The man from his own gang who had invited him on the trip came up to them, bringing Sam a foaming glass of beer. He shook his head.
“The doctor says it will not do,” he explained to the two men.
The red-haired man called Jake began talking.
“We are going to have a fight with Ed,” he said. “That’s what we came up here to talk about. We want to know where you stand. We are going to see if we can’t make him pay as well for the work here as men are paid for the same work in Chicago.”
Sam lay back upon the grass.
“All right,” he said. “Go ahead. If I can help I will. I’m not so fond of Ed.”
The men began talking among themselves. Jake, standing among them, read aloud a list of names among which was the name Sam had written on the register at Ed’s hotel.
“It’s a list of the names of men we think will stick together and vote together on the bond issue,” he explained, turning to Sam. “Ed’s in that and we want to use our votes to scare him into giving us what we want. Will you stay with us? You look like a fighter.”
Sam nodded and getting up joined the men about the beer kegs. They began talking of Ed and of the money he had made in the town.
“He’s done a lot of town work here and there’s been graft in all of it,” explained Jake emphatically. “It’s time he was being made to do the right thing.”