"That's the last job that sneakin' Duffy
and Dan McGaw'll ever put up on me. Oh, but ye should'a' minded
the face on him, Gran'pop!"--untying her hood and breaking into a
laugh so contagious in its mirth that even Babcock joined in
without knowing what it was all about.
As she spoke, Tom stood facing her father, hood and ulster off,
the light of the windows silhouetting the splendid lines of her
well-rounded figure, with its deep chest, firm bust, broad back,
and full throat, her arms swinging loose and free.
"Ye see," she said, turning to Babcock, "that man Duffy tried to
do me,--he's the sergeant at the fort--and Dan McGaw--ye know
him--he's the divil that wanted to work for ye. Ye know I always
had the hauling of the coal at the fort, an' I want to hold on to
it, for it comes every year. I've been a-watchin' for this coal
for a month. Every October there's a new contractor, and this
time it was me friend Mr. Crane I've worked for before. So I sees
Duffy about it the other day, an' he says, 'Well, I think ye
better talk to the quartermaster, who's away, but who'll be home
next week.' An' that night when I got home, there lay a letter
from Mr. Crane, wid another letter inside it Sergeant Duffy had
sent to Mr. Crane, sayin' he'd recommend Dan McGaw to do the
stevedorin'--the sneakin' villain--an' sayin' that he--Duffy--was
a-goin' to inspect the coal himself, an' if his friend Dan McGaw
hauled it, the quality would be all right.
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