiveness should flow directly from the behavioral objectives. C. The Training and Conduct Phase The training program that results from assessment should be a direct response to an organizational problem or need. Approaches vary by location, presentation, and type. They are as follows: 1. Location options a. On the job: job rotation, apprenticeships, internships b. Off the job: formal courses, simulations, etc. 2. Presentation a. Slides and videotapes b. Teletraining c. Computers d. Simulations e. Virtual reality f. Classroom instruction and role plays 3. Types of training a. Skills training b. Retraining c. Cross-functional training d. Team training e. Creativity training f. Literacy training g. Diversity training h. Crisis training i. Ethics training j. Customer service training D. The Evaluation Phase
- 8. ©2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 102 In this phase, the effectiveness of the training is assessed. Effectiveness can be measured in monetary or nonmonetary terms. It is important that the training be assessed on how well it addresses the needs it was designed to address. There are four levels of evaluation: reactions, learning, behavior, and results. E. Legal Issues and Training The major requirement is that employees must have access to training and development in a nondiscriminatory fashion. CHALLENGE 5 Become aware of a special case: orientation and socialization. V. A Special Case: Orientation and Socialization It is possible, although difficult to prove, that the most important training opportunity for many organizations occurs when employees start with the firm. At this time, managers have the chance to set the tone for new employees through orientation. Orientation is the process of informing new employees about what is expected of them in the job and helping them cope with the stresses of transition. Realistic job previews are a good way to help clarify and create realistic expectations of the job. ANSWERS TO END-OF-CHAPTER DISCUSSION QUESTIONS Suggested responses to the starred questions in this section can be found in MyManagementLab. 8-1. Performance problems seem all too common in your workplace. People don't seem to be putting forth the needed effort, and interpersonal conflict on the work teams seems to be a constant. Is training the answer? If so, what kind of training should be done? What other actions may be appropriate? Although many may want to assume that training is the problem, it is not necessarily the issue in this case. The problem could be a result of inappropriate performance evaluation measures and compensation plans. If the system is not designed correctly, it could actually be encouraging this type of behavior. In this situation, training will not solve the behavior problems because it does not correct the root cause. However, training can assist the change by giving people the teamwork and communication tools that they need for changing the behavior. *8-2. How effective do you think training can be in raising employee motivation? 8-3. Illiterate workers can suffer from embarrassment and fear that keep them from admitting their problem. Instead, they may cope by asking questions, observing others, and relying on informal assistance from others. If illiterate workers can effectively cope with a work environment, do you think there is still a problem? Explain. How would you go about identifying workers who should receive literacy training?
- 9. ©2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 103 Companies could identify workers who should receive literacy training by administering a test to employees. This approach would likely cause a great deal of embarrassment to those workers who are illiterate. Other methods available include advertising literacy education programs and training supervisors on how to identify the signs of illiteracy. General literacy is a person's general level of basic skills, whereas functional literacy is a person's skill level in a particular content area. The most pressing problem for employers is not the general deficiencies in the workforce. Rather, a business's foremost concern is its workers' ability to function effectively in their job. Because functional illiteracy can be a serious impediment to an organization's productivity and competitiveness, most students would say that training should definitely address functional illiteracy. *8-4. How important is it that the effectiveness of a training program be measured in dollar terms? Why is it important to measure training effectiveness in the first place? *8-5. Training provides workers with skills needed in the workplace. However, many organizations have dynamic environments in which change is the norm. How can training requirements be identified when job duties are a moving target? 8-6. Simuflite, a Texas aviation training company, expected to whip the competition with FasTrak, its computer-based training (CBT) curriculum for corporate pilots. Instead, the new venture sent Simuflite into a nose dive. In traditional grounding- school training, pilots ask questions and learn from “war stories” told by classmates and instructors. With FasTrak, they sat in front of a computer for hours absorbing information. Their only interaction was in tapping the computer screen to provide answers to questions, and that novelty wore off very quickly. Pilots grew bored with the CBT ground school and, after a couple of visits, voted with their feet. What does Simuflite's experience suggest about the limitations of interactive media and CBT? In what situations is CBT most likely to be beneficial to trainees? Interactive media and CBT are exciting at first; but, their newness wears off and employees get bored and need to interact with others. This indicates that it should be used in combination with other presentation options rather than alone. In other words, CBT may pose disadvantages in some circumstances. The most obvious drawback is the fact that an adequate number of computers must be available for training. Also, although computers connote cutting-edge technology and precision, the quality of the medium is not necessarily an indicator of the quality of the training content. Furthermore, the learning of some areas—particularly complex and conceptual issues—may best be accomplished through interaction with peers or supervisors who have developed expertise through experience.
- 10. ©2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 104 Using computers for training makes the most sense when the trainee's job duties require interaction with a computer, or when the information to be transmitted is not complex and does not require significant amounts of time to cover. When this is not so, the computerization aspect may interfere with transference of what is learned back to the job. 8-7. According to one survey, trainees list the following as some of the traits of a successful trainer: knowledge of the subject, adaptability, sincerity, and sense of humor. What other traits do you think trainers need to be successful in the training situation? Students might list a wide and endless variety of traits. Some that might be included are ability to communicate, engaging presentation style, ability to simplify the complex, sensitivity, and so on. 8-8. Auto-Valve was an example in this chapter of an organization that used a simple spreadsheet to determine which skills were most critical and should be taught to employees first. Using the general spreadsheet approach, how could you determine which training topics should be covered? For the rows on the spreadsheet, list the potential training topics (for example, technical skills, soft skills, ethics). For the columns, generate your criteria. For example, one criterion could be strategic importance and another could be operational importance (getting the job done each day). a. How could you use this matrix to determine which training options should be offered and which ones should not? In this case training topics should be prioritized based on the number of criteria matched to each topic. Once the selected topics have been chosen, they can be prioritized by level of operational importance. b. Identify additional criteria. Should the criteria receive different weights? Describe how you could do that and why it might be useful. Students’ answers will vary; however, it is important to note that different criteria will certainly receive different weights. Normally the weights will be based on level of organizational importance (there will be a separation between those topics that are “essential” and those that are “nice to have”). c. Consider your criteria from both short-term and long-term perspectives; that is, which criteria might be most important over the short term, maybe a year or less? Which ones are more important over the longer term? Would you weight the criteria differently based on these two perspectives? Answers will vary based on criteria generated. Long-term versus short- term orientation will likely be based on the type of organization and competitive dynamics of the market in which it operates.
