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diff --git a/30431-0.txt b/30431-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..33e909d --- /dev/null +++ b/30431-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7620 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30431 *** + + CALUMET "K" + + BY MERWIN-WEBSTER + + AUTHORS OF "THE SHORT LINE WAR," ETC. + + +New York +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY +LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. +1904 + +_All rights reserved_ + +Copyright, 1901, +By THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY. + +Copyright, 1901, +By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. + +Set up, electrotyped, and published October, 1901. Reprinted +August, 1902; March, 1903. + +Special edition May, June, 1904. + +Norwood Press +J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. +Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. + + + + +CALUMET "K" + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +The contract for the two million bushel grain elevator, Calumet K, had +been let to MacBride & Company, of Minneapolis, in January, but the +superstructure was not begun until late in May, and at the end of +October it was still far from completion. Ill luck had attended +Peterson, the constructor, especially since August. MacBride, the head +of the firm, disliked unlucky men, and at the end of three months his +patience gave out, and he telegraphed Charlie Bannon to leave the job he +was completing at Duluth and report at once at the home office. + +Rumors of the way things were going at Calumet under the hands of his +younger co-laborer had reached Bannon, and he was not greatly surprised +when MacBride told him to go to Chicago Sunday night and supersede +Peterson. + +At ten o'clock Monday morning, Bannon, looking out through the dusty +window of the trolley car, caught sight of the elevator, the naked +cribbing of its huge bins looming high above the huddled shanties and +lumber piles about it. A few minutes later he was walking along a +rickety plank sidewalk which seemed to lead in a general direction +toward the elevator. The sidewalks at Calumet are at the theoretical +grade of the district, that is, about five feet above the actual level +of the ground. In winter and spring they are necessary causeways above +seas of mud, but in dry weather every one abandons them, to walk +straight to his destination over the uninterrupted flats. Bannon set +down his hand bag to button has ulster, for the wind was driving clouds +of smoke and stinging dust and an occasional grimy snowflake out of the +northwest. Then he sprang down from the sidewalk and made his way +through the intervening bogs and, heedless of the shouts of the +brakemen, over a freight train which was creaking its endless length +across his path, to the elevator site. + +The elevator lay back from the river about sixty yards and parallel to +it. Between was the main line of the C. & S. C., four clear tracks +unbroken by switch or siding. On the wharf, along with a big pile of +timber, was the beginning of a small spouting house, to be connected +with the main elevator by a belt gallery above the C. & S. C. tracks. A +hundred yards to the westward, up the river, the Belt Line tracks +crossed the river and the C. & S. C. right of way at an oblique angle, +and sent two side tracks lengthwise through the middle of the elevator +and a third along the south side, that is, the side away from the river. + +Bannon glanced over the lay of the land, looked more particularly at the +long ranges of timber to be used for framing the cupola, and then asked +a passing workman the way to the office. He frowned at the wretched +shanty, evidently an abandoned Belt Line section house, which Peterson +used for headquarters. Then, setting down his bag just outside the door, +he went in. + +"Where's the boss?" he asked. + +The occupant of the office, a clerk, looked up impatiently, and spoke in +a tone reserved to discourage seekers for work. + +"He ain't here. Out on the job somewhere." + +"Palatial office you've got," Bannon commented. "It would help those +windows to have'em ploughed." He brought his bag into the office and +kicked it under a desk, then began turning over a stack of blue prints +that lay, weighted down with a coupling pin, on the table. + +"I guess I can find Peterson for you if you want to see him," said the +clerk. + +"Don't worry about my finding him," came from Bannon, deep in his study +of the plans. A moment later he went out. + +A gang of laborers was engaged in moving the timbers back from the +railroad siding. Superintending the work was a squat little man--Bannon +could not see until near by that he was not a boy--big-headed, +big-handed, big-footed. He stood there in his shirt-sleeves, his back to +Bannon, swearing good-humoredly at the men. When he turned toward him +Bannon saw that he had that morning played an unconscious joke upon his +bright red hair by putting on a crimson necktie. + +Bannon asked for Peterson. + +"He's up on the framing of the spouting house, over on the wharf there." + +"What are you carrying that stuff around for?" asked Bannon. + +"Moving it back to make room by the siding. We're expecting a big bill +of cribbing. You're Mr. Bannon, ain't you?" Bannon nodded. "Peterson had +a telegram from the office saying to expect you." + +"You're still expecting that cribbing, eh?" + +"Harder than ever. That's most all we've been doing for ten days. +There's Peterson, now; up there with the sledge." + +Bannon looked in time to see the boss spring out on a timber that was +still balancing and swaying upon the hoisting rope. It was a good forty +feet above the dock. Clinging to the rope with one hand, with the other +Peterson drove his sledge against the side of the timber which swung +almost to its exact position in the framing. + +"Slack away!" he called to the engineers, and he cast off the rope +sling. Then cautiously he stepped out to the end of the timber. It +tottered, but the lithe figure moved on to within striking distance. He +swung the twenty-four pound sledge in a circle against the butt of the +timber. Every muscle in his body from the ankles up had helped to deal +the blow, and the big stick bucked. The boss sprang erect, flinging his +arms wide and using the sledge to recover his balance. He struck hard +once