There'll be five a day extra in it--that'll buy grub for
the goat."

"Cap'n, yessuh--you means I'se fo'man?"

"That's what I mean. Keep your niggers rustlin'."

"Yass suh! Sho' will!" The Wildcat jerked at Lily's string halter.
"Goat, say you'se 'bliged to de cap'n. Stan' roun' theh, fo' I shows
you who's de boss wid a club!"

"Blaaa!" returned Lily.

The pier foreman smiled. "You might round up some more men if you can
find 'em," he continued. "We can use a lot more. I'll give you twenty
dollars a man for all you can get. Tell 'em ten a day, with grub and
quarters furnished here on the dock."

"Cap'n, you means I gits twenty dollars fo' ev'y stevedo' nigger whut I
'cumulates?"

"That's it."

"How much is a hund'ed niggers, suh?"

"Two thousand dollars."

"Cap'n, you gits 'em tomorr'. Us kin rule dat many single handed--me
'suadin' an' Lily rammin'. Mebbe two hund'ed. Come on heah, goat! Le's
go!"

The Wildcat left the pier with visions of a military formation of a
million men, marching steadily toward a place where they were worth
twenty dollars apiece to him. In his dream of being king of all labour
agents he failed to include the difficulties with which his pathway was
beset. The stevedores' strike, gaining strength each day, now included
a floating committee whose duty it was to discourage the enlistment of
new labour.

The Wildcat borrowed a dollar and ate supper at the lunch counter where
he had met Trombone, hoping that he might again encounter that
individual. Ranged about him were ten or fifteen hearty eaters; and to
this group, at the termination of his own meal, he addressed his
invitation to participate in the business of loading steamships with
outbound freight. "Ten dollahs a day, boy, comf'table place fo'
sleepin', an' all de grub you kin eat."

His oration fell on barren ground. He left the lunch counter without
having gained a single recruit. "C'm on heah, Lily. Dese city niggers
sho' is triflin'. Whut us needs is fiel' han's, o' else some heavy
'suader like a hoe handle. Us aims to sleep some now. Mebbe tomorr'
Lady Luck boons me wid men whut craves a job wid rations an' ten
dollahs a day."

For a while the next morning the work of loading the _West King_ with
flour lagged a little under the direction of the new foreman. At eleven
o'clock, noting the epidemic of reluctance to move out of a slow drag
which had afflicted his gang, the Wildcat climbed to the top of a tier
of flour ba