- 11. ©2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 105 *8-9. Areas in need of performance improvement, such as better customer service and more sales, can be easily identified as training goals. What can be wrong with simply assigning these objectives as goals in a training program? How would you recommend a training program be developed based on these goals? MyManagementLab Assisted-graded and Auto-graded Questions. Responses to these questions can be found in MyManagementLab. 8-10. Traditionally, employee training has primarily been used to remove deficiencies. As described in this chapter, how can technology be used to shift training toward a tool that can improve capability? 8-11. Training is often used to improve performance problems. Describe when training would not be expected to improve performance. 8-12. Your boss has asked for an evaluation of the effectiveness of a training program. Describe the various levels of evaluation you could include in a report to your boss. You Manage It! 1: Technology/Social Media Social Media and Workplace Training Critical Thinking Questions 8-13. The traditional training approach is meant to remove a deficit. The use of social media in training can shift the impact of training to supporting performance. Which approach do you think is better? Explain. Students’ answers will vary; however, their responses should show a basic understanding of training. Many students may mention the dynamic nature of business and the just-in-time approach to training. 8-14. The use of social media allows training to be on demand and available when needed. Can you still apply the four levels of training evaluation (reaction, learning, application, and financial return) to this type of training? Students’ answers will vary; however, there should be some indication that any training medium can be evaluated using the four levels. 8-15. Can both the traditional deficit-reduction approach to training and the social media style of training be useful in the same organization? Describe. Students’ answers will vary; however, there should be some indication that multiple training types can be used within an organization.
- 12. ©2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 106 You Manage It! 2: Customer-Driven HR Costs and Benefits: Assessing the Business Case for Training Critical Thinking Questions 8-20. Given your answers to the previous questions, estimate the combined impact of direct and indirect savings generated by training on the bottom line. Extrapolate this number over a one- or two-year time period. Depending on assumptions made about costs and salaries, students’ answers will vary. 8-21. As you have read, training can increase revenue. The revenue could come from increased quality of the customer experience due to the impact of training. Consider, as an example, the table of customer survey responses before and after training. The numbers are percentages of customers in each satisfaction category six months before and six months after employees received their training. A key change is a reduction in the “Very dissatisfied—will never return” category of customers, which fell from 15 to 5 percent. What will this 10 percent change mean to the bottom line? Assume that the average revenue generated per month by a customer is $500.00. Also assume that you have 500 customers. What is the increased revenue due to the training for the past six months? What would be the revenue generated if you had 1,000 customers? A 10 percent decrease in “Very dissatisfied” customers will result in an increase of $25,000 with 500 customers; for 1,000 customers the resulting increase would be $50,000. 8-22. Training can also impact the bottom line by reducing a number of direct costs. For example, employee costs may be reduced because fewer overtime hours will be needed because of improved performance. Another cost reduction can be seen in reduced returns, because training may reduce errors or damage that can occur when the product or service is provided. Make assumptions about the costs in each of these categories and any other direct costs you can think of. Also assume that you can expect a 10 percent reduction in each of these categories. Generate the direct cost savings estimate due to the training. Depending on assumptions made about costs, students’ answers will vary. 8-23. Training can also impact the bottom line by reducing indirect costs. These are costs that may not be obvious, but that are still important. For example, safety of work processes or equipment can be improved due to training if workers handle materials or equipment more safely. Employee turnover can also be reduced because of improved job satisfaction due to the training. Assume that training
- 13. ©2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 107 results in a 10 percent reduction in your turnover rate. Also, assume that the cost of a turnover is 1.5 times the departing employee’s salary. For a given average employee salary of your choosing, estimate the reduced costs due to the reduction in turnover. Depending on assumptions made about salary, students’ answers will vary. You Manage It! 3: Ethics/Social Responsibility The Ethics Challenge Critical Thinking Questions 8-27. If you have a clear code of ethics, do you think training to challenge unethical behavior would still be needed? Why or why not? Students’ answers will vary but most students will probably say yes, training is still needed because it reinforces the policy the organization has. It also shows that the company is serious about unethical behavior and it gives employees the chance to practice and role-play through various situations so they understand what to do in a real situation. 8-28. Might challenging someone who is engaging in unethical behavior have some risk? How could this risk be minimized? Of course there will be risk, but by training your employees on how to handle these situations and giving them a chance to practice confronting people, this reduces some risk. Also, having clear policies for employees on how to deal with the unethical behavior helps to minimize risk—for example, having an anonymous hotline where people can report unethical behavior without fear of retribution. 8-29. Using the evaluation framework presented in Figure 8.5, which level would the challenge training attempt to improve? The training wants to improve an employee’s behavior, which should translate to better results for the company. You Manage It! 4: Global Training for Expatriates Critical Thinking Questions 8-34. How could you measure the training needs for each of the three areas of country, job, and worker characteristics?