more and again lightly. Then he hammered the timber down on the +iron dowel pins. "All right," he shouted to the engineer; "send up the +next one." + +A few minutes later Bannon climbed out on the framing beside him. + +"Hello, Charlie!" said the boss, "I've been looking for you. They wired +me you was coming." + +"Well, I'm here," said Bannon, "though I 'most met my death climbing up +just now. Where do you keep your ladders?" + +"What do I want of a ladder? I've no use for a man who can't get up on +the timbers. If a man needs a ladder, he'd better stay abed." + +"That's where I get fired first thing," said Bannon. + +"Why, you come up all right, with your overcoat on, too." + +"I had to wear it or scratch up the timbers with my bones. I lost +thirty-two pounds up at Duluth." + +Another big timber came swinging up to them at the end of the hoisting +rope. Peterson sprang out upon it. "I'm going down before I get brushed +off," said Bannon. + +"I'll be back at the office as soon as I get this corbel laid." + +"No hurry. I want to look over the drawings. Go easy there," he called +to the engineer at the hoist; "I'm coming down on the elevator." +Peterson had already cast off the rope, but Bannon jumped for it and +thrust his foot into the hook, and the engineer, not knowing who he was, +let him down none too gently. + +On his way to the office he spoke to two carpenters at work on a stick +of timber. "You'd better leave that, I guess, and get some four-inch +cribbing and some inch stuff and make some ladders; I guess there's +enough lying 'round for that. About four'll do." + +It was no wonder that the Calumet K job had proved too much for +Peterson. It was difficult from the beginning. There was not enough +ground space to work in comfortably, and the proper bestowal of the +millions of feet of lumber until time for it to be used in the +construction was no mean problem. The elevator was to be a typical +"Chicago" house, built to receive grain from cars and to deliver it +either to cars or to ships. As has been said, it stood back from the +river, and grain for ships was to be carried on belt conveyors running +in an inclosed bridge above the railroad tracks to the small spouting +house on the wharf. It had originally been designed to have a capacity +for twelve hundred thousand bushels, but the grain men who were building +it, Page & Company, had decided after it was fairly started that it must +be larger; so, in the midst of his work, Peterson had received +instructions and drawings for a million bushel annex. He had done +excellent work--work satisfactory even to MacBride & Company--on a +smaller scale, and so he had been given the opportunity, the +responsibility, the hundreds of employees, the liberal authority, to +make what he could of it all. + +There could be no doubt that he had made a tangle; that the big job as a +whole was not under his hand, but was just running itself as best it +could. Bannon, who, since the days when he was chief of the wrecking +gang on a division of the Grand Trunk, had made a business of rising to +emergencies, was obviously the man for the situation. He was worn thin +as an old knife-blade, he was just at the end of a piece of work that +would have entitled any other man to a vacation; but MacBride made no +apologies when he assigned him the new task--"Go down and stop this +fiddling around and get the house built. See that it's handling grain +before you come away. If you can't do it, I'll come down and do it +myself." + +Bannon shook his head dubiously. "Well, I'm not sure----" he began. But +MacBride laughed, whereupon Bannon grinned in spite of himself. "All +right," he said. + +It was no laughing matter, though, here on the job this Monday morning, +and, once alone in the little section house, he shook his head again +gravely. He liked Peterson too well, for one thing, to supersede him +without a qualm. But there was nothing else for it, and he took off his +overcoat, laid aside the coupling pin, and attacked the stack of blue +prints. + +He worked rapidly, turning now and then from the plans for a reference +to the building book or the specifications, whistling softly, except +when he stopped to growl, from force of habit, at the office, or, with +more reasonable disapproval, at the man who made the drawings for the +annex. "Regular damn bird cage," he called it. + +It was half an hour before Peterson came in. He was wiping the sweat off +his forehead with the back of his hand, and drawing long breaths with +the mere enjoyment of living. "I feel good," he said. "That's where I'd +like to work all day. You ought to go up and sledge them timbers for a +while. That'd warm you through, I bet." + +"You ought to make your timekeeper give you one of those brass checks +there and pay you eighteen cents an hour for that work. That's what I'd +do." + +Peterson laughed. It took more than a hint to reach him. "I have to do +it. Those laborers are no good. Honest, I can lift as much as any three +men on the job." + +"That's all right if those same three don't stop to swap lies while +you're lifting." + +"Well, I guess they don't come any of that on me," said Peterson, +laughing again. "How long are you going to stay with us?" + +The office, then, had not told him. Bannon was for a moment at a loss +what to say. Luckily there was an interruption. The red-headed young man +he had spoken to an hour before came in, tossed a tally board on the +desk, and said that another carload of timber had come in. + +"Mr. Bannon," said Peterson, "shake hands with Mr. Max Vogel, our lumber +checker." That formality attended to, he turned to Bannon and repeated +his question. By that time the other had his answer ready. + +"Oh, it all depends on the office," he said. "They're bound to keep me +busy at something. I'll just stay until they tell me to go somewhere +else. They ain't happy except when they've just put me in a hole and +told me to climb out. Generally before I'm out they pick me up and chuck +me down another one. Old MacBride wouldn't think the Company was +prosperous if I wasn't working nights and Sundays." + +"You won't be doing that down here." + +"I don't know about that. Why, when I first went to work for 'em, they +hired me by the day. My time cards for the first years figured up four +hundred and thirty-six days." Peterson laughed. "Oh, that's straight," +said Bannon. "Next time