"
"Very well, Sanny. Just go on. I did not know you had lost them. But
just let me hear about the trouble in your own way."
"For gey near twenty year," began Sanny, "I've had maist feck o' the
contracts in your pits back and forrit--me an' Tam Fleming. Walker an'
us were aye gey thick, an' though it maybe was putten doon to you that
oor offer to work ony special job was the cheapest, I may tell you that
I never put in an offer in my life for yin o' them. Walker an'--an'"
here Sanny stammered a little, "Walker an' oor Mag were gey thick, an'
I'm ashamed o' this part o' the story; for I should hae been man enough
to protect her frae him. But the money was the thing that did it, Mr.
Rundell, an' I'm no' gaun to mak' excuses noo aboot it. But every
bargain I had, I had to share the pay, efter the men was payed, penny
aboot, wi' Walker. That was ay the bargain. He gaed us the job at his
ain feegure, an' we shared the profits wi' him.
"Noo, jist keep yoursel' cool a bit," he said, holding up his hand as
Rundell made to speak. "We did gey well," he resumed in his even
monotone, like a man who was repeating something he had learned by
heart.
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