A paltry ten dollars where he had looked for a hundred! What would Armitage and the others say? What would they think of him? Peter’s voice trembled in shrill, indignant protest:
“This isn’t fair, Morris! It isn’t honest! It isn’t—isn’t decent! Why, you promised a hundred, and I—we all counted on it; and now—now you give me this measly little ten!”
Morris swung slowly round and stared in bewilderment.
“Well!” he muttered, in awestruck tones.
“You ought to do more than this for the crew!” Peter went on, waving the check wildly in air. “You can afford to give what you promised, and—and by jiminy, you’ve got to!”
“Got to!” growled the other. He drew himself from the chair until he towered above Peter like a step-ladder above a footstool. He put his hands in the pockets of his jacket and looked down in frowning amusement. “Got to!” he repeated.
Peter’s face blanched from pale to the perfect whiteness of newly fallen snow, but he held his ground. His voice broke, but he answered:
“Yes.”
Morris laughed and slapped Peter on the shoulder.