noon
`` This factory goes out of business to-day . '' Then with the various keys of the buildings in his pocket , he went home . Roger hung about to see how the men took the news . By noon , the two hundred employees of the factory with many of their wives and children were gathered in the factory yard . At first they seemed cynically amused by what they called Moore 's bluff . By mid-afternoon , however , after repeated assurances from Roger that his father was going to be a farmer , the crowd became surly . A strange man got up and made a speech .