“You’re through with this job, as I just did you the honor to inform you,” Tom responded quietly.  “To-morrow Mr. Renshaw will pay you off up to date.”

“If I’m bounced, then you’ll pay me for the balance of the month, anyway!” snarled the foreman defiantly.  “You can’t drop me without notice like that.”

“You’ll be paid to date only,” Tom retorted.  “You’ve been discharged for wilful and serious neglect of duty, and you’re not entitled to pay for the balance of the month.”

“All right, then,” retorted the other hotly.  “I’ll collect my money through the courts.  I’ll show you!”

“Just as you please,” Reade replied indifferently.  “But I imagine any court will consider seven dollars a day pretty large pay for a man who goes to sleep on duty.”

“See here, I’ll—–­”

“You’ll keep quiet, Evarts, or you’ll go overboard,” Reade interrupted significantly.  “I happen to know that you can swim, so I won’t be bothered with you here if you insist on making a nuisance of yourself.”

Mr. Renshaw, having been relieved at the engine, now came forward.

“Mr. Renshaw,” directed the young chief engineer, “as soon after daylight as it is convenient for you you’ll pay Evarts off in full to date and let him go.  He threatens to sue if he is not paid to the end of the month, but if he wants to we’ll let the courts do our worrying.”

“All right, sir,” nodded the superintendent.

Evarts had dropped into a seat just forward of the engine.  He sat there, regarding Tom Reade with a baleful look of hate.

“You’re a success, all right, at one thing, and that’s making enemies,” muttered the discharged foreman under his breath.

Besides attending to the wheel Tom now reached out with one hand and switched on the search-light, which he manipulated with one hand.  Shortly he found the spot where the portion of the wall had been blown away by the first explosion.  A hundred and fifty yards farther out he beheld the work of the second explosion.  Some seventy-five yards in length was the new open space, where at least as much of the retaining wall as was visible above the water had been blown out.

“Slow down, Cordon,” ordered Tom.  “All we want is headway.”

“All right, sir.”

Tom drifted in within a few feet of the former site of the retaining wall.  The “Morton” moved slowly by, Tom, by the aid of the searchlight, noting the extent of the disaster.

“Get back aft, Evarts,” ordered the young engineer, turning and beholding the late foreman.  “We don’t want you here.”

For a moment or two it looked as though Evarts would refuse.  Then, with a growl, he rose and picked his way aft.  By this time the other men who had been in his gang were awake.  They regarded their former foreman with no great display of sympathy.