Slimak discovered the Hamers in the crowd.
'Nice neighbours you are!' he said bitterly, going up to them. 'Here you are sending all the way to the village for carts, and you won't let me have a job.'
'We will send for you when you are living in the village,' Fritz answered, and turned his back.
An elderly gentleman was standing near them, and Slimak turned to him and took off his cap.
'Is this justice, sir?' he said. 'The Germans are getting rich on the railway, and I don't earn a kopek. Last year two gentlemen came and promised that I should make a lot of money. Well, your honours are building the railway now, but I've never yet taken my horses out of the stable. A German with thirty acres of ground is having a good job, and I have only ten acres and a wife and children to keep, as well as the farmhand and the girl. We shall have to starve, and it's all because the Germans have a grudge against me.'
He had spoken rapidly and breathlessly, and after a moment of surprise the old man turned to Fritz Hamer.
'Why did you not take him on?'
Fritz looked insolently at him.
'Is it you who has to answer for the cartage or I? Will you pay my fines when the men fail me? I take on those whom I can trust.'
The old man bit his lip, but did not reply.