"Nothin'. I was jest walkin' around, an' met him."
"Look here, Chunky, it will be best for you to keep away from that place. No decent man or boy would go there, an' I'd be sorry to know you trained with the regulators. I've got my eye on them fellers, an' when trade is dull they'll be the first to get their walkin' papers."
"If father don't care what I do, it ain't any business of yours, so long as I work from whistle to whistle."
"That's very true; but I shall make it my business to see what your father has to say about it."
This threat had the effect of checking the almost insolent air Chunky had begun to display, and he went to his place at the chute very meekly.
While this brief conversation was being held Joe and Bill, with their helpers, entered the lower level where the careless sentinels reported matters as being quiet.
"We haven't heard more'n a rat since you left," one of them said. "I don't believe Billings has got the nerve to try any funny business, an' in this case Mr. Wright is more frightened than hurt."
"That's a good fault, matey," Bill replied gravely. "It's better to have half a dozen of us nosin' around for a week or two, than run the risk of what Cale an' his friends may do."
"Oh, I ain't kickin'; but it don't seem reasonable they could get into the old drift, for it must be choked with gas."
"By findin' that out we might save a good deal of work," Joe replied, quickly. "It wouldn't take long to cut through where the wall is thinnest."