"And you're not goin' to fill the boss's own caligeography, or whatever you call it?" reiterated the Irishman.
"No!"
"Wouldn't that rattle ye?" exclaimed Dan to his friend.
"It do," conceded the Swede, who put his hand into his pocket and tossed fifteen cents on to the counter.
"Well,—give us ten cents chewing tobacco, and a packet of gum."
I filled this cash order and immediately thereafter the two walked out of the store and sailed away without another word or even a look behind them.
I was worried over the incident, for I did not like to think myself in any way instrumental in depriving the men of anything they might require for their supper, and it was farthest from my desires to stop or even hamper the work at Camp No. 2. But I had been warned that there was only one way to operate a business and that was on business lines, according to plan, so my conscience would not permit of any other course than the one I had taken.
Had the store been my own, I might have acted differently, but it was merely held by me in trust, which was quite another matter.
Next forenoon, a tug blew her whistle and put into the Bay, coming-to on the far side of Rita's Isle. A little later, as I stood behind the counter writing up some fresh orders to the wholesalers, to replenish my dwindling stock, a dinghy, with one man at the oars and another sitting in the stern, appeared round the Island and pointed straight for the wharf.
The oarsman ran the nose of the boat on the beach and remained where he was. The man who had been sitting in the stern sprang out and came striding in the direction of the store.