"Thrue for ye!" said he. "And what have ye been doing all these
years?"
"That's just it, Jimmy," said Orde, drawing the giant one side, out
of ear-shot. "All my eggs are in one basket, and it's a mean trick
of you to hire out for filthy lucre to kick that basket."
"What do ye mane?" asked the Rough Red, fixing his twinkling little
eyes on Orde.
"You don't mean to tell me," countered Orde, glancing down at the
other's rubber-shod feet, "that this crew has been sent up here just
to break out those measly little rollways?"
"Thim?" said the Rough Red. "Thim? Hell, NO! Thim's my bodyguard.
They can lick their weight in wild cats, and I'd loike well to see
the gang of highbankers that infists this river thry to pry thim
out. We weren't sint here to wurrk; we were sint here to foight."
"Fight? Why?" asked Orde.
"Oh, I dunno," replied the Rough Red easily. "Me boss and the blank
of a blank blanked blank that's attimptin' to droive this river has
some sort of a row."
"Jimmy," said Orde, "didn't you know that I am the gentleman last
mentioned?"
"What!"
"I'm driving this river, and that's my dam-keeper you've got hid
away somewhere here, and that's my water you're planning to waste!"
"What?" repeated the Rough Red, but in a different tone of voice.
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