human
This is a great improvement, he declared.
gpt
Will you tell Lucien to pitch our tent where there's shelter?
human
As you wish, said Carnally.
gpt
I had figured on our sleeping and getting breakfast in the shack.
human
Heavens, no!
gpt
I've recovered enough to feel curious. How did the accident happen? The men who use it must know that the fumes of giant-powder are dangerous; why didn't they wait?
human
It might be better if I let the man responsible explain.
gpt
Mr. Allinson wants to know why you didn't keep the boys back until the fumes had cleared.
human
I gave them about the usual time; but it looks as if I'd cut it too fine. Guess the damp and there being no wind stopped the gas from getting away. Besides, we're not using a high-grade powder.
gpt
But if there was any doubt, couldn't you have given them another few minutes?
human
I had to hold up a dozen men while that shot was fired, and the rain has kept us back lately. Now a boss contractor knows how many yards of dirt a man can move in a day and how much rock you ought to shift with a stick of giant-powder. It's easy figuring how far the road should be pushed ahead for the money spent, and I've got to keep up to schedule.
gpt
Then no allowances are made?
human
No, sir; not on a Mappin job. You have to put through the work or get!
gpt
Is the shack these fellows live in better or worse than the average?
human
Worse. The boys are often quite comfortably fixed.
gpt
What about the food?
human
You can judge for yourself, Carnally drawled.
gpt
It's the meanest hash I ever struck; and you want to remember it's no fault of the cook's. The stuff is mighty bad when a Chinaman can't dish it up fit to eat.
human
Are the men boarded free?
gpt
Not much! They pay about six dollars a week; and it's enough. Now, as a rule, an employer doesn't look for a profit on the grub; taking camps all round, the boys get pretty good value for their money.
human
Then it looks as if this one were an exception, said Andrew.
gpt
Why do they employ so many Scandinavians?
human
They get them cheap: catch them newly landed, anxious for a job, before they find out what they ought to have. A dollar looks big after a kroner. That's my notion, but we'll see if it's right. He called a Canadian workman.
gpt
What would you fix a road-maker's wages at, Jim?
human
You ought to know. A good chopper and shoveler would get up to two-fifty, so long as he was west of cleared Ontario.
gpt
Two dollars and a-half a day, Carnally repeated to Andrew in emphasis, and addressed the man again:
human
What are you making now?
gpt
Dollar, seventy-five. I was cleaned out when I took the job. These blamed Dutchmen get one-fifty. The Mappin crowd's the meanest I've ever been up against.
human
That leaves them three dollars a week for clothing and all expenses, Andrew observed, when the workman went away.
gpt
Considering what things cost in Canada, it isn't a great deal. Mappin seems a hard master. Do you know anything about him?
human
He's a smart man, said Carnally with a smile.
gpt
I met him for the first time when I hired out with your Company, but I heard that he hadn't a dollar a few years ago. He paused and added:
human
In fact, I've wondered where he got the capital to finance this job.