“It hain’t no use,” says Silas. “We’re done for. We’re jest naturally up and done for.”
“Maybe,” says Mark, “but what m-makes you think so?”
“Men’s all quit,” says Silas.
“Git more.”
“Wiggamore hires ’em away as fast as I can.”
“We’ll see about that. Is that all?”
“All! Why, it hain’t even a start.”
“What else?”
“Seems like I didn’t quite pay for them lathes, and along comes a feller with a chattel mortgage. I clean forgot about it. No sooner does he come along, bringin’ a deputy sheriff with him, than another man rushes in and claims our dowel-machine because the feller I bought it off of hadn’t ever paid for it, and he fetched along another deputy sheriff. Mill’s plumb full of sheriffs a-settin’ onto machinery.”
“How much?” says Mark, without winking an eye. I was in a regular panic, but not him. You would have thought he expected to hear something like this and was ready for it.