“It’s Hardy’s lad, isn’t it?” replied Jasper Saxton, with a stare at Ben.
“Yes. He’s saved your shop from rattling to pieces, that’s all,” announced the foreman bluntly. “That pet of yours, Tom Shallock, was in liquor and asleep at his post. If Ben here hadn’t got in action there’d have been a long shut-down of the Saxton Automobile Works, I can tell you, and maybe some funerals.”
Saxton looked annoyed and angry at the reference to the engineer, and slightly bored at the determined way in which his foreman kept pushing Ben to the front. All this embarrassed the latter, who tried to wriggle free from the grasp of the foreman.
“Where is Shallock?” asked Mr. Saxton uneasily.
“Fired,” tersely reported the foreman.
“Why—I—that is——” stammered Mr. Saxton.
“You act as if you were afraid of that man, Mr. Saxton,” observed the foreman bluntly. “I’ve sent for Pete Doty. He’ll be here directly. About this boy, now——”
“Yes, yes,” nodded Mr. Saxton hurriedly. “Good boy. First-class father, too. Shake hands. Glad. Thank you.”
“Hold on, Mr. Saxton,” interrupted the foreman, as his employer started to close the incident by entering the office of the works. “What are you going to do for young Hardy?”
“Do—eh. Ah. I see. Come into the office, Hardy.”