CHAPTER VI.
LOYALTY.
"WHERE do all you boys come from?[A] I've been pretty well over theBahama Islands, but I can't quite place you chaps," Charley said,smilingly. "What island are you from, anyway?"
"I reckon most of us men are from Andros and Abacco Islands. Thar'sfour or five from Little Abacco or Green Turtle Key."
"I have never been ashore at Andros or Abacco Island, but I knowlots of fellows from Green Turtle Key. Will those of you from GreenTurtle Key please step to one side?" Five grinning negroes separatedthemselves from the crowd.
"I understand that you boys have quit work and gone on a strike becauseyour wages have not been paid. Well, inside of two hours I will haveyour checks made out, and you can go. We will not need you any longer.
"Hold on, you fellows from Green Turtle Key," he said, as they beganto move away with the crowd. "I can't carry you all in at one trip.The truck can't do it on a dirt road. I want you fellows to stay overto-morrow, and I will take you in the next day, and I want you to workcleaning up this camp. Of course, we will pay you extra for the work,but it must be done well. Captain Westfield, here, will show you whatwe want done."
The five negroes began to grumble, but the lad silenced them with aword. "If you are in such a hurry to go, you can walk in," he said. Thenegroes were not anxious to walk in, so they gave a grudging consent.
"Gee," whispered Walter, who had been listening closely. "How can weafford to pay them? They say there is two months' pay due them, andthat will about eat up the balance of our funds."
"We have simply got to pay them," Charley grinned. "The labor alien lawis strict, and they could tie up the machine with liens and render ushelpless. Things are not quite as bad as they look. I've been lookingover Murphy's papers, and I find that this month he had dug 10,000yards so far. He could not collect the money on it until the countyengineer comes out and measures it up, and that will not be until theend of the month, so we will get the $1,750 coming in."
"But look what shape we are putting ourselves in," said Walteranxiously. "We can't work the machine without men."
"Don't worry about that," said Charley cheerfully. "I'll tend togetting new and better men. What I would like you to do is to stickright close to McCarty and learn everything you can about the machine.He'll be glad enough to show you. I want you to master it, so that youwill know how every part of it works, and can let me know, so that Ican have a new part ready when the old one gives out."
"Good," Walter exclaimed. "I would rather fool around machinery than doany other work. Say, where's McCarty's tent? I want to have a talk withhim."
"Wait until after dinner," Charley counseled. "He's enjoying himselfnow."
"But what am I going to do, Charles?" protested Captain Westfield. "Idon't see where I come in."
"I want you to be general overseer over the ground men, graders, andteamsters. You see, Captain, we want to push the work as fast as wecan, and with as few accidents as possible. I am going to increase themen's wages, but they have got to earn their money. Take the graderswe watched yesterday. Two good men could have done the work those fivewere doing. Now, if you will help me, we will get up our two tents alittle farther up the road. To-morrow I wish that you would see thatevery tent is taken down and scrubbed with soap and water with a gooddose of carbolic acid in it. When they are dry, have them pitchedagain, not far from that little bunch of spruce there. We will pitchour own tents among the spruces."
McCarty and Walter came to their assistance, and in a short time thetwo tents were pitched in the thicket of glossy green and the dirtfloors carpeted thickly with fragrant pine needles. This done, Charleybrought over from Murphy's tent the box with its collection of papers.The payroll was already made out, so all the lad had to do was to makeout the checks and, as soon as it was done, the negroes filed in, oneby one, signed their names to the pay sheet, and received their checks.Some of them would have liked to have stayed and worked on, but the ladwas sick of their dirtiness and laziness, and wanted no more of them.
Dinner followed close upon the completion of this task, and allgathered around the long tables upon which Chris had already impressedsomewhat of cleanliness, and had cleaned up some of the rubbish whichhad littered the floor. The grinning negroes sat down to a dinner suchas they hadn't eaten in many a day--plain and simple, but wholesome andwell flavored and well cooked.
