"You needn't. One of the river bosses is up here; he's getting his dinner now." "But dinner has been finished some time." "That don't count. We had pork to-day and the Mappin man figured he'd like trout, so I had to tell Yan Li to cook him some. If you want your plant brought up, you have to be civil to the transport people." The color swept into Andrew's face. "Bring the fellow here!" Watson grinned and called to a miner at work on the dump. The miner disappeared and presently came back with a man. "You sent for me, Mr. Allinson?" he said, as if he resented it. "I did," answered Andrew curtly. "You have a pump of ours which has been in your hands some time. I want it delivered here immediately." The man looked surprised at his tone. "We'll do what we can, but most of the boys are busy on the road." "Then you had better send them back to the canoes. Our supplies must not be stopped." "It's awkward," said the other. "You don't quite understand yet how things are run here, Mr. Allinson. You want to give and take." "I expect to understand them better soon," Andrew dryly rejoined. "What we want at present is the pump, and if it isn't here by next week I'll charge your employer with the extra expense we're being put to." "The office wouldn't allow your claim." "I won't make one," said Andrew. "I'll knock it off your bill. No accounts will be paid without my sanction." "Oh, well," said the other, "since you make a point of it, I'll get down the river right away and see where that pump is." He left them, and Watson looked at Carnally as they entered the mine. "And I thought he was an English sucker!" he remarked. "You were wrong," said Carnally. "You'll know Mr. Allinson better in a little while." Seeing that Andrew was waiting, Watson gave him a small flat lamp to hook in his hat, and they went down a narrow gallery. By the uncertain smoky light Andrew could see that it was strongly timbered: stout props were ranged along its sides, and beams, some cracked and sagging, spanned the roof between. The floor was wet and strewn with large fragments, which seemed to have fallen lately. Watson explained that they were working through treacherous rocks. Presently they stopped at the top of a dark hole, where a man was busy at a primitive windlass. "Lode dips sharply here," Watson explained. "We had to go down a bit, but we'll push on this heading. Pay dirt's badly broken up, but we'll fix things different when we strike it fair. It's pretty wet in the lower level; do you feel like going down?" Andrew put on the waterproof jacket that had been given him, and looked at the pit. A rough ladder ran down its side, but the man at the windlass turned to him as he emptied a big can into the drainage trench. "The rope's quicker and quite as safe," he said. "One of the Mappin boys made that ladder and fixed it wrong. Catch hold here and get a turn round your foot; you don't want to go through the bottom of the can."