- 14. ©2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 108 Students’ answers will vary; however, there should be some indication that students have mastered the idea of training. Measurements should be created based on the behaviors that are expected. 8-35. Do you think that the three categories of potential training needs (country, job, and worker) should receive the same or different weights? That is, should a deficit in a job competency be viewed as more critical than a deficit in a cultural competency? Based on what behaviors the students consider most important, each of the training needs could be weighted differently. 8-36. If time or budget were limited, what areas of training would be the top priority? Student answers will vary. Much of the research shows that country (cultural) training is most important. 8-37. How do you think the effectiveness of training for expatriate positions should be measured? Students’ answers will vary; however, there should be an understanding that the four levels of measurement can be used. 8-38. Training for repatriation is also an important consideration. How do you think the effectiveness of training for repatriates should be measured? Repatriate training can be measured by examining how well the expatriate assimilates back into the organization. Additional Exercises In-Class or Out-of-Class Group Activities Some companies reimburse the educational expenses of employees who take classes on their own. In an era when people can count less and less on a single employer to provide them with work over the course of their careers, do you think employers have a responsibility to encourage their employees to pursue educational opportunities? Probably the biggest point of contention in this question will be whether "encourage" means to pay for, as this question implies, or to counsel, encourage,
- 15. ©2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 109 and provide flexibility when possible to accommodate education. This author doubts that anyone would argue that employers do not have an ethical responsibility to encourage employees to pursue educational opportunities. There will probably be some disagreement over whether they should pay for employees to take classes. Some employers simply are not large enough with enough profit margin to afford such undertakings. However, maybe the question should be, "If they can afford it, do they have the ethical responsibility to pay for it?" There should be significant differences of opinion on this. Encourage students to support their arguments, and it would be helpful to probe the underlying assumptions that led them to these positions. Are companies ethically responsible for providing literacy training for workers who lack basic skills? Why or why not? As with the previous question, a lot of the controversy on this issue may boil down to whether companies can afford to provide such training. In the case of literacy training, there are often many low- or no-cost alternatives available. There are governmental service agencies that are interested in providing monies, there are foundations that will underwrite costs, and local volunteer organizations are often involved in this type of training as well. This discussion may be a good tool to get students to think creatively about fulfilling ethical responsibilities without necessarily incurring significant costs. You’re the supervisor of a group of employees whose task is to assemble disk drives that go into computers. You find that quality is not what it should be and that many of your group’s devices have to be brought back and reworked; your boss says that “You’d better start doing a better job of training your workers.” (A) What are some of the “staffing factors” that could be contributing to this problem? (B) Explain how you would go about assessing whether it is in fact a training problem. Have students brainstorm the potential factors other than training that could be the root cause of this problem. Make the point that, often, people will immediately point to training as the issue, when in fact there are other factors at play that are impacting performance. Pick out some task with which you are familiar—mowing the lawn, tuning a car— and develop a job-instruction training sheet for it. Students should be able to put the task they select into the format given. Working individually or in groups, you are to develop a short programmed learning program on the subject “Guidelines for Giving a More Effective Lecture.” Students should use the guidelines listed in the programmed learning section of the chapter, but should not forget that this assignment is not just listing guidelines. They are to develop a programmed learning that (1) presents questions, facts, or
- 16. ©2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 110 problems to the learner; (2) allows the person to respond; and (3) provides feedback to the learner on the accuracy of his or her answers.
- 17. Exploring the Variety of Random Documents with Different Content
- 18. "But as for hunting down the guilty man, that (don't you think so?) is perhaps another matter. If it has to be done at all it is only a woman—a pure and stainless woman—who has a right to do it. No man who knows himself, and how near every mother's son of us has been to the verge of the pit, will be the first to throw a stone. You remember—'But for the grace of God there goes John Wesley.' Oh, my darling, how can I ever be grateful enough for what you have done for me.... * * * * * * * "Helloa! The page boy has just been up with a letter from the Home Secretary. 'I have the pleasure to inform you that the King has been pleased to approve of your appointment to the position of the Deemster of the Isle of Man....' "How glorious! Here I have been all day saying to myself, 'Who, in God's name, are you that you should be Judge over anybody?' and now I'm glad—damned glad, there is no other word for it. "I shall telegraph the news to you in a few minutes, but I feel as if I want to take the first boat home and become my own messenger. That is impossible, for I have to call on the Lord Chancellor to-morrow about my Commission. And then I have to see to the transport of my car, and the purchase of my Judge's wig and gown. But wait, only wait! Three days more I shall have you in my arms. "My respectful greetings to the Governor. Say I know how much I owe to him for this unprecedented appointment. Say, too, I shall hold myself in readiness for the ceremony of the swearing-in, whenever he desires it to take place; also for the next Court of General Gaol Delivery if Deemster Taubman is still down with his rheumatism. "And now bless you again, dearest, for all your beautiful faith in me. God helping me, I'll do my best to deserve it. But you must be my guardian watcher, my sentinel, my star. "What a dear old world it is, darling! It seems as if there ought to be no suffering of any kind in it now—now that the sky is so bright for you and
- 19. me. "VICTOR." "P.S. Important. Don't forget to employ Gell in that case of the girl who killed her baby. Alick's her man. Mind you, though—he must compel her to tell him everything." CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR ALICK GELL For ten days Alick Gell had been searching for Bessie Collister. When he first read her letter on reaching Derby Haven (he read it a hundred times afterwards) he remembered something his father had said in taunting him —"You'll not be the first by a long way!" Then he recalled the case of the Peel fisherman and a black thought came hurtling down on him. At the next moment he hated himself for it. "What devil out of hell made me think of that?" he asked himself. But why had Bessie run away from him? The only explanation he could find was the one Stowell had given on the steamboat—women had illnesses which men knew nothing about, and in the throes of their mania they sometimes hid themselves, like sick animals, from their friends—most of all from those they loved. Were not the newspapers full of such cases? "That's it! That's it! My poor girl!" Having arrived at this explanation of Bessie's flight, he had no compunction about going in search of her. Her malady might be only temporary, but, while it lasted, Heaven alone knew what dangers she might expose herself to.
