human
I guess we could eat more, but it wouldn't be prudent, he said as he shared out the food.
gpt
Your lode's about a hundred miles off yet, isn't it, Graham?
human
Yes, as near as I can calculate.
gpt
Call it six days; a fortnight anyhow before we get back here, and that won't allow much time for thawing out and shot-firing. Then we'll have to reach our first cache before the grub runs out. It's going to be a blamed tight fit.
human
I'd like to have the brute who cut our rations short up here to-night! Blast his greed! It's an infamous thing that a man should make money by starving his fellow creatures!
gpt
They seem to consider it legitimate in the cities, said Graham dryly.
human
We have mergers controlling almost everything we eat and drink, and men get rich by bull deals in the wheat pits. However, your sentiments are not exactly new. What do you think, Jake? I haven't heard you on politics.
gpt
As it looks as if I'm going to be hungry, I'm a hard-shelled grit--something like your Radicals, he explained to Andrew.
human
But if I thought we could get a good one, I'd prefer being governed by an emperor. So far as my experience goes, one live man can run things much better than a crowd, and it's a poor mine or railroad boss who can't beat a board of directors.
gpt
That's so, Graham assented.
human
They're most capable when they let one of them drive the lot. But there's the trouble that you might get the wrong kind of emperor. It's hard to tell a good man until he gets to work.
gpt
Sure! agreed Carnally.
human
If you're not pleased with the Laurier gang, you can fire them out, and then you might not find the other crowd much better. But if a bad emperor meant to stay with it, you'd have to use dynamite.