“That’s one pair,” said the employer, and went on rapidly. “And you remember the pair you didn’t get in January—that’s two pairs.” And Jack agreed. Keener men have been flimflammed by much the same formula.
But, on the whole, the men get a square deal, few employers being small enough to charge excessive prices for supplies, much less to make fictitious entries against them. There was no dissatisfaction among Kent’s men. Differences of opinion never reached the point of absolute assertion.
“Well, Billy,” MacNutt would say, “there’s the entry in our books made at the time. If you say flat you didn’t get the goods we’ll let it go, because we know you’re a straight man, and think you’re right. But if you just say you don’t remember, why, then, our books show we do.”
This unusual but effective system had been installed by William Kent and worked like a charm. Seldom did a man, having it put up to him in that way, flatly contradict the books. And then it prevented all friction.
After the surplus men had been paid off, the weather hardened. A bitter wind held in the north by day; the nights were still, clear, and cold. Ice actually made and thickened in the river.
It was unheard-of. Each morning the rivermen rose, cocked wise eyes at the sky, and cursed the weather. Each night they sat around the stove, for the cold was penetrating.
“It’s the qualified adjective moon,” said Cooley. “The weather will break when she changes.”
“She’ll break when she gets ready,” said Jackson. “This will make a late drive.”
“But high water when it does come,” said another.
Joe Kent took to looking into the sleeping camp for an hour or so each night. He had brought a banjo with him, and he exhausted his song repertory. The men enjoyed it thoroughly. It was, perhaps, bad for discipline, but it developed a feeling of comradeship. His authority was not in danger, for they had seen him hold his own against the redoubtable Mike Callahan, who was a dangerous fighter; and he had also bested big Finn Clancy, who had whipped many a good man in his day.