“I see,” said Hal. “Who owns the house?”
“Sure, there's none but company houses here.”
“Who's supposed to fix it?”
“Mr. Kosegi, the house-agent. But we gave him up long ago—if he does anything, he raises the rent. Today my father went to Mr. Cotton. He's supposed to look out for the health of the place, and it seems hardly healthy to keep people wet in their beds.”
“And what did Cotton say?” asked Hal, when she stopped again.
“Well, don't ye know Jeff Cotton—can't ye guess what he'd say? 'That's a fine girl ye got, Burke! Why don't ye make her listen to reason?' And then he laughed, and told me old father he'd better learn to take a hint. 'Twas bad for an old man to sleep in the rain—he might get carried off by pneumonia.”
Hal could no longer keep back the question, “What did your father do?”
“I'd not have ye think hard of my old father,” she said, quickly. “He used to be a fightin' man, in the days before O'Callahan had his way with him. But now he knows what a camp-marshal can do to a miner!”
SECTION 20.
Mary Burke had said that the company could stand breaking the bones of its men; and not long after Number Two started up again, Hal had a chance to note the truth of this assertion.