"
"You're a boy," sneered Croly, "and when the Tioga Iron Works has boys
put in as bosses, they'll have to turn off the men and run the whole
business with boys. That's all there is to it."
"Would you come here if my father was in charge?"
"It isn't likely I should."
"Then you admit that you have no right here?"
Croly was silent. It was plain enough to Larry what the matter was with
the young man. The truth was he had at some time been temporarily in
charge of a small portable or "donkey" engine, such as are used for
hoisting purposes in stone quarries and in other out-of-door work, and
he was incapable of recognizing the difference between the simple
construction of such a machine and the complicated work in the great
motive-power of the Tioga Iron Works.
Larry was a slow-spoken boy, and correspondingly slow in making a
decision. But when his mind was really made up, he was equally slow to
change it.
He looked at the clock, and then at his own watch. In one minute the
next whistle would blow, and then the engine must be started.
The door leading to the boiler-room had been left open by Croly, and it
had glass panels, through which Joe Cuttle could be seen hard at work,
feeding the hungry furnaces.
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