“You don’t want one any longer. You’ve got one now. You are hired with Dan Tussock, at one hundred and fifty per! And, by the eternal jumpin’ crickets! two hundred, if you keep me from making a gosh blamed fool of myself. Two hundred a month, do you hear? Start at one hundred and fifty, as time-keeper, book-keeper, anything you like! You show him the ropes tomorrow morning, eh, Con? We need ’im.”
“Yes,” replied Con, “we need someone, sure thing. We need him bad, you know that, Dan.”
“Know it?” replied Dan. “Con, you hear me, I am on my last chance. Three out, all out, with me. This young fellow is sound timber, white pine, no knots, no chicks, straight grain. I know ’im. I’m makin’ ’im my keeper. By Jingo! I will make him my treasurer. I won’t draw no money without his signature, so help me, great Jehoshaphat! We will start him at one hundred and fifty per, and two hundred if he makes good on the job of keeping me straight, with an increase every quarter. I am on the biggest thing I ever struck in my lifetime, and this time I’m going to make good. But I sure want a keeper. And he looks to me like one. Good-bye, Con. Get the men out on that Heights job and push it like all possessed. I’ll be there some time, when Paul here gets me on my feet. That’s his job.” Tussock broke into an explosive shout of laughter. “You’ll earn your money, boy.”
“I’m not hired yet, Mr. Tussock,” said Paul quietly.
“What? Don’t you want a job?”
“Yes, I want a job. Time-keeper? Yes. Book-keeper? Yes. Man-keeper? No.”
“Why not? Somehow I just know you can keep me straight.”
“No,” said Paul sharply. “How can I keep you straight? No man can keep another man straight.”
“Look here, young fellow, I mean this.” Tussock’s voice was very solemn. “I have made and lost two fortunes. I have a chance now of a third. But what’s the use? When I get a roll in my pants, these blood-suckers smell it like a rat does cheese. Oh, I don’t blame them, it ain’t their fault, it’s my own. And sometimes I think it ain’t no use tryin’.” He rolled over, with his face to the wall. “I feel like it’s no good. I might as well quit. When I am on a big job I’m all right; when I’m through, with my money in my pocket, I am a fool.”
The helplessness in his voice touched the boy’s heart. “I can keep your money for you,” he said, “if you give me the authority. But——”