“Guess he overworked cheating me out of two thousand odd dollars,” said the man, and both the others turned and stared at him.
Then Allbright spoke. “That is a statement no man has any right to make about my employer unless he is in a position to prove it,” he said.
“That is so,” said Harrison Day. He was a very small man, but he danced before the tall, lean one, who looked as if all his flesh might have resolved to muscle.
The man looked contemptuously down at him and spoke to Allbright. “So he is your employer?” he said, in a sarcastic tone.
“Yes, he is.”
“This young man's also, I presume.”
“Yes, he is,” declared Day. But the man only heeded Allbright's response that he was.
“Well,” said the man, “may I ask a question?”
“Yes, you may,” said Day, pertly, “but it don't follow that we are goin' to answer it.”
“May I ask,” said the man, addressing Allbright, “if Captain Carroll has paid you your salaries?”