“No use at all at all,” Pat repeated. “But we’ll be after gitting at ’em pretty soon now.”
But, as Bob predicted, one excuse followed another and it was nearly four o’clock before they actually got to work, and even then, it was plainly evident to the boys that they were instructed to accomplish as little as possible.
“The lazy loafers,” Rex said after he had watched them for a few minutes.
“It isn’t that,” Bob explained. “They’re under orders from Big Ben to hold those logs here as long as they can without coming to a showdown. If we could prove that they were holding them intentionally we could make him pay for it as it’s against the law, but there’s little chance of doing that. They’ll just doddle along and put up a big front of working and at the same time do just as little as possible. Oh, he’s a sharp one all right.”
“But we’ve got the best of him more than once and we may this time,” Jack declared.
Both Jean and Pierre were working with the crew and the boys could see that they were doing their utmost to make them work faster but with little success.
At five o’clock they knocked off for the day and Jack declared bitterly, “They haven’t loosened up enough logs to make a good bunch of shingles.”
“Them logs are packed in tighter nor I thought,” Pat declared as he came up the bank.
“I hope none of your men over-exerted themselves,” Bob said looking him full in the eyes.
Pat turned his head away.