you're at the office, ask Brown about it. Since +then they've paid me a salary. They seem to think they'd have to go out +of business if I ever took a vacation. I've been with 'em twelve years +and they've never given me one yet. They made a bluff at it once. I was +down at Newport News, been doing a job for the C. & O., and Fred Brown +was down that way on business. He----" + +"What does Brown look like?" interrupted Peterson. "I never saw him." + +"You didn't! Oh, he's a good-looking young chap. Dresses kind of sporty. +He's a great jollier. You have to know him a while to find out that he +means business. Well, he came 'round and saw I was feeling pretty tired, +so he asked me to knock off for a week and go fishing with him. I did, +and it was the hardest work I ever tackled." + +"Did you get any fish?" + +"Fish? Whales! You'd no sooner throw your line over than another one'd +grab it--great, big, heavy fish, and they never gave us a minute's rest. +I worked like a horse for about half a day and then I gave up. Told +Brown I'd take a duplex car-puller along next time I tackled that kind +of a job, and I went back to the elevator." + +"I'd like to see Brown. I get letters from him right along, of course. +He's been jollying me about that cribbing for the last two weeks. I +can't make it grow, and I've written him right along that we was +expecting it, but that don't seem to satisfy him." + +"I suppose not," said Bannon. "They're mostly out for results up at the +office. Let's see the bill for it." Vogel handed him a thin typewritten +sheet and Bannon looked it over thoughtfully. "Big lot of stuff, ain't +it? Have you tried to get any of it here in Chicago?" + +"Course not. It's all ordered and cut out up to Ledyard." + +"Cut out? Then why don't they send it?" + +"They can't get the cars." + +"That'll do to tell. 'Can't get the cars!' What sort of a railroad have +they got up there?" + +"Max, here, can tell you about that, I guess," said Peterson. + +"It's the G. & M.," said the lumber checker. "That's enough for any one +who's lived in Michigan. It ain't much good." + +"How long have they kept 'em waiting for the cars?" + +"How long is it, Max?" asked Peterson. + +"Let's see. It was two weeks ago come Tuesday." + +"Sure?" + +"Yes. We got the letter the same day the red-headed man came here. His +hair was good and red." Max laughed broadly at the recollection. "He +came into the office just as we was reading it." + +"Oh, yes. My friend, the walking delegate." + +"What's that?" Bannon snapped the words out so sharply that Peterson +looked at him in slow surprise. + +"Oh, nothing," he said. "A darn little rat of a red-headed walking +delegate came out here--had a printed card with Business Agent on +it--and poked his long nose into other people's business for a while, +and asked the men questions, and at last he came to me. I told him that +we treated our men all right and didn't need no help from him, and if I +ever caught him out here again I'd carry him up to the top of the jim +pole and leave him there. He went fast enough." + +"I wish he'd knocked you down first, to even things up," said Bannon. + +"Him! Oh, I could have handled him with three fingers." + +"I'm going out for a look around," said Bannon, abruptly. + +He left Peterson still smiling good-humoredly over the incident. + +It was not so much to look over the job as to get where he could work +out his wrath that Bannon left the office. There was no use in trying to +explain to Peterson what he had done, for even if he could be made to +understand, he could undo nothing. Bannon had known a good many walking +delegates, and he had found them, so far, square. But it would be a +large-minded man who could overlook what Peterson had done. However, +there was no help for it. All that remained was to wait till the +business agent should make the next move. + +So Bannon put the whole incident out of his mind, and until noon +inspected the job in earnest. By the time the whistle blew, every one of +the hundreds of men on the job, save Peterson himself, knew that there +was a new boss. There was no formal assumption of authority; Bannon's +supremacy was established simply by the obvious fact that he was the man +who knew how. Systematizing the confusion in one corner, showing another +gang how to save handling a big stick twice, finally putting a runway +across the drillage of the annex, and doing a hundred little things +between times, he made himself master. + +The afternoon he spent in the little office, and by four o'clock had +seen everything there was in it, plans, specifications, building book, +bill file, and even the pay roll, the cash account, and the +correspondence. The clerk, who was also timekeeper, exhibited the latter +rather grudgingly. + +"What's all this stuff?" Bannon asked, holding up a stack of unfiled +letters. + +"Letters we ain't answered yet." + +"Well, we'll answer them now," and Bannon commenced dictating his reply +to the one on top of the stack. + +"Hold on," said the clerk, "I ain't a stenographer." + +"So?" said Bannon. He scribbled a brief memorandum on each sheet. +"There's enough to go by," he said. "Answer 'em according to +instructions." + +"I won't have time to do it till to-morrow some time." + +"I'd do it to-night, if I were you," said Bannon, significantly. Then he +began writing letters himself. + +Peterson and Vogel came into the office a few minutes later. + +"Writing a letter to your girl?" said Peterson, jocularly. + +"We ought to have a stenographer out here, Pete." + +"Stenographer! I didn't know you was such a dude. You'll be wanting a +solid silver electric bell connecting with the sody fountain next." + +"That's straight," said Bannon. "We ought to have a stenographer for a +fact." + +He said nothing until he had finished and sealed the two letters he was +writing. They were as follows:-- + + DEAR MR. BROWN: It's a mess and no mistake. I'm glad Mr. MacBride + didn't come to see it. He'd have fits. The whole job is tied up in + a hard knot. Peterson is wearing out chair bottoms waiting for the + cribbing from Ledyard. I expect we will have a strike before long. + I mean it. + + The main house is most up to the distributing floor. The spouting + house is framed. The annex is up as far as the bottom, waiting for + cribbing. Yours, + + BANNON. + + P.S. I hope this letter makes you sweat to pay you for last + Saturday night. I am about dead. Can't get any sleep. And I lost + thirty-two pounds up to Duluth. I expect to die down here. + + C. B. + + P.S. I guess we'd better set fire to the whole damn thing and + collect the insurance and skip. + + C. + +The other was shorter. + + MACBRIDE & COMPANY, Minneapolis: + + _Gentlemen_: I came on the Calumet job to-day. Found it held up by + failure of cribbing from Ledyard. Will have at least enough to work + with by end of the week. We will get the house done according to + specifications. + + Yours truly, + MACBRIDE & COMPANY. + CHARLES BANNON. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +The five o'clock whistle had sounded, and Peterson sat on the bench +inside the office door, while Bannon washed his hands in the tin basin. +The twilight was already settling; within the shanty, whose dirty, +small-paned windows served only to indicate the lesser darkness without, +a wall lamp, set in a dull reflector, threw shadows into the corners. + +"You're coming up with me, ain't you?" said Peterson. "I don't believe +you'll get much to eat. Supper's just the pickings from dinner." + +"Well, the dinner was all right. But I wish you had a bigger bed. I +ain't slept for two nights." + +"What was the matter?" + +"I was on the sleeper last night; and I didn't get in from the Duluth +job till seven o'clock Saturday night, and Brown was after me before I'd +got my supper. Those fellows at the office wouldn't let a man sleep at +all if they could help it. Here I'd been working like a nigger 'most +five months on the Duluth house--and the last three weeks running night +shifts and Sundays; didn't stop to eat, half the time--and what does +Brown do but--'Well,' he says, 'how're you feeling, Charlie?' +'Middling,' said I. 'Are you up to a little job to-morrow?' 'What's +that?' I said. 'Seems to me if I've got to go down to the Calumet job +Sunday night I might have an hour or so at home.' 'Well, Charlie,' he +says, 'I'm mighty sorry, but you see we've been putting in a big rope +drive on a water-power plant over at Stillwater. We got the job on the +high bid,' he says, 'and we agreed to have it running on Monday morning. +It'll play the devil with us if we can't make good.' 'What's the +matter?' said I. 'Well,' he says, 'Murphy's had the job and has balled +himself up.'" + +By this time the two men had their coats on, and were outside the +building. + +"Let's see," said Bannon, "we go this way, don't we?" + +"Yes." + +There was still the light, flying flakes of snow, and the biting wind +that came sweeping down from the northwest. The two men crossed the +siding, and, picking their way between the freight cars on the Belt Line +tracks, followed the path that wound across the stretch of dusty meadow. + +"Go ahead," said Peterson; "you was telling about Murphy." + +"Well, that was the situation. I could see that Brown was up on his hind +legs about it, but it made me tired, all the same. Of course the job had +to be done, but I wasn't letting him have any satisfaction. I told him +he ought to give it to somebody else, and he handed me a lot of stuff +about my experience. Finally I said: 'You come around in the morning, +Mr. Brown. I ain't had any sleep to speak of for three weeks. I lost +thirty-two pounds,' I said, 'and I ain't going to be bothered to-night.' +Well, sir, he kind of shook his head, but he went away, and I got to +thinking about it. Long about half-past seven I went down and got a +time-table. There was a train to Stillwater at eight-forty-two." + +"That night?" + +"Sure. I went over to the shops with an express wagon and got a thousand +feet of rope--had it in two coils so I could handle it--and just made +the train. It was a mean night. There was some rain when I started, but +you ought to have seen it when I got to Stillwater--it was coming down +in layers, and mud that sucked your feet down halfway to your knees. +There wasn't a wagon anywhere around the station, and the agent wouldn't +lift a finger. It was blind dark. I walked off the end of the platform, +and went plump into a mudhole. I waded up as far as the street crossing, +where there was an electric light, and ran across a big lumber yard, and +hung around until I found the night watchman. He was pretty near as mean +as the station agent, but he finally let me have a wheelbarrow for half +a dollar, and told me how to get to the job. + +"He called it fifty rods, but it was a clean mile if it was a step, and +most of the way down the track. I wheeled her back to the station, got +the rope, and started out. Did you ever try to shove two five hundred +foot coils over a mile of crossties? Well, that's what I did. I scraped +off as much mud as I could, so I could lift my feet, and bumped over +those ties till I thought the teeth were going to be jarred clean out of +me. After I got off the track there was a stretch of mud that left the +road by the station up on dry land. + +"There was a fool of a night watchman at the power plant--I reckon he +thought I was going to steal the turbines, but he finally let me in, and +I set him to starting up the power while I cleaned up Murphy's job and +put in the new rope." + +"All by yourself?" asked Peterson. + +"Sure thing. Then I got her going and she worked smooth as grease. When +we shut down and I came up to wash my hands, it was five minutes of +three. I said, 'Is there a train back to Minneapolis before very long?' +'Yes,' says the watchman, 'the fast freight goes through a little after +three.' 'How much after?' I said. 'Oh,' he says, 'I couldn't say +exactly. Five or eight minutes, I guess.' I asked when the next train +went, and he said there wasn't a regular passenger till six-fifty-five. +Well, sir, maybe you think I was going to wait four hours in that hole! +I went out of that building to beat the limited--never thought of the +wheelbarrow till I was halfway to the station. And there was some of the +liveliest stepping you ever saw. Couldn't see a thing except the light +on the rails from the arc lamp up by the station. I got about halfway +there--running along between the rails--and banged into a +switch--knocked me seven ways for Sunday. Lost my hat picking myself up, +and couldn't stop to find it." + +Peterson turned in toward one of a long row of square frame houses. + +"Here we are," he said. As they went up the stairs he asked: "Did you +make the train?" + +"Caught the caboose just as she was swinging out. They dumped me out in +the freight yards, and I didn't get home till 'most five o'clock. I went +right to bed, and along about eight o'clock Brown came in and woke me +up. He was feeling pretty nervous. 