How many men have you ?" "How many men had he ?" Buttle wavered between gratification at its being supposed that he had "men" under him and grumpy depression because the illusion must be dispelled.
"There's me and Sim Soames, miss," he answered.

"No more, an' no less." "Where can you get more ?" asked Miss Vanderpoel.
It could not be denied that Buttle received a mental shock which verged in its suddenness on being almost a physical one.

The promptness and decision of such a query swept him off his feet.

That Sim Soames and himself should be an insufficient force to combat with such repairs as the Court could afford was an idea presenting an aspect of unheard-of novelty, but that methods as coolly radical as those this questioning implied, should be resorted to, was staggering.
"Me and Sim has always done what work was done," he stammered.

"It hasn't been much." Miss Vanderpoel neither assented to nor dissented from this last palpable truth.