- 20. At first it occurred to him to call in the assistance of the police. But no, that would lead to publicity, and publicity to misunderstanding. Bessie would get better; he must keep her name clear of scandal. His voice shook and his lip trembled as he told the Misses Brown to say nothing to anybody. His warning was unnecessary. The terrified old maids, who had at length begun to scent the truth, had decided to keep their own counsel. Within half an hour Alick was on the road. He had no doubt of overtaking Bessie—she was only half an hour gone. But which way would she go? It was easier to say which way she would not go. She would not go to the north of the island where she would be known to nearly everybody. Above all, she would not go home—the home of Dan Baldromma. All that day he wandered through Castletown—every street and alley. At nightfall he was back at Derby Haven. Had Bessie returned? No! Had anything been heard of her? Nothing! Next day he set out on a wider journey—all the towns and villages of the south, Port St. Mary, Port Erin, Fleswick, Ballasalla, Colby, Ballabeg and Cregneash. He walked from daylight to dark, and asked no questions, but at every open door he paused and listened. When he saw a farm-house that stood back from the high road he made excuse to go up to it—a drink of milk or water. Day followed day without result. His heart was sinking. More than once he met somebody whom he knew and had to make excuse for his rambling. Wonderful what a walking tour did to blow the cobwebs from a fellow's brain after he had been shut up too long in an office! His friends looked after him with a strange expression. He had been something of a dandy, but his hair was uncombed and his linen was becoming soiled and even dirty. At length he became a prey to illusions. He always slept in the last house he came to, and one night, in a fisherman's cottage near Fleswick, he was awakened by the wind blowing over the thatch. He thought it sounded like the voice of Bessie, and that she was wandering over the highway in the darkness, alone and distraught.
- 21. Next day he began to inquire if anything had been seen of such a person. He was told of a young woman who, found walking barefoot on the lonely road to Dreamlang, had been taken to the asylum, and he hurried there to inquire. No, it was not Bessie. Some poor young wife who (only six months married and beginning to be happy in the prospect of a child) had lost her husband in an accident at the mines at Foxdale. The dread of suicide took hold of him. One day a fish-cadger on the road told him that a young woman's body had been washed ashore at Peel. Again it was nothing—nothing to him. The wife of the captain of a Norwegian schooner which had been wrecked off Contrary—with her eyes open and her baby locked in her rigid arms. Alick's heart was failing him. Do what he would to keep down evil thoughts they were getting the better of him. Sometimes he rested on the seat that usually stands outside the whitewashed porch of a Manx cottage, and although he thought he said so little he found that the women (especially such of them as were mothers of grown-up girls) seemed to divine the object of his journey. "Aw, yes, that's the way with them, the boghs, especially when there's a man bothering them. Was there any man, now...." But Alick was up and gone before they could finish their question. Thus ten days passed. Absorbed in his search, perplexed and tortured, he had seen no newspaper and heard nothing of what was happening in the island. Suddenly it occurred to him that Bessie could not have left him so long without news of her. She could not be so cruel; she must have written, and her letter must be lying at his office. People who knew him, and saw him return to Douglas, could scarcely recognise him in the pale, unwashed, unshaven man who climbed the steps from the station, looking like a drunkard who had been sleeping out in the fields. His chambers, when he turned the key (he had no clerk now), were stuffy and cheerless. The ashes of his last fire were on the hearth, and his
- 22. desk was covered with dust. Behind the door (he had no letter-box) a number of circulars and bills lay on the ground, but, running his trembling fingers through them, he found no letter from Bessie. There was a large and bulky envelope, though, with the seal of Government House, and marked "Immediate." What could it be? On the top of a thick body of folio paper he found a letter. It was from Fenella Stanley. "DEAR MR. GELL,—At the suggestion of Mr. Stowell, who is still in London, I am writing on behalf of the Women's Protection League, to ask you if you can undertake the defence of the young woman in the north of the island who is to be charged with the murder of her new-born child." Alick paused a moment to draw breath. "You will see by the report of the High Bailiff's inquiry and the copy of the Depositions which I enclose that the girl denies everything, and that her mother supports her, but the evidence is only too sadly against her—particularly that of the doctors and of two neighbours who live higher up the glen." Alick felt his heart stop and his whole body grew cold. "Her step-father...." The letter almost dropped from his fingers. "Her step-father has not been asked by the prosecution to depose, and it is doubtful if the defence ought to call him."
