YOU'LL HAVE TO SHOW ME
The sky was reddening in the east when the last of the nets were pulled
aboard. Rounding Long Point, the _Petrel_ took up the homeward track as
the sun peeped over the low brown hills and caressed the sea. Dickie
Lang looked back at the wreck of the _Roma_ and the light of victory
died slowly from her eyes.
"I'm not sorry for Mascola," she exclaimed. "He got only what was coming
to him. But I am sorry for the little boat. She was a good little scout
and she was game to the end. You'll find that boats are a good deal like
people," she went on, "when you know them as well as I do. Some of them
are cranky and have to be coaxed along. Others are just plain lazy and
must be pounded on the back. And there are some that are treacherous and
the minute they get you in a tight place, they will lay down cold."
Her last words gave her the cue to continue: "And the ocean is full of
tight places. Mascola found himself in one this morning. He had the
sense to realize it and act before it was too late. It went against his
grain to be beaten by a girl. But by cashing in when he did, he saved a
boat perhaps. So he put his pride in his pocket. Sometimes you've got
to do that," she concluded seriously. "It hurts. But it's business."
Gregory's face showed his surprise at her annunciation of the business
principle and, sensing that her admission might become embarrassing at
some future time, the girl changed the subject abruptly.
"Did you see McCoy yesterday?" she asked.
"Yes. We had a long talk last night. He's coming to work for me as
house-foreman."
"That's fine," Dickie commended. "You'll like him. He'll be just the man
for you."
Gregory nodded. "Yes," he answered. "I think we'll get on fine when we
understand each other better."
"What do you mean? You haven't had a row with Jack already, have you?"
"Not exactly. Just a difference of opinion. I had an idea I worked out
yesterday. McCoy couldn't see it."
"What was the idea?"
"It was a plan I had for getting labor. I wanted to hire a certain class
of men. McCoy didn't."
"How did it come out?"
"I'm going to hire them, of course. I told McCoy if he didn't like it,
he could take the job or leave it. He decided to take it."
"It's the foreman's job to hire the help," the girl observed. "What was
your plan?"
Gregory looked the girl full in the eyes for a moment. Then he began:
"I'm going to organize my business on a cooperative basis, make my
employees partners, pay them a graduated minimum wage and a share in the
profits which will be held back as a bonus to make it worth their while
to stick with me during the season."
"And McCoy thought it wouldn't work?"
"Yes."
"Neither do I."
"Why not?"
Dickie knew the question was coming and was already prepared to give her
reasons.
"When a man works for you," she explained, "he wants his money every
Saturday night. He's earned it and he should have it. He may leave the
minute it's in his fingers and hit the grit again. But he's worked a
week at least and that's something. If he thinks you're holding out on
him to get him to stick, he wouldn't even start."
"That is what McCoy said. But you are both wrong. The men I am figuring
on hiring will stick. That is why I am hiring them."
"Don't think much of a bunch like that," Dickie commented. "A man that
can't get a job to-day is a bum. And the fellow doesn't live that ever
gets through knocking around. That is if he's a real man."
"You're wrong again," Gregory contradicted. "They are eighteen-carat
men. I've tried them out already. I know."
"Where?"
"In France."
"You mean soldiers?"
"Yes. I called up a friend of mine last night in Port Angeles. He used
to be first lieutenant in my company. He's a reporter on _The Times_
now. Hawkins told me a lot of the boys were out of work and he promised
to look up a number of addresses of men in my old outfit. To-morrow I'm
going to the city to round them up. They've stood by me before in many a
tight place. It cost them a lot sometimes. But they stuck just the same.
Now I've got a chance to stick by them. And I'm going to do it because I
know they'll come up to the scratch."
The girl was impressed by the earnestness of his words. He meant well of
course. It was a splendid idea but----
She voiced her objections. "You'll find business is a different game
from war."
"Perhaps. But in both there is hard fighting. And when you are going
into a scrap with all you've got, you want men behind you you can bank
on."
"I wouldn't bank on them too strong. A lot of the ones I've seen think
they're too good to work at an ordinary job. They have an idea the war
has made them worth a lot more money than they really are. They like to
tell what great things they've done. But when it comes to----"
"I've seen that kind, too. On both sides of the water. Over there no one
depended on them. They were shunted from pillar to post until they hit a
place where they couldn't even hear the guns. When the war was over
they came back. They were whole. And they talked."
He paused for a moment and looked down at the deck. Then he went on in a
low voice: "The kind I'm figuring on are not whole. And they don't
talk."
Dickie Lang said no more. When a man spoke with such depth of feeling,
what was the use of trying to talk him out of it. Of course he was
wrong. But he'd just have to find it out for himself. In silence they
neared the entrance to the bay and threaded their way among the
fishing-boats as they drew up to the Lang wharf. Gregory roused himself
at the sight of the Lang dock and turned to the girl.
"You took me out this morning," he said, "to show me you knew your
business. Now it's up to me to show you I know mine. I'm going right to
work. I expect a hard fight, but I'll tell you right now this idea of
mine is going to win out."
Dickie smiled as they drew alongside the dock.
"Go to it," she said. "I won't say you're wrong. But you'll certainly
have to show me."