Page:Ned Wilding's Disappearance.djvu/235

Rh "I wonder if the boys came?" Ned thought. "I wonder what my father must think? Oh, I've a good notion to write to him and ask him what to do! I can't stand it any longer!"

Ned was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He had stood about all he could, and with the poor food and the bad sleeping places, which were all he could afford, his health was in danger.

"Come now, no loafing!" exclaimed Cassidy's coarse voice, as Ned paused a moment in his scrubbing. "When I pay a dollar and a half a day I expect good, quick work. We don't want any idlers around here."

Wearily Ned began to move the wet broom over the dirty boards. There were a number of unkempt men engaged in the same occupation.

"If my chums should see me now," thought Ned.

He expected to be allowed to go to bed early as he was tired, but when Cassidy had sent him to a near-by, cheap restaurant, in company with one of the other porters, for supper, Ned found, on his return, that he was expected to clean out the office.

"Ten o'clock's time enough to go to bed," Cassidy told him. "The work got behind when my