The men threw up their heads, and most wiped their brows as they straightened their backs and said "Oo!" They breathed and filled their lungs and then thought of their empty bellies and started for the Hash-house. But White, always polite and obsequious, stayed a while with Quin.
"We've cut a lot, Mr. Quin," said White; "the boom's nigh empty."
"More in to-day," replied Quin. "How's your wedger-off doin'? If he don't suit you, fire him, White."
"He's the best man I've had this year," said White. He did not understand why Quin grunted and turned his back on him. If he had known Pete would have gone that day.
"What's wrong?" asked White. "Well, I made 'em skip to-day."
So the men thought as they piled into the hash, and said what they thought of him and grubbed in anticipation of an afternoon the equal of the morning.
"He's a swine but a first-class sawyer, and no mistake, no fatal error, eh, what? He made us skip and sweat to-day, but never piled us up! That was what the tallow-faced swine was after, eh?"
"You bet! Here Fan Tong, or Hang Chow, more chow this way! White's a swine; oh, he made us skip."
"'E's a 'oly terror," said Willett.
"A tough from Terror Flat!"