- 23. He was becoming dizzy. The lines of the letter were running into each other. "Innocent or guilty, the girl has suffered terribly. She has been several days in hospital at Ramsey, but she was to be removed to Castle Rushen this morning. Her case is to come on next week at the Court of General Gaol Delivery, so perhaps you will send me a telegram immediately saying if you can take up the defence. "As you see the poor creature is herself an illegitimate child—the name by which she is commonly known being Bessie Collister." Alick shrieked. He had seen the blow coming, but when it came it fell on him like a thunderbolt. It was all a lie—a damned lie! Nobody would make him believe it. Bessie arrested for the murder of her child! She had never had a child. He leapt to his feet and tramped the room on stiffened limbs and with a heart throbbing with anger. Then, half afraid, but doing his best to compose himself, he took the report and the Depositions out of the big envelope, and, sitting before the dead hearth with his shaking feet on the fender, and holding the folio pages in his dead-cold hands, he read the evidence. As he did so he shrieked again, but this time with laughter. What a tissue of manifest lies! The Skillicornes and their quarrel with Dan Baldromma— what a malicious conspiracy! Lord, what blind fools the police could be! And the Attorney, had he come to his second childhood? Again and again Alick thumped the desk with his fist and filled the air of the room with the dust that rose in the sunshine which was now pouring through the windows. There was a photograph of Bessie on the mantelpiece—a copy of the same that she had sent to Stowell. He snatched it up and kissed it. Never had Bessie been so dear to him as now—now when she was in prison under
- 24. a false accusation. And the best of it was that he was to get her off. He must see her at once, though. "My poor girl! In Castle Rushen!" The first thing to do was to wash and change (he cut himself badly in shaving), but in less than half-an-hour he was at the Post-office telegraphing to Fenella. "Gladly." Brief as the message was, the clerk at the counter could hardly decipher the agitated handwriting. A few minutes later he was at the Police-office, asking the Chief Constable for an order to allow him, as Bessie's advocate, to see her alone in her cell. At two o'clock he was back at the railway-station, taking the train for Castletown. As he stepped into his carriage the newsboys were calling the contents of the evening paper: Victor Stowell appointed Deemster. Glorious! Bessie would have a human being on the bench. Thank God for that anyway! II "I don't know what you are talking about—I really don't. You make me laugh. Whatever will you say next! I was ill and I came home to have my mother nurse me, and that was all I knew until Cain, the constable, came to bring me here." It was Bessie before the High Bailiff. Her face was thin and pale, and she was clutching the rail of the dock in an effort to keep herself erect, while
- 25. her shrill voice echoed to the roof. The magistrate was about to commit her to prison when Dr. Clucas rose in the body of the Court-house. "Your worship," he said (his voice was husky and his eyes had a look of tears), "the defendant is suffering from the temporary mania which is not unusual in such cases. I suggest that she should be sent to the hospital." Bessie fainted. The next thing she knew was that she was in bed in a hospital ward, and that another doctor (a younger man with thin hair and a large pugnacious mouth) was leaning over her, and laying his hand on her breast. She pushed it off, and then he said, in an authoritative tone, "My good woman, if you are innocent, as you say, the best proof you can give is that of a medical examination." At this Bessie broke into fierce wrath. "If you touch me again," she cried, "I'll tear your eyes out!" Then she fainted once more, and for two days lay in a strong delirium. When she came to herself a nurse with a kind face was by her side, saying "Hush!" and doing something at her breast with a glass instrument. She knew she had been delirious (having a vague memory of crying "Alick! Alick!" as she returned to consciousness) and was in fear of what she might have said. "Is it morning?" she asked. "Yes, dear." "Then it's the next day?" "The next but one." "Have I been wandering?"
- 26. "A little." "Did I call for anybody?" "Yes." She dare not ask whom, but lay wondering if Alick knew where she was and what had happened to her. After a while she said, "Is it in the papers?" The nurse nodded, and after a moment, with her eyes down, Bessie said, "Has anybody been here to ask for me?" "Yes, your mother—she comes night and morning." "Nobody else?" "Nobody." Bessie broke into sobs and turned her face to the wall. Alick knew! He had given her up! She had lost him! When she recovered from an agony of tears her eyes were glittering and her heart was bitter. What did she care what became of her now? They might do what they liked with her. Deny? What was the good? She would deny no longer. She would tell the truth about everything. Then Fenella Stanley came. Bessie thought she liked Miss Stanley better than any woman, except her mother, she had ever known. But that only made it the harder to hold to her resolution, for if she told the truth she would surely hurt Fenella. "Oh, why do you come to torture me?" she cried, when Fenella asked who was her "friend." And not another word would she say. Two days later, before breakfast, Cain, the constable, came with a sergeant of police to take her to Castle Rushen. She did not care! Why
- 27. should she? But as she was leaving the hospital the nurse with the kind face whispered, "Good-bye, dear. You're all right now. I'm going away and will say nothing." It was a cruelly beautiful morning, with a golden shimmer from the rising sun upon a tranquil sea. The railway station was full of townspeople going up to Douglas (it was market day there), so Bessie was hurried into the last compartment. When the train ran into the country a flood of memories swept over her and she found it hard to keep back her tears. The young lambs were skipping on the hill-sides; the sheep were bleating; girls in sun bonnets were coming from the whitewashed outhouses to drive the cattle into the fields. When they drew up at the station for the glen the shingly platform was crowded with passengers waiting for the train—rosy-faced women with broad open baskets of butter and eggs, and elderly farmers smoking their strong thick twist and surrounded by their panting dogs. Bessie knew them all. At the last moment a young woman in a low cut blouse ran up—it was Susie Stephen. Bessie crept into a corner of the carriage and closed her eyes. But she could not shut out everything. Over the rumble of the wheels, when the train started again, she heard shrieks of laughter from the compartment in front. The elderly men were jesting in their free way with the girls, and the girls, nothing loth, were answering them back. At the junction of St. John's, the train had to stop for carriages from Peel to be linked on to it, and while the coupling was going on one of the passengers strolled along the platform. It was Willie Teare, who had wanted to marry Bessie, and he saw her behind the constables. At the next moment a throng of girls gathered outside her window, but the constables pulled down the blinds. "Take your seats! Take your seats!"
