"Well," he said gruffly to the electrician. "Shall I quit now or wait
until Saturday?"

"What?"

"Shall I git out now or wait till Saturday night? I suppose you'll have
me fired."

Then Hazeltine's pent-up rage boiled over.

"If you mean that I'll tell Mr. Langley of your cowardly trick and have
you discharged--No! I don't pay my debts that way. But I'll tell you
this,--you and your sneaking friends. If you try another game like
that,--yes, or if you so much as speak to me, other than on business
while I'm here, I WILL fire you--out of the window. Clear out!"

"Mr. Hazeltine," said Captain Eri a few moments later, "I hope you don't
mind my sayin' that I like you fust-rate. Me and Perez and Jerry ain't
the biggest bugs in town, but we like to have our friends come and see
us. I wish you'd drop in once 'n a while."

"I certainly will," said the young man, and the two shook hands. That
vigorous handshake was enough of itself to convince Ralph Hazeltine that
he had made, at any rate, one friend in Orham.

And we may as well add here that he had made two. For that evening Jack
McLoughlin said to his fellow conspirators:

"He said he'd fire me out of the window,--ME, mind you! And, by thunder!