listenin' to him, and think you can come to me and grumble, by God--"

"That's all right, sir," put in Hal, quickly. "I'll manage that for
you--I'll shut him up. If you'd like me to, I'll see what fellows he
talks with, and if any of them are trying to make trouble, I'll tip you
off."

"Now that's the talk," said the boss, promptly. "You do that, and I'll
keep my eye on you and give you a chance. Not that I'm afraid of the old
fellow--I told him last time that if I heard from him again, I'd kick
the breeches off him. But when you got half a thousand of this foreign
scum, some of them Anarchists, and some of them Bulgars and Montynegroes
that's been fightin' each other at home--"

"I understand," said Hal. "You have to watch 'em."

"That's it," said the pit-boss. "And by the way, when you tell the
store-clerk about that fifteen dollars, just say you lost it at poker."

"I said ten dollars," put in Hal, quickly.

"Yes, I know," responded the other. "But _I_ said fifteen!"



SECTION 22.

Hal told himself with satisfaction that he was now to do the real work
of coal-mining. His imagination had been occupied with it for a long
time; but as so often happens in the life of man, the first contact with