“I wasn’t hell-bent on getting away from it, Bricky. Didn’t I tell you a month ago, in this very room, that there’d got to be a strike?”

“Sure! But we’ve got what we wanted without it.”

“Not yet we haven’t.”

“What more do we want?”

“We want to smash Dick Malleson.”

Bricky pondered for a moment.

“Ye didn’t fall far short o’ smashin’ him,” he said finally. “But how in heaven’s name will ye git a strike now?”

Lamar took an equal length of time before replying.

“Bricky,” he said at last, “you’ve got to be discharged.”

“Me? Discharged? What for?”