Page:A Wild-Goose Chase - Balmer - 1915.djvu/157

Rh Otto?" he referred. "Brunton? Michaelis? Do we?"

"What do you mean by asking them?" Latham demanded hotly.

"Aren't they men?" returned the skipper.

"But I pay them and I pay you." Latham lost control of himself as he was defied. "You do as I say."

"Do we?" repeated McNeal again. "Geoff Sherwood, do we?" He did not wait for the boy's reply. "We don't."

"You don't?"

"We don't give up Eric Hedon as long as any one wants to look for him." The Scotchman paused, and then, to anticipate the other's reply, went on: "With your pay or without it."

Latham, stiff in his struggle for restraint, stared about the party.

"What are you talking about? Do you know what you're saying?"

"Cut off our pay," the Scotchman defied. "Forget it. Do you suppose any man on this ship ever came into the Arctic for pay—but yourself?"