'Say, Charlie,' he said, 'ain't it +time for you to be starting?' 'Where to?' said I. 'Over to Stillwater,' +he said. 'There ain't any getting out of it. That drive's got to be +running to-morrow.' 'That's all right,' said I, 'but I'd like to know if +I can't have one day's rest between jobs--Sunday, too. And I lost +thirty-two pounds.' Well, sir, he didn't know whether to get hot or not. +I guess he thought himself they were kind of rubbing it in. 'Look here,' +he said, 'are you going to Stillwater, or ain't you?' 'No,' said I, 'I +ain't. Not for a hundred rope drives.' Well, he just got up and took his +hat and started out. 'Mr. Brown,' I said, when he was opening the door, +'I lost my hat down at Stillwater last night. I reckon the office ought +to stand for it.' He turned around and looked queer, and then he +grinned. 'So you went over?' he said. 'I reckon I did,' said I. 'What +kind of a hat did you lose?' he asked, and he grinned again. 'I guess it +was a silk one, wasn't it?' 'Yes,' said I, 'a silk hat--something about +eight dollars.'" + +"Did he mean he'd give you a silk hat?" asked Peterson. + +"Couldn't say." + +They were sitting in the ten-by-twelve room that Peterson rented for a +dollar a week. Bannon had the one chair, and was sitting tipped back +against the washstand. Peterson sat on the bed. Bannon had thrown his +overcoat over the foot of the bed, and had dropped his bag on the floor +by the window. + +"Ain't it time to eat, Pete?" he said. + +"Yes, there's the bell." + +The significance of Bannon's arrival, and the fact that he was planning +to stay, was slow in coming to Peterson. After supper, when they had +returned to the room, his manner showed constraint. Finally he said:-- + +"Is there any fuss up at the office?" + +"What about?" + +"Why--do they want to rush the job or something?" + +"Well, we haven't got such a lot of time. You see, it's November +already." + +"What's the hurry all of a sudden? They didn't say nothing to me." + +"I guess you haven't been crowding it very hard, have you?" + +Peterson flushed. + +"I've been working harder than I ever did before," he said. "If it +wasn't for the cribbing being held up like this, I'd 'a' had the cupola +half done before now. I've been playing in hard luck." + +Bannon was silent for a moment, then he said:-- + +"How long do you suppose it would take to get the cribbing down from +Ledyard?" + +"Not very long if it was rushed, I should think--a couple of days, or +maybe three. And they'll rush it all right when they can get the cars. +You see, it's only ten or eleven hours up there, passenger schedule; and +they could run it right in on the job over the Belt Line." + +"It's the Belt Line that crosses the bridge, is it?" + +"Yes." + +Bannon spread his legs apart and drummed on the front of his chair. + +"What's the other line?" he asked--"the four track line?" + +"That's the C. & S. C. We don't have nothing to do with them." + +They were both silent for a time. The flush had not left Peterson's +face. His eyes were roving over the carpet, lifting now and then to +Bannon's face with a quick glance. + +"Guess I'll shave," said Bannon. "Do you get hot water here?" + +"Why, I don't know," replied Peterson. "I generally use cold water. The +folks here ain't very obliging. Kind o' poor, you know." + +Bannon was rummaging in his grip for his shaving kit. + +"You never saw a razor like that, Pete," he said. "Just heft it once." + +"Light, ain't it," said Peterson, taking it in his hand. + +"You bet it's light. And look here"--he reached for it and drew it back +and forth over the palm of his hand--"that's the only stropping I ever +give it." + +"Don't you have to hone it?" + +"No, sir; it's never been touched to a stone or leather. You just get up +and try it once. Those whiskers of yours won't look any the worse for a +chopping." + +Peterson laughed, and lathered his face, while Bannon put an edge on the +razor, testing it with a hair. + +"Say, that's about the best yet," said Peterson, after the first stroke. + +"You're right it is." + +Bannon looked on for a few minutes, then he took a railroad "Pathfinder" +from his grip and rapidly turned the pages. Peterson saw it in the +mirror, and asked, between strokes:-- + +"What are you going to do?" + +"Looking up trains." + +While Peterson was splashing in the washbowl, Bannon took his turn at +the mirror. + +"How's the Duluth job getting on?" asked Peterson, when Bannon had +finished, and was wiping his razor. + +"All right--'most done. Just a little millwright work left, and some +cleaning up." + +"There ain't any marine leg on the house, is there?" + +"No." + +"How big a house is it?" + +"Eight hundred thousand bushels." + +"That so? Ain't half as big as this one, is it?" + +"Guess not. Built for the same people, though, Page & Company." + +"They must be going in pretty heavy." + +"They are. There's a good deal of talk about it. Some of the boys up at +the office say there's going to be fun with December wheat before they +get through with it. It's been going up pretty steadily since the end of +September--it was seventy-four and three-eighths Saturday in +Minneapolis. It ain't got up quite so high down here yet, but the boys +say there's going to be a lot of money in it for somebody." + +"Be a kind of a good thing to get in on, eh?" said Peterson, cautiously. + +"Maybe, for those that like to put money in wheat. I've got no money for +that sort of thing myself." + +"Yes, of course," was Peterson's quick reply. "A fellow doesn't want to +run them kind o' chances. I don't believe in it myself." + +"The fact's this,--and this is just between you and me, mind you; I +don't know anything about it, it's only what I think,--somebody's buying +a lot of December wheat, or the price wouldn't keep going up. And I've +got a notion that, whoever he is, it's Page & Company that's selling it +to him. That's just putting two and two together, you see. It's the real +grain that the Pages handle, and if they sell to a man it means that +they're going to make a mighty good try at unloading it on him and +making him pay for it. That's all I know about it. I see the Pages +selling--or