Part 4 (1/2)
”It's enough,” co to hold his temper in check at the impudence of Mascola's proposal Any one of the four clauses he realized would be amply sufficient to throw him into bankruptcy The first would place him in the hands of his local competitor, a Slavonian The last would deliver all that was left to the fisherners By the second clause his property would be placed in jeopardy to protect the carelessness or incoory did not clearly understand To satisfy his curiosity he asked:
”What do youto pay the fines?”
Mascola s a fine set of even teeth
”You are a stranger here I forgot So you do not know that it is necessary for fisheret fish The canneries et the the laws it is so much the better But sometimes when you have steam up you want fish very bad Then you say, Mascola, I et theht in soood deal to you at such a time
Why should you not pay for the extra risk we run in getting theenious,” he coo to such extremes often?”
Mascola sensed the sarcasan to suspect that the youngeither him or his proposition seriously Perhaps he had said too much He answered the question with one word
”No”
Gregory studied Mascola's face and his smile faded His irritation at the Italian's entrance had at first given place to amuseain the feeling of dislike which had assailed hi with Mascola
”Mascola,” he said, ”I'll keep your proposition in uess, though I'll talk it over with Blair”
The Italian frowned at the one Had not Rossi reported the departure of the for-block to his scheme Blair knew too much Mascola realized that he had been too confident He felt, moreover, that he had erit down
”All right, Mr Gregory,” he said smoothly ”I make my proposition I coht Next ti to hide his anger, he went out
Gregory turned again to his work, but found it hard to keep his ered hiround His irritation grew as his eye fell again on the Lang contract If he only had so about fishi+ng or running a cannery Soainst His father evidently had few if any confidants If he had only left some written word
Froon of unintelligible words Gregory sprang to his feet and hurried out Heto meet him Behind him trooped the alien laborers
The Italian stopped abruptly and threw out his ar in the direction of the solitary soldier who stood staring with open ory You let that ory spoke quickly and tried to s his temper would not help matters That wasn't business
Mascola spoke rapidly to thehis eyes Gregory noticed that every one see faces, the alien laborers grouped the soldier and his boss
Gregory checked a quick iht of everyThere was, however, nothing to get excited over He turned to Mascola
”Tell your et their money,” he said
His quiet manner disappointed the Italian boss He had hoped for a scene An argument at least His ory had cal away
Mascola could stand no o ahead and hire a scab crew
Then you'll find out you're the saory whirled Mascola's hand leaped to his side, burying itself in the folds of his shi+rt Before he could bring it out, Kenneth Gregory was upon hiht Mascola full on the chin The Italian's head snapped backward His feet shot forward He clutched at the air for support and strove to regain his balance Then he fell to the floor, rolled over like a cat, and rebounded to his feet, snarling