Bossing the lot; doing it from love of the life that's been given back to me.

Yes, this is the life that makes you take things easy.

You don't get fussed out here.

The job I had took a bit of doing, but it was done, and I'm lucky to have my boss see the end of it." He smiled benignly upon John Grier.

He knew he was valuable to the Grier organization; he knew that Grier had heard of him under another name.
Now Grier had seen him, and he felt he would like to tell John Grier some things about the river he ought to know.