“That’s all right,” he said, “I’ll quit you in ha’f an hour.  Say—­I’m kind of guessin’ there’s other representatives of the Skandinavia around.  I didn’t guess ther’ was much to Sachigo that I wasn’t wise to.  But that boy, Skert Lawton, showed me a play I hadn’t a notion about.  It’s that darn play shanty I set up for the boys.  I feel that mad about it I got a notion closing it right down.  It worried me startin’ it.  It worries me more now.  You see, I guess it’s come of me lappin’ up the ha’f-baked notions you find wrote in the news-sheets.  Folks seem to be guessin’ the worker needs somethin’ more than his wage.  They guess he’s gotten some sort of queer soul needin’ things he can’t pay for.  I allow I hadn’t seen it that way myself.  It mostly seemed to me a hell of a good wage and a full belly was mostly the need of a lumber-jack, and a dead sure thing all he deserved.  But I fell for the news-sheet dope, an’ set up that cursed recreation shanty.  Now we’re goin’ to git trouble.”

“How?”

Bull’s ejaculation was sharp.

“They hold meetings there.  They dope out Capital and Labour stuff there, instead of pushing games at each other.  Guess they got the bug of politics an’ are scratching themselves bad.  It ain’t the old Labrador guys, Skert says.  It’s mostly new hands passin’ their stuff on.  Skert reckons we got a whole heap of the Skandinavia ‘throw-outs,’ around here now.  That don’t say Skandinavia’s workin’ monkey tricks.  Though they might be.  You see, this sort of dope’s been talked most everywhere, except on Labrador, years now.  I guess we need to go through the bunch with a louse comb.  But maybe the mischief’s done.  I’m dead crazy to shut that darn place down.”

“Don’t!” Bull was emphatic.  “Shut it down and you’ll make it a thousand times worse.  No, sir.  Let ’em shout.  Let ’em blow off any old steam they need.  Just sit tight.  If it’s the usual hot air there’s nothing much coming of it up here on Labrador.  There’s this to remember.  We’re a thousand miles of hell’s own winter, and a pretty tough sea, from the politicians who spend their lives befooling a crowd of unthinking muttons.  Pay ’em well, and feed ’em well, and they’ve the horse sense to know there ain’t no electric stoves out in the Labrador forests in winter.  That way we don’t need to worry.  If it’s the Skandinavia tricks it’s different.  They’ll play the game to the finish.  It don’t signify a curse if you close down the recreation shanty or not.  We’ve got to meet it as a competition, and fight it the way we’d fight any other.”

Bat’s eyes snapped.

“That’s the kind of dope Skert Lawton’s handed me,” he protested.

“And Skert’s a wise guy,” came the prompt retort.

Quite suddenly Bat flung out his gnarled hands.