Page:Frank Packard - On the Iron at Big Cloud.djvu/300

 the coal we get is the last on the list. Bad! It's what I've always said, ain't it?"

"It's fierce!" continued Noonan with rising emphasis. "And when the boys hear this, it'll be the last straw. They'll fix 'em!"

"Fix who?" inquired McQueen, blankly.

"Why, ain't I telling you! The company."

"I—I was talking about the coal," said McQueen a little uneasily.

"Sure you were," Noonan agreed heartily. "Sure you were, and how the company is robbing every engineer on the division of a dollar a day, to say nothing of the firemen and the train crews. It's enough to make a man mad. Well, I should say yes!"

"I—I didn't say the company was robbing us," protested McQueen.

"What's that!" cried Noonan sharply; then in apparent disgust: "So your crazy old figures are just gas-bag filling like the rest of your coal talk, eh? They did look pretty scaly, and that's a fact. I had my suspicions. That's why I asked you if you were sure they were right. But I might have known they weren't without asking."

"Oh, you might, might you?" exploded McQueen, goaded once more into angry outburst. "You and your suspicions! Who are you! I tell you they are right, and that's the end of it!"

"Well, if they're right, why don't you stand by them, then? We're being robbed every day we work, ain't we?"

"Ye-e-es, I suppose we are," McQueen admitted