"My
trouble is that I have never been in one.
"I suppose you've no tryde?" asked Hemstead.
"I know how to spend money," replied Carthew, "and I
really do know something of horses and something of the
sea. But the unions head me off; if it weren't for
them, I might have had a dozen berths."
"My word!" cried the sympathetic listener. "Ever try
the mounted police?" he inquired.
I did, and was bowled out," was the reply; "couldn't
pass the doctors."
"Well, what do you think of the ryleways, then?" asked
Hemstead.
"What do YOU think of them, if you come to that?"
asked Carthew.
"O, I don't think of them; I don't go in for manual
labour," said the little man proudly. "But if a man
don't mind that, he's pretty sure of a job there."
"By George, you tell me where to go!" cried Carthew,
rising.
The heavy rains continued, the country was already
overrun with floods; the railway system daily required
more hands, daily the superintendent advertised; but
"the unemployed " preferred the resources of charity
and rapine, and a navvy, even an amateur navvy,
commanded money in the market.
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