- 28. The train went on. There was no more laughter from the passengers in the compartment in front. Bessie understood—they were whispering about her. Her heart was becoming hard. Sitting in the darkened carriage, with spears of sunlight flashing from the flapping blinds, she heard the constables talking about Mr. Stowell. It was reported that he had been made Deemster. He would make a good Deemster, too. "A taste young, maybe, but clever—clever uncommon." On reaching Douglas, where they had to change into the train for Castletown, Bessie was being hustled across the platform, between the constables, when she became aware of a crowd of women and girls who were crushing up to stare at her. There was a whispering and muttering. "There she is!" "Serve her right, I say!" Half-an-hour later she was in Castle Rushen. The darkness within was blinding after the sunshine without. A woman with short and difficult breathing was moving about her. It was Mrs. Mylrea, the female warder. She took off Bessie's cloak and hat, and, leaving her a brown blanket and a hard pillow, went away without speaking a word. But then came Vondy, the head jailer, with words enough for both of them. Bessie did not know she was crying until the old man, in his blundering way, began to comfort her. "Tut, tut, gel! They're not for hanging you yet at all. While there's life there's hope!" Left alone at last, and her eyes accustomed to the darkness, she saw where she was—in a stone vault that had a small grill in the door (behind which a candle was burning) and a barred and deeply-recessed window, near the ceiling, through which a dull ray of borrowed light was coming, for the prison overlooked the harbour on the west of the Castle.
- 29. By this time her tears were turned to gall. A frightful revulsion had come over her soul. What had she done to deserve all this? The injustice of it, the cruelty, the barbarity, the hypocrisy! Men were all alike. Go on, she knew what men were! A man only wanted one thing of a girl, and when he got that he forgot all about her. Alick Gell was the best of them, yet even he had forsaken her now that she was in trouble. She had never intended to do harm to anybody, and yet there she was, and would remain, until they came to take her to the Court-house on the other side of the Castle-yard. Then hundreds of eyes would be on her (women's eyes too) and when she raised her own she would see Mr. Stowell on the bench. What a mockery! Mr. Stowell her judge! What would he do? His "duty" of course. All right, let him do it! Only she, too, would do something. After he had tried her and sentenced her and finished with her, she would tell him something. Why shouldn't she? And what did she care what happened to anybody else? Fenella Stanley was nothing to her. Suddenly she thought again about Alick Gell. If she did what she intended to do (tell everything) Alick also would be disgraced. The shame of her misfortune would follow him to the last day of his life. Even his own father would cast it up to him. Hadn't she done enough harm to Alick already? If he had deserted her, she had deceived him. And yet she had deceived him only because she loved him. "Alick! Alick! Alick!" Her heart was crying. She was wishing she were dead. She had flung herself down on her plank bed, with her face to the blank wall, when she heard the dead beating of footsteps in the corridor outside. At the next moment the door of her cell was opened and Tommy Vondy, the jailer, was saying, "Mr. Alexander Gell, the advocate, to see you alone."
- 30. III "Bessie!" The jailer had gone. Alick was breathing quickly in the darkness by the door, and Bessie was huddled up on the bed, with the dull ray of reflected light upon her from the wall above. "Bessie!" His voice was low and full of tears. At first she did not answer. "It's Alick. Won't you speak to me?" "Go away!" He could hear that she was crying. "You won't send me away, Bessie. I have been looking for you all over the island. It was only to-day I heard where you were and what had happened. I have come to help you—to save you." He saw the dark form rising on the bed. "Do you know what they say I did?" "Yes, I know everything." "And you don't believe it?" "Not one word of it." "You think I am innocent?" "I am sure you are."
- 31. "Alick!" With a great sob that shook her whole body she rose to her feet and flung herself upon him. For a long time they stood clasped in each other's arms, and crying like children. Then they sat down side by side on the plank bed. His arm was about her, and her head was on his shoulder. He was trying to make his voice cheerful, though it cracked sorely, while he reproved her for her tears. She would soon be free to leave that place. There was really nothing against her. Never had there been such a trumped- up case. The police must be crazy. She clung to him with a frightened tenderness while he told her of the letter from Fenella Stanley asking him to take up the defence on behalf of the Society. "Of course I should have taken it up in any case, you know. And now you must authorise me to defend you." She was startled. In the half darkness he saw her pale face (so pale and so thin) raised to his with a frightened look. "You?" "Why not, dear? I'm an advocate. You don't suppose I'm going to leave your defence to anybody else, do you?" "No, no! You must not!" "But why? Can't you trust me, Bess?" "It isn't that." "What then?" Bessie did not answer him, and he went on talking, though his voice was breaking again. He knew he was not a born lawyer and a great speaker like Stowell, but the facts were so clear that he had only to state them and they would speak for themselves.
- 32. A fierce struggle was going on in Bessie's soul. He whom she had wronged (never having wronged anybody else), he for whom she had committed her crime, wanted her to authorise him to stand up in Court and say she had not committed it. She had deceived him once—could she deceive him again? "No, no, no! I cannot!" Alick was puzzled. "What do you mean, Bessie? Why shouldn't I be your advocate?" "I don't want any advocate." "But you must have one. It isn't enough to be not guilty—we must prove you're not. Why shouldn't I do so?" At length she was forced to make some explanation. The police were determined to have her condemned; therefore he would lose his case and that would go against him. "Good gracious, girl, what nonsense! Anybody may lose a case. The greatest lawyers have lost cases. But it's impossible that I should lose this one. And even if I lose it—do you know what I shall do?" "What?" "Wait outside the prison door until you come out and marry you the same day to show that I believe in you still." At that Bessie was in floods of tears again. And again they cried in each other's arms like children. Then Alick, after drying his eyes in the darkness, put on a brave air, and told her what she had to do. "Listen to me now. This is a low conspiracy, but if we are to defeat it, you must stick to your story. I shall have to put you in the box, for you must leave the Court without a stain on your character. First of all you must say...."
