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"I can't see a white man sleeping with these Dagoes," he said.

It was very good of him and I appreciated it very deeply. That was the only difference made between me and the gang. I slept in the cut-off apartment with the boss, but, at work, I was treated just as a unit of the gang. When Douglas chose to be abusive he was abusive to us all; his curses rang in my ears as sharply as in the ears of his "Eye-talians."

Our work was to undermine the hill along the railway track, with pick, shovel and dynamite, preparing a path for the steam shovel. Here was new work indeed for me; but what made it trying was the attitude of the "Eye-talians." They resented my presence; and I went upon the principle of ignoring their resentment. If a man working above me let a boulder plunge down on me without any shout of warning, I slipped aside, as if it was all in the day's work, never so much as looked up—and went on working. I acted also upon the principle of showing, as well as no resentment, a good example. If I was working above an Italian and loosened a boulder I would shout: "Look out!" (or "Look up!" when I found that "Look up!" takes the place of "Look out!" in the West). In a way it was a mistake. These Italians seemed mostly of the order of humanity that requests and begs to be brow-beaten. Douglas's wild language, and the way he had of raising a clenched fist after a command, accelerating the gang's movements, he had learnt, doubtless, just as I was learning. I sometimes saw his eye on me after such episodes as I tell of—when a boulder rolled towards me without warning and I merely dodged—saw his eye on me, and at first wondered if he thought I was not agile enough! Saw his eye on me when I shouted: "Look up!"—thoughtful, watchful, considering. He seemed to say: "He'll learn!" That was what, eventually, his glance seemed always to imply when he looked on such scenes.