"What made you quit?"
"I haven't exactly quit, but I'm going to. When I saw you coming up the dock I said: 'There's the chief! Now he'll want me.' So I began to pack." The speaker dangled his partly filled war-bag as evidence. In an even sourer tone he murmured:
"Ain't that just me? I ain't had a day's luck since Lincoln was shot. The minute I get a good job along you come and spoil it."
"I don't want you," laughed O'Neil.
But Slater was not convinced. He shook his head.
"Oh yes, you do. You've got something on or you wouldn't be here. I've been drawing pay from you now for over five minutes."
O'Neil made a gesture of impatience.
"No! No! In the first place, I have nothing for you to do; in the second place, I probably couldn't afford the wages Gordon is paying you."
"That's the hell of it!" gloomily agreed "Happy Tom." "Where are your grips? I'll begin by carrying them."
"I haven't any. I've been shipwrecked. Seriously, Tom, I have no place for you."