- 33. And then sitting by Bessie's side in the dark cell, with only the candle looking in on them from the outside ledge of the grill, he rehearsed the facts as they were to be given in Court—how by the cruelty of her step-father she had been shut out of the house late at night and had had to go elsewhere; how she had returned, being unwell, and wishing her mother to nurse her, and how she had been put to bed and had never left it until the constables came to take her away. Bessie listened in silence, gazing before her like a captured sheep, and answering only by a nodding of her head. "If the Attorney asks you anything else—no matter what—you must say you know nothing about it—-do you understand?" "Yes." "Say it after me then—'I know nothing about it.'" Bessie repeated the words like a woman talking in her sleep—-"'I know nothing about it.'" "That's all right. Leave the rest to me." "You think I shall get off?" "I'm sure of it. If the General Gaol is held next week, we'll be married the week after." "But, Alick?" "Yes." "Your father and sisters, will they not always cast it up at you that your wife has been tried for...." "Let them! If they do the Isle of Man will be dead to me for ever. We'll go abroad—to America perhaps—and leave everything and everybody behind us."
- 34. Bessie was crying once more, and Alick, to conceal his own tears, was going off with great bustle. "Good-bye! I'll be here again to-morrow. And oh, what do you think, Bess? Great news! Stowell has been made Deemster. So if the good Lord in Heaven will only keep that damned old Taubman in bed a little longer with his rheumatism, Stowell will be on the bench and you'll have a fair trial at all events. Good-bye!" For the next half-hour Bessie sobbed with joy. Tell the truth and destroy Alick's faith in her? Never! Never in this world! CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE THE DEEMSTER'S OATH It was the morning of the day of the swearing-in of the new Deemster at Castle Rushen. The Bishop had asked permission to solemnise the ceremony with a religious service—a custom long unobserved. The service was held in a groined chamber of moderate size within walls thirty feet thick, once the banqueting-hall of the Kings of Man, now the jail chapel, with an atmosphere that seemed to be compounded equally of the intoxicated laughter of the old revellers and the moans of the condemned prisoners. For the event of the day the chill place had been suitably decorated. Flags hung on the tarred walls, red cushions from the neighbouring church had been laid on the bare benches; a carpet had been stretched down the aisle of the flagged floor; a white embroidered altar-cloth covered the plain communion table, from which the light of four candles in silver candlesticks flickered on the faces of the small congregation—chiefly officials, with their wives and daughters.
- 35. Shortly before eleven, the hour fixed for the service, Stowell entered, wearing for the first time the wig and gown of a judge, and he was led to one of three arm-chairs at the front. A little later there came through the thick walls the sound of soldiery clashing arms outside the Castle, and at the next moment the Governor arrived in General's uniform of red and gold, with Fenella behind him in a large spring hat (her face glowing with animation), and they took the two remaining chairs. Then the Bishop in his scarlet robes came in, preceded by his crozier, and the service began. It was short but solemn. First a psalm of David ("He shall judge thy people with righteousness and thy poor with judgment"); then an epistle to the Romans ("Owe no man anything"); and then an improvised prayer by the Bishop, asking the Almighty to grant His strength and wisdom to His servant who was shortly to take the solemn oath of his great office, that he might deliver the poor and needy, deal faithfully with all men, and show mercy to such as had erred and sinned. Then came the hymn "Thou Judge of quick and dead," and finally the Benediction. Stowell was strongly affected. He knelt at the prayer, and when the service was at an end and it was time to go, Fenella had to touch his shoulder. The sun was bright outside, and they blinked their eyes as they crossed the courtyard to the Court-house. The stately little chamber was full, save for the seats that had been reserved for the officials. There was a flash of faces, a waft of perfume, a flutter of handkerchiefs and a hum of whispering as the Governor stepped up to the scarlet dais, with Stowell following him and taking for the first time the seat of the Judge. People who had been talking of the youth of the new Deemster were heard to say that in his judge's wig he seemed older than they had expected and so like the portrait on the wall that one could almost fancy that his father was looking through the windows of his eyes. The proceedings began with the Governor calling upon Stowell for his Commission, and then reading it aloud—"Our trusty and well-beloved
- 36. Victor Stowell to be Deemster of this isle." After that everybody stood while the new Judge took the oath of fealty to the King. Then the Deemster's clerk, Joshua Scarff, in his coloured spectacles, handed up a quarto copy of the Bible and a deep hush fell on the assembly, for the time had come for the Deemster's oath. The Governor and Stowell rose again, but all others remained seated. Each laid one hand on the open Book, and the Governor read the oath, clause by clause in loud, strong tones that seemed to smite the walls as with blows. And, clause by clause, Stowell repeated it after him in a lower voice that was sometimes barely audible: "By this Book and the holy contents thereof...." "By this Book and the holy contents thereof...." "And by all the wonderful works which God hath miraculously wrought in heaven and on the earth beneath in six days and seven nights, I, Victor Christian Stowell...." "I, Victor Christian Stowell, do swear that I will, without respect or fear or friendship, love or gain, consanguinity or affinity, envy or malice, execute the laws of this isle justly betwixt our Sovereign Lord the King and his subjects within the isle, and betwixt party and party, man and man, man and woman...." ".... man and woman ...." ".... as indifferently as the herring bone doth lie down the middle of the fish." There was a deep silence until the oath was ended and then a general drawing of breath. The Governor and the new Deemster sat and the Clerk of the Rolls handed up the Liber Juramentorum, the Book of Oaths, a large volume in faded leather with leaves of discoloured parchment.
