Explore "The Secret of the Reef" by Harold Bindloss on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Trade was slack in the Pacific province, and men from the interior flocked down to the coast and overflowed the employment bureaus. This made it unusually hard for Jimmy and his friends to find work. For a month they had done almost nothing, only an odd job now and then; they were in arrears with their hotel bill; and the future looked anything but bright to them.
After supper one evening they sat in the lobby of their shabby hotel in a gloomy mood. Jimmy had found temporary work, and since early morning had been loading a vessel with lumber in a pouring rain. All day he had been wet through, and he was tired and sore. He had grown thin, and had a gaunt, determined look.