what looks mighty like it--and I see them beginning to look +around and talk on the quiet about crowding things a little on their new +houses, and it just strikes me that there's likely to be a devil of a +lot of wheat coming into Chicago before the year runs out; and if that's +so, why, there's got to be a place to put it when it gets here." + +"Do they have to have an elevator to put it in?" asked Peterson. "Can't +they deliver it in the cars? I don't know much about that side of the +business." + +"I should say not. The Board of Trade won't recognize grain as delivered +until it has been inspected and stored in a registered house." + +"When would the house have to be ready?" + +"Well, if I'm right, if they're going to put December wheat in this +house, they'll have to have it in before the last day of December." + +"We couldn't do that," said Peterson, "if the cribbing was here." + +Bannon, who had stretched out on the bed, swung his feet around and sat +up. The situation was not easy, but he had been sent to Calumet to get +the work done in time, and he meant to do it. + +"Now, about this cribbing, Pete," he said; "we've got to have it before +we can touch the annex?" + +"I guess that's about it," Peterson replied. + +"I've been figuring a little on this bill. I take it there's something +over two million feet altogether. Is that right?" + +"It's something like that. Couldn't say exactly. Max takes care of the +lumber." + +Bannon's brows came together. + +"You ought to know a little more about this yourself, Pete. You're the +man that's building the house." + +"I guess I've been pushing it along as well as any one could," said +Peterson, sullenly. + +"That's all right. I ain't hitting at you. I'm talking business, that's +all. Now, if Vogel's right, this cribbing ought to have been here +fourteen days ago--fourteen days to-morrow." + +Peterson nodded. + +"That's just two weeks of lost time. How've you been planning to make +that up?" + +"Why--why--I reckon I can put things together soon's I get the +cribbing." + +"Look here, Pete. The office has contracted to get this house done by a +certain date. They've got to pay $750 for every day that we run over +that date. There's no getting out of that, cribbing or no cribbing. When +they're seeing ten or twenty thousand dollars slipping out of their +hands, do you think they're going to thank you for telling 'em that the +G. & M. railroad couldn't get cars? They don't care what's the +matter--all they want of you is to do the work on time." + +"Now, look here, Charlie----" + +"Hold on, Pete. Don't get mad. It's facts, that's all. Here's these two +weeks gone. You see that, all right enough. Now, the way this work's +laid out, a man's got to make every day count right from the start if he +wants to land on his feet when the house is done. Maybe you think +somebody up in the sky is going to hand you down a present of two extra +weeks so the lost time won't count. That would be all right, only it +ain't very likely to happen." + +"Well," said Peterson, "what are you getting at? What do you want me to +do? Perhaps you think it's easy." + +"No, I don't. But I'll tell you what to do. In the first place you want +to quit this getting out on the job and doing a laborer's work. The +office is paying out good money to the men that should do that. You know +how to lay a corbel, but just now you couldn't tell me how much cribbing +was coming. You're paid to direct this whole job and to know all about +it, not to lay corbels. If you put in half a day swinging a sledge out +there on the spouting house, how're you going to know that the lumber +bills tally, and the carpenters ain't making mistakes, and that the +timber's piled right. Here to-day you had a dozen men throwing away +their time moving a lot of timber that ought to have been put in the +right place when it first came in." + +Peterson was silent. + +"Now to-morrow, Pete, as soon as you've got the work moving along, you'd +better go over to the electric light company and see about having the +whole ground wired for arc lamps, so we can be ready to put on a night +shift the minute the cribbing comes in. You want to crowd 'em, too. They +ought to have it ready in two days." + +Bannon sat for a moment, then he arose and looked at his watch. + +"I'm going to leave you, Pete," he said, as he put on his collar. + +"Where're you going?" + +"I've got to get up to the city to make the ten o'clock train. I'm going +up to Ledyard to get the cribbing. Be back in a couple of days." + +He threw his shaving kit into his grip, put on his overcoat, said +good-night, and went out. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +Next morning at eight o'clock Charlie Bannon walked into the office of +C. H. Dennis, the manager of the Ledyard Salt and Lumber Company. + +"I'm Bannon," he said, "of MacBride & Company. Come up to see why you +don't get out our bill of cribbing." + +"Told you by letter," retorted Dennis. "We can't get the cars." + +"I know you did. That's a good thing to say in a letter. I wanted to +find out how much of it really was cut." + +"It's all cut and stacked by the siding, taking up half the yard. Want +to see it?" + +Bannon smiled and nodded. "Here's a good cigar for you," he said, "and +you're a good fellow, but I think I'd like to see the cribbing." + +"Oh, that's all right," laughed Dennis. "I'd have said the same thing if +it wasn't cut. Come out this way." + +Bannon followed him out into the yard. "There it is," said the manager. + +There was no need of pointing it out. It made a pile more than three +hundred feet long. It was nothing but rough hemlock, two inches thick, +and from two to ten inches wide, intended to be spiked together flatwise +for the walls of the bins, but its bulk was impressive. Bannon measured +it with his eye and whistled. "I wish that had been down on our job ten +days ago," he said, presently. "I'd be taking a vacation now if it had." + +"Well, it was ready then. You can tell by the color." + +"What's the matter with the G. & M. anyway? They don't seem to be +hauling very much. I noticed that last night when I came up. I'm no good +at sleeping on the train." + +"Search me," said Dennis. "They've tied us up for these two weeks. I've +kicked for cars, and the old man--that's Sloan--he's kicked, but here we +are yet--can't move hand or foot." + +"Who's Sloan?" + +"Oh, he's the whole