“Why didn't you cable him instead of writing me?” fretfully. “I don't know what he will want, only it's pretty certain to be the very thing I sha'n't think of.”
“I would have cabled him if I had considered it necessary, but it never occurred to me that my resignation would not be agreed to on the spot, as my presence in Antioch only widens the breach and increases the difficulty of a settlement with the men.”
“Whom did you leave in charge?” inquired Holloway.
“Holt.”
“Who's he?”
“He's Kerr's assistant,” Dan explained.
“Why didn't you leave Kerr in charge?” demanded the vice-president.
“I laid him off,” said Dan, in a tone of exasperation, and then he added, to forestall more questions: “He was in sympathy with the men, and he hadn't the sense to keep it to himself. I couldn't be bothered with him, so I got rid of him.”
“Well, I must say you have made a frightful mess of the whole business, Oakley, but I told General Cornish from the first that you hadn't the training for the position.”
Dan turned very red in the face at this, but he let it pass.