- 37. It was observed, and afterwards remarked upon, that when Stowell took up the pen to sign he hesitated for a moment, and then wrote his name rapidly and nervously, and that, in the silence, a diamond ring which he wore on his right hand (it was a present from Fenella) clashed with a discordant sound against the glass tray as he threw the pen back. The business being over, the Bishop gave out the hymn that is sung at the close of nearly all Manx festivals, "O God, our help," and all rose and sang. Stowell rose with the rest, but he did not sing. He was no longer conscious of the eyes that were on him. The emotion which he had been struggling to repress had at length conquered his self-control. While the Court-house throbbed with the singing he was thinking of the Judges who had stood in the same place and taken that oath before him. There had been a thousand years of them. He turned to the eastern wall and his father's melancholy eyes seemed to look at him. "Yes, you too," they seemed to say, "must now do the right, whatever it may cost you. You are no longer yourself only. The souls of all your predecessors have this day entered into your soul. You must consider yourself no more. You must be just—or perish." The hymn came to an end and there was a shuffling of feet like the pattering of water in the harbour at the top of the tide. The next thing Stowell knew was that he was unrobed and going down the Deemster's private staircase to the Court-yard of the Castle. A large company was there waiting to congratulate him. Janet (he had ordered that a front seat should be reserved for her) was holding a little court of elderly ladies, to whom she was relating wonderful stories of his childhood. She broke away from them to kiss him. And then she kissed Fenella also and whispered, "Don't forget to send him home in time, dear." "I'll not forget," said Fenella.
- 38. And then she, on her part, with a face aflame, whispered something to the Governor, who, shaking hands all round, was making ready to go. "What? You want to return in the automobile? Very well, off you go! The Attorney will take pity on your forsaken father." Outside the gate there was a great crowd, behind a regiment of red- coated soldiers, and when the Governor and the Attorney-General drove off they broke into a cheer which drowned the clash of steel and the first bars of the National Anthem. But that was as nothing compared with the demonstration when Stowell went off in his car, sitting at the wheel, with Fenella beside him. "Long live the new Deemster—hip, hip—hip!" The great shout, the mighty roar of voices, brought a surging to Stowell's throat and a tightening to his breast. It followed his car, going off in the sunshine, until it shot over the bridge that crossed the harbour, and there Fenella turned back her glistening wet eyes and bowed. * * * * * * * Others heard it. The prisoners in their dark cells, rising from their plank beds and hunching their shoulders in the chill air, listened to the joyous sounds from without, which broke the usual silence of their gloomy walls, and said to themselves, "What are they doing now, I wonder?" There were seven prisoners in the Castle that day. One of them was Bessie Collister. II "Addio! See you at supper!"
- 39. Fenella was waving to the Governor and the Attorney, and laughing at their slow speed, as she and Stowell shot past them before they had left the town. The morning was beautiful, the sky blue, the sea glistening under a fresh breeze. They were running, bounding, leaping along the roads, and talking loudly above the hum of the car. Stowell had caught the contagion of Fenella's high spirits and awakened from his long trance. "Well, what did you think of it?" "The ceremony? Lovely!" "But you were crying all the time!" "It must have been through looking at you, then. There was everybody doing you honour, and you looked like a man going to execution." He laughed; she laughed; they laughed together, but they had their serious moments for all that. One of them came when she spoke of the Oath, saying how quaint and amusing it was. "A little frightening, though," said Stowell. "Frightening?" "Well, yes, I thought so. Made one feel as if old Job had had something to say for himself. Who was I to judge others, having done wrong myself?" "Really! You wicked fellow! I wasn't aware you had so many sins to answer for. But I know!" And then, in flash after flash, each sparkling like a diamond, came pictures of his predecessors. The solemn judge; the jesting judge; the judge who suspected all men of lying; the judge who believed everybody told the truth; the sour, dour, swearing and hanging judge, who served Justice as if she had been a Juggernaut, and the gay Judge who bought and sold her as he did his mistresses.
- 40. "What a procession! And the question was, which kind were you going to belong to—eh?" Again he laughed; they both laughed; and the car flew on. Another serious moment came. He mentioned the Book of Oaths, saying that while turning over its leaves with their faded ink he had been seized with a sudden fear of writing his name, whereupon Fenella, with a mischievous look of gravity, cried again, "I know. You thought you were signing your death-warrant." Yet another serious moment came when she asked him if he had not been proud of the send-off his countrymen had given him at the Castle gate. He replied that he would have been so but for the wretched thought that if anything happened to him their love would as suddenly turn to hate, and they would howl as loudly as they had cheered. "But what nonsense!" cried Fenella. "Love—what I call love—is not like that. It never dies and never changes." "Never?" "Never! If I loved anybody and anything happened, I should fight the world for him." "Even if he were in the wrong?" "Goodness yes! Where would be the merit of fighting for him if he were in the right?" "Darling!" cried Stowell, and, the road being clear, and nobody in sight, he had to slow down the car to kiss her. After that he threw off the solemnity of the ceremony and gave himself up to the intoxication of love. With Fenella by his side, looking up at him with her beaming eyes, and laughing with her gay raillery, what else could he think about? A few miles out of Castletown he said, "Let us take the old road back—it's longer."
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