thing. Owns the First National Bank and the trolley +line and the Ledyard Salt and Lumber Company and most of the downtown +real estate." + +"Where can I find him? Is he in town?" + +"I guess so. He's got an office across the river. Just ask anybody where +the Sloan Building is." + +"Likely to be there as early as this?" asked Bannon, looking at his +watch. + +"Sure, if he's in town." + +Bannon slipped his watch into his pocket. "Much obliged," he said. "Glad +to have met you. Good morning;" and, turning, he walked rapidly away +down the plank wagon road. + +In Sloan's office he stated his errand as briefly as on the former +occasion, adding only that he had already seen Dennis. + +"I guess he told you all there is to tell," said the magnate. "We can't +make the G. & M. give us cars. I've told Dennis to stir 'em up as hard +as he could. I guess we'll have to wait." + +"I can't wait." + +"What else can you do? It's every bit as bad for us as it is for you, +and you can rest assured that we'll do all we can." As if the cadence of +his last sentence were not sufficiently recognizable as a formula of +dismissal, he picked up a letter that lay on his desk and began reading +it. + +"This isn't an ordinary kick," said Bannon, sharply. "It isn't just a +case of us having to pay a big delay forfeit. There's a reason why our +job's got to be done on time. I want to know the reason why the G. & M. +won't give you cars. It ain't because they haven't got them." + +"What makes you say that?" + +"Because there's three big strings of empties within twenty miles of +here this minute. I saw them when I came up this morning." + +For a minute Sloan said nothing, only traced designs on the blotter with +his pencil. Bannon saw that there was no longer any question of arousing +his interest. At last he spoke:-- + +"I've suspected that there was something in the wind, but I've been too +busy with other things to tend to it, so I turned it over to Dennis. +Perhaps he's done as well as I could. I don't know much about G. & M. +these days. For a long time they were at me to take a big block of +treasury stock, but the road seemed to me in bad shape, so I wouldn't go +in. Lately they've reorganized--have got a lot of new money in there--I +don't know whose, but they've let me alone. There's been no row, you +understand. That ain't the reason they've tied us up, but I haven't +known much about what was going on inside." + +"Would they be likely to tell you if you asked? I mean if you took it to +headquarters?" + +"I couldn't get any more out of them than you could--that is, not by +asking." + +"I guess I'll go look 'em up myself. Where can I find anybody that knows +anything?" + +"The division offices are at Blake City. That's only about twenty miles. +You could save time by talking over the 'phone." + +"Not me," said Bannon. "In a case like this I couldn't express myself +properly unless I saw the fellow I was talking to." + +Sloan laughed. "I guess you're right. But I'll call up the division +superintendent and tell him you're coming. Then you'll be sure of +finding him." + +Bannon shook his head. "I'd find him with his little speech all learned. +No, I'll take my chances on his being there. When's the train?" + +"Nine-forty-six." + +"That gives me fifteen minutes. Can I make it?" + +"Not afoot, and you ain't likely to catch a car. I'll drive you down. +I've got the fastest mare in Pottawatomie County." + +The fact that the G. & M. had been rescued from its poverty and was +about to be "developed" was made manifest in Blake City by the modern +building which the railroad was erecting on the main street. Eventually +the division officials were to be installed in office suites of mahogany +veneer, with ground glass doors lettered in gold leaf. For the present, +as from the beginning, they occupied an upper floor of a freight +warehouse. Bannon came in about eleven o'clock, looked briefly about, +and seeing that one corner was partitioned off into a private office, he +ducked under the hand rail intended to pen up ordinary visitors, and +made for it. A telegraph operator just outside the door asked what his +business was, but he answered merely that it was with the +superintendent, and went in. + +He expected rather rough work. The superintendent of a railroad, or of a +division, has to do with the employees, never with the customers, and +his professional manner is not likely to be distinguished by suavity. So +he unconsciously squared his shoulders when he said, "I'm Bannon, of +MacBride & Company." + +The superintendent dismissed his stenographer, swept with his arm a +clear space on the desk, and then drummed on it with his fingers, but he +did not look up immediately. When he did, it was with an expression of +grave concern. + +"Mr. Bannon," he said, "I'm mighty sorry. I'll do anything I can for +you. You can smoke ten cent cigars on me from now till Christmas, and +light them with passes. Anything----" + +"If you feel like that," said Bannon, "we can fix things all comfortable +in three minutes. All I want is cars." + +The superintendent shook his head. "There's where you stump me," he +said. "I haven't got 'em." + +"Mr. Superintendent, that's what they told me in Chicago, and that's +what they told me at Ledyard. I didn't come up here to Blake City to be +told the same thing and then go back home." + +"Well, I don't know what else I can tell you. That's just the size of +it. I hope we'll be able to fix you in a few days, but we can't promise +anything." + +Bannon frowned, and after an expectant pause, the superintendent went on +talking vaguely about the immense rush of traffic. Finally he asked, +"Why do you think we'd hold you up if we had the cars?" + +"That's what I came here to find out. I think you're mistaken about not +having them." + +The superintendent laughed. "You can't expect to know more about that +than I do. You doubtless understand your business, but this is my +business. If you can tell me where the cars are, you can have them." + +"Well, as you say, that's your business. But I can tell you. There's a +big string of empties--I counted fourteen--on the siding at Victory." + +The superintendent looked out of the window and again drummed on the +desk. When he spoke again, his manner was more what one would expect +from a division superintendent. "You don't know anything about it. When +we want advice how to run our road