“Getting impatient, boys?” he asked, and his voice, which was curiously steady, had in it a certain unmistakable ring. It suggested that he was one accustomed to command. “Well, what do you want?”
“A job,” said one of Weston’s companions.
The man looked at him with no great favor.
“Quite sure it isn’t money? You can’t have one without the other here.”
Then Grenfell rose and waved his hand.
“The explanation, I may observe, is unnecessary. In this country you don’t get money anywhere without first doing a good deal for it. Unfortunately, it sometimes happens that you don’t get it then.”
“How long is it since you did anything worth counting?” asked the captain.
One of Grenfell’s companions pulled him down before he had a chance to reply.
“Now you sit right down before you spoil things,” he said. “You can’t put up a bluff on that kind of man. You don’t know enough.”
The miner glanced at them again, with a little grim smile.