"Sit down," said Martin, indicating a camp-chair, and then beckoned one of the men. "Bring some green bark and fix that smudge."
The man put fresh fuel on a smoldering fire and pungent blue smoke drifted about the tent.
"Better than mosquitoes; they're pretty fierce, evenings," Martin remarked. "Will you take a cigar?"
"No, thanks," said Jim. "I'll light my pipe."
He cut the tobacco slowly, because he did not know where to open his attack. Martin was not altogether the man he had thought and looked amused. He was a bushman; Jim knew the type, which was not, as a rule, marked by the use of small trickery. Yet Martin could handle money as well as he handled tools.
"Won't you state your business?" the contractor asked.
"I expect you and the Cartner people didn't like it when we got the telegraph job?"
"That is so. We thought the job was ours," Martin admitted.
"And you got to work to take it from us?"
"To begin with, Probyn, Cartner's man, offered us a thousand dollars to quit."
"A pretty good price," said Martin. "Since you didn't go, I don't see why you are bothering me."
"It looks as if you and Cartner had pooled your interests. When we got to work, your man, Davies, came along and tried to hold us up. It was not his fault he didn't; the fellow's a crook."
"I haven't studied his character. In some ways, he's useful," Martin rejoined coolly. "Well, you reckon I sent him! How did he try to embarrass you?"
Martin's face was inscrutable; one could not tell if he knew or not. It was curious, but Jim could not take it for granted that he did know and he told him about the broken wall.
"You imagine Davies paid the fellow to cut your underpinning?" the contractor remarked.
"Then I don't understand why you came to me. There's not much advantage in telling your antagonist he has hit you pretty hard."
"I wanted you to understand that you hadn't hit us hard enough. Your blow was not a knockout, and we mean to guard against the next. We have taken the contract and are going to put it over; I want you to get that. You can't scare us off, and while I don't know if you can smash us or not, it will certainly cost you high. Hadn't you better calculate if the thing's worth while?"
"You were far North for some time," Martin said carelessly.
