"Yes." Brodsky caught the word faintly.
"What for?"
The boy could not hear the reply in the telephone, but he did hear the superintendent's next remark.
"Come to my office at once. I wish to talk with you. Brodsky, I am very much obliged to you. Sit down. I may want to ask you some questions after Mr. McNaughton gets here."
Ignatz, whose face had resumed its ordinary stolidity, dropped into a chair, while his eyes gazed vacantly through the window. Soon the division superintendent came hurrying in.
"What is this you tell me about those boys having been thrown out?" demanded Mr. Keating, with a slight show of irritation.
"They are a bad lot, sir; a couple of impudent, untrustworthy fellows. I wouldn't have them in my division under any circumstances."
"Why not?"
"Because, in the first place, they disobeyed orders and blew up the cinder pit after having been warned not to put water on it while the cinders were still hot. Then again, they had several quarrels with the pit boss and the foreman. Even in my office, where I called them to hear their story, they answered me in a most impudent manner."
"Is that all?" demanded Mr. Keating, in a sarcastic tone.