I will give you the papers, however,
and you can make an abstract of them. I cannot carry every point in
my head. If you are in any doubt come to me."
"You wish me to say you will go, sir?"
"I should have thought there was no need to ask. You surely do not
suppose that I am to give instructions upon every petty detail!
Then about the navigation: I MUST have some coal, and that is the
long and the short of it."
The "how" was probably a petty detail, for Mr. Furze went no further
with the subject, and was inclined to proceed with the man at the
foundry.
"It will be too late if we wait till the lock is repaired, sir. I
understand it will be three weeks really. Will you write to
Ditchfield and tell them five tons are to come to Millfield Sluice?
We will then cart it from there. That will be the cheapest and the
best way."
"Yes, I do not object; but we MUST have the coal--that is really the
important point. As to Jack in the foundry, I will get somebody
else. I suppose we shall have to pay more."
"How would it be, sir, if you put Sims in Jack's place, and Spurling
in Sims' place? You would then only want a new labourer, and you
would pay no more than you pay now. Sims, too, knows the work, and
it might be awkward to have a new man at the head just now."
"Yes, that may do; but what I wish to impress on you is that the
vacancy MUST be filled up. That is all, I think; you can take the
letters.
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