"If he wants to hire anybody, let him hire a dacent Christian."
"Like you, O'Reilly?"
"I don't want to work for anybody. I work for myself. This Chinaman has come here to take the bread out of our mouths, bad cess to him."
"I don't see that. He is workin' Dick Dewey's claim. I don't see how that interferes with us."
Of course, this was the reasonable view of the matter; but there were some who sided with the Irishman, among others the Kentuckian, and he volunteered to go as a committee of one to Dewey, and represent to him the sentiments of the camp.
Accordingly he walked over to where Dewey and his apprentice were working.
"Look here, Dewey," he began, "me and some of the rest of the boys have takin' over this yere matter of your givin' work to this Chinaman, and we don't like it."
"Why not?" asked Dewey coolly.
"We don't feel no call to associate with sich as he."
"You needn't; I don't ask you to," said Dewey quietly. "I am the only one who associates with him."