They had hardly begun to eat when the engineers entered, bearing abig bag of quail and followed by a panting pointer dog. They sat downquietly at the boys' table, and sullenly began to eat. Charley notedtheir faces with dissatisfaction. He knew, from what he had seen of theclass, that dredge men are a hard, cruel, overbearing class, but thesetwo shocked him in their sheer coarseness and brutality of expression,and from each emanated the strong odor of cheap whiskey. If not drunk,they were apparently on the verge of drunkenness.
Charley waited until the last negro had filed out of the tent, then heturned to McCarty. "You might introduce me to your mates," he said,with mild sarcasm. "They are so highly trained, socially, that it seemsthat they will not speak without an introduction."
McCarty grinned with delight at his new boss.
"This," he said lightly, "is Bully Rooney; the one on the left isOne-eyed McGill. Mr. Rooney, Mr. McGill, meet your new boss, Mr. West."
"If he's the new boss, he can just understand one thing," growledRooney, "I'm not going to have any greenhorn fooling around the machinewhen I am working on it."
"Nor me, neither," growled his companion.
"You will not be troubled at all in that way," Charley assured themsmilingly. "I'm going into town in the truck between two and threeo'clock, and, if you can get your things packed up, I'll take youin. Your checks are ready, and I'll give them to you as soon as yousign the payroll. I do not want a man in our gang whom I cannot trustabsolutely. And I will not have one that drinks. Drink leads tocarelessness, and carelessness leads to accidents. I imagine that's whythe machine has been broken down so much."
A scowl of rage showed on Rooney's face. "That snip of a McCarty hasbeen shooting off his mouth too much."
"Murphy's papers told me all I needed to know," said Charley quickly,but McCarty spoke up coolly and on his own behalf:
"And I've told him about the same thing, and ought to have told himmore. I should have told him that the machine has been losing moneyever since you two came on the job. That nearly all the dirt that hasbeen thrown out has been thrown out on my shift. That not a week haspassed without the machine suffering some breakdown that, in mostcases, could have been avoided. Lastly, I could, and should have toldhim, that there will not be a cent of money made on this job until it'srid of you two skulking, booze-fighting man-killers."
Bully Rooney's face grew black with anger, and he launched himself likea clumsy bear at the slight McCarty. The youth, his Irish-blue eyessparkling with anger, drew back his fists for a swinging blow at theother, but Charley promptly stepped in between the two with his littleautomatic in his hand.
"Here, that's about enough of this," he exclaimed. "If there's anyfighting to be done in this camp hereafter, we will do it--understandthat. Now you two go to your tents and pack up what belongs to you, forI start for town at three prompt."
The two sullenly departed for their tents, muttering angrily as theywent, and Charley turned to McCarty.
"I wish you would take Walter down to the machine with you thisafternoon and show him all you can about its workings. I would alsolike you to make out a list of what new parts may be needed soon, and Iwill order them at once. If you know or can think of anything that willhelp to make the machine dig more dirt, I wish you would suggest it tome, and we will go over it together. If it's feasible, we'll adopt itat once."
"I can suggest two or three things, right now," said McCarty, eagerly."First, our pump is all on the bum. Its valve is all worn out. Itneeds repacking, and it needs a bigger intake pipe. We have to fillthe boiler six times in twenty-four hours, and it takes an hour eachtim
e. If it had been tended to properly it would not take over fifteenminutes at a time to fill up the boiler; as it is, we lose a clearfive hours' work a day on that one item alone. Then, there's the wood.It is always piled on the left side of the track, so that we alwayshave to swing the machine around and wait for the ground men to loadit on, and, of course, we do no work until they get through, whichgenerally takes them 15 minutes, while, if it were placed on the otherside, the machine could keep right on while the men were loading.There's another hour lost a day."
"Six hours' waste out of twenty-four," Charley exclaimed. "Get themeasurement of that valve and intake pipe at once, and I'll getthem when I go in this time. As for the wood business, that belongsin your department," he said, turning to the teamster, a lanky,humorous-looking Missourian; "what have you got to say about it?"
FOOTNOTE:
[A] A form of address generally used in the South when white speaks toblack.