Part 6 (1/2)
”No, but you thought it just the sas like that? What do you know about things here? You never saw the place until just a feeeks ago And you've been gone ever since I'll bet you were never in a fish cannery before in your life I'll bet right now you don't knohat you're going to do next You're waiting for Blair to get well and tell you Suppose he doesn't He's a hty sick man and it's a cinch if he does co to do in the ory held up his hand to check a further outburst
”Listen,” he said ”There is no use going on like this Our fathers were the best of friends Why can't we be the sa to admit there is a lot of truth in what you say about ht now I didn't select the position I's as they are and finish up the hich was begun byto finish it
”In a way,” he went on slowly, ”our positions are somewhat similar We each have a job to finish I didn't think yours h of course Isofine It ”
The fire died slowly froirl's eyes In its place there ca else When she spoke again the irritation was gone from her voice
”No,” she answered ”There isn't any reason e can't be friends And there are a lot of reasons e should be I'ory, that I do know my business It always makes me mad when any one thinks I don't know the sea When dad wanted to tease me he always called ht at that”
She paused a moment Then went on:
”I'd like to do what I can for you for two reasons Your father did a lot for ive his son a hand if it would help In the second place, it is to my interest in a business way to see your cannery succeed It is a market for my fish I won't sell to the Golden Rule and the dealers won't pay the express on canning fish The sooner you start up the better it will be for ain she paused and looked down at her feet When she spoke again it ith soet hold of Jack McCoy He can do more for you than any one else I wouldn't count tooand they didn't hold out much hope He's completely run down and that's the kind pneuory nodded
”I know,” he said Then he asked: ”McCoy was the foreave him a letter of recommendation but Jack won't look for another job until he knohat Blair is going to do He says Blair taught hi to stick to hiory wrote McCoy's address which the girl supplied and she continued:
”One of the first things to be done, of course, will be to go all over theThen the supplies and material will have to be checked over and the new stuff ordered That will take a week for two irl withof his business as well as her own Doubtless her association with her father had brought her into close touch with the cannery As she went on, dickie Lang divulged the source of her information
”Jack and I have talked you over a lot,” she said soberly ”We are both anxious to see you get going”
While she talked on concerning the re-opening of the cannery, Gregory wondered to what extent her opinion of McCoy's ability was based by personal prejudice Of course it was nothing to hiht of McCoy or of himself either, for that matter He decided to look McCoy up at once
”Then you have to get your labor,” she went on ”And that isn't as easy, I have found, as it seee on the labor situation around here He has the riff-raff of the world on his pay-roll They speak in a dozen different languages Everything allish They are practically all aliens and there is nothing they won't do to keep a decent et a crew, I know, and harder work to keep it He was always hiring and firing Things would go all right for a while Then there would coet disgusted and leave”
Gregory interrupted:
”I understand fros he had to contend as theto that in a minute Let's finish up the labor question while we're on it You've got to get a certain number of skilled men who can handle the machines With a few others who have worked in a fish cannery you can go ahead, for the biggest percentage of your labor is unskilled anyway and has to be broken in Men like that are the hardest to get,” she concluded, ”they are one to-et a bunch to stick, you're hty lucky”
She paused and moved her chair nearer Then she broached the important subject
”About the fish, you can do one of three things Or rather two things,”
she corrected, ”for I hardly think you'll tie up with Mascola You can fix up your own boats, try to et your own fish You have twenty-five boats That's not enough even if they were all in good shape, which they're not”