hard master

It was more like the look that would come into their faces when they were knocked down to some notoriously hard master.

Time and again you've bought some poor kid from a hard master like old Hoak, to save him from suffering.

One pearl each day makes you free for the remaining hours, and the sultan is not a hard master.

A hard master—a driver—and quick with his feet and hands—a regular sailor banger!

It is not so very long since the law actually was the hard master it is still supposed to be.