“Foreman?”
“That's right, sir.” “Too blanked smart!” “Buttin' in like a blank billy goat!” The growls came in various undertones from the Committee.
“What foreman? Hoddle?” The boss was ready to fight for his subalterns.
“No! Old Hoddle's all right,” said Gilby. “It's that young smart aleck, Tony Perrotte.”
“Tony Perrotte!” Mr. Maitland's voice was troubled and uncertain. “Tony Perrotte! Why, you don't mean to tell me that Perrotte is not a good man. He knows his job from the ground up.”
“Knows too much,” said Gilby. “Wants to run everything and everybody. You can't tell him anything. And you'd think he was a Brigadier-General to hear him giving us orders.”
“You were at the front, Gilby?”
“I was, for three years.”
“You know what discipline is?”
“I do that, and I know too the difference between a Corporal and a Company Commander. I know an officer when I see him. But a brass hat don't make a General.”