we'll ask you for it. Victory isn't +in my division anyway." + +"Then wire the general manager. He ought to know something about it." + +"Wire him yourself, if you like. I can't bother about it. I'm sorry I +can't do anything, but I haven't got time." + +"I haven't begun sending telegrams yet. And I haven't very much more +time to fool away. I'd like to have you find out if the Ledyard Salt and +Lumber Company can have those cars that are on the siding at Victory." + +"All right," said the superintendent, rising. At the door he turned back +to ask, "When was it you saw them?" + +Bannon decided to chance it. "Yesterday morning," he said. + +The superintendent returned presently, and, turning to his desk, resumed +his work. A few minutes later the telegraph operator came in and told +him that the cars at Victory had been loaded with iron truss work the +night before, and had gone off down the State. + +"Just too late, wasn't I?" said Bannon. "That's hard luck." He went to +the window and, staring out into the yards, began tapping idly with his +pencil on the glass. The office door was open, and when he paused he +heard the telegraph instrument just without, clicking out a message. + +"Anything else I can do for you?" asked the superintendent. His good +humor was returning at the sight of his visitor's perplexity. + +"I wish you'd just wire the general manager once more and ask him if he +can't possibly let us have those cars." + +"All right," said the other, cheerfully. He nodded to the operator. "For +the Ledyard Salt and Lumber Company," he said. + +Bannon dropped into a chair, stretched himself, and yawned. "I'm +sleepy," he said; "haven't had any sleep in three weeks. Lost thirty-two +pounds. If you fellows had only got that cribbing down on time, I'd be +having a vacation----" + +Another yawn interrupted him. The telegraph receiver had begun giving +out the general manager's answer. + + _Tell-Ledyard-we-hope-to-have-cars-in-a-few-days-_ + +The superintendent looked at Bannon, expecting him to finish his +sentence, but he only yawned again. + + _obey-previous-instructions.--Do-not-give-Ledyard-cars-in-any-case-_ + +Bannon's eyes were half closed, but the superintendent thought he was +turning a little toward the open doorway. + +"Do you feel cold?" he asked. "I'll shut the door." + +He rose quickly and started toward it, but Bannon was there before him. +He hesitated, his hand on the knob. + +"Why don't you shut it?" snapped the superintendent. + +"I think I'll--I think I'll send a telegram." + +"Here's a blank, in here. Come in." But Bannon had slipped out and was +standing beside the operator's table. From the doorway the +superintendent saw him biting his pencil and frowning over a bit of +paper. The general manager's message was still coming in. + + _We-don't-help-put-up-any-grain-elevator-in-Chicago-these-days._ + +As the last click sounded, Bannon handed his message to the operator. +"Send it collect," he said. With that he strode away, over the hand +rail, this time, and down the stairs. The operator carried the message +to the superintendent. + +"It seems to be for you," he said. + +The superintendent read-- + + Div. Supt. G. & M., Blake City. Tell manager it takes better man + than him to tie us up. + + MACBRIDE & COMPANY. + +Bannon had nearly an hour to wait for the next train back to Ledyard, +but it was not time wasted, for as he paced the smoky waiting room, he +arrived at a fairly accurate estimate of the meaning of the general +manager's message. + +It was simply a confirmation of the cautious prediction he had made to +Peterson the night before. Why should any one want to hinder the +construction of an elevator in Chicago "these days" except to prevent +its use for the formal delivery of grain which the buyer did not wish +delivered? And why had Page & Company suddenly ordered a million bushel +annex? Why had they suddenly become anxious that the elevator should be +ready to receive grain before January first, unless they wished to +deliver a vast amount of December wheat? Before Bannon's train came in +he understood it all. A clique of speculators had decided to corner +wheat, an enterprise nearly enough impossible in any case, but stark +madness unless they had many millions at command. It was a long chance, +of course, but after all not wonderful that some one in their number was +a power in the reorganized G. & M. + +Already the immense amount of wheat in Chicago was testing the capacity +of the registered warehouses, and plainly, if the Calumet K should be +delayed long enough, it might prevent Page & Company from carrying out +their contract to deliver two million bushels of the grain, even though +it were actually in the cars in Chicago. + +Bannon knew much of Page & Company; that dotted all over the vast wheat +tracts of Minnesota and Montana were their little receiving elevators +where they bought grain of the farmers; that miles of wheat-laden +freight cars were already lumbering eastward along the railroad lines of +the North. He had a touch of imagination, and something of the enormous +momentum of that Northern wheat took possession of him. It would come to +Chicago, and he must be ready for it. It would be absurd to be balked by +the refusal of a little single-track road up in Michigan to carry a pile +of planks. + +He paused before the grated window of the ticket and telegraph office +and asked for a map. He studied it attentively for a while; then he sent +a telegram:-- + + MACBRIDE & COMPANY, _Minneapolis_: G. & M. R. R. wants to tie us + up. Will not furnish cars to carry our cribbing. Can't get it + elsewhere inside of three weeks. Find out if Page will O. K. any + bill of extras I send in for bringing it down. If so, can they have + one or more steam barges at Manistogee within forty-eight hours? + Wire Ledyard Hotel. C. H. BANNON. + +It was an hour's ride back to Ledyard. He went to the hotel and +persuaded the head waiter to give him something to eat, although it was +long after the dinner hour. As he left the dining room, the clerk handed +him two telegrams. One read:-- + + Get cribbing down. Page pays the freight. BROWN. + +The other:-- + + Steam barge Demosthenes leaves Milwaukee to-night for Manistogee. + PAGE & CO. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +As Bannon was paying for his dinner, he asked the clerk what sort of a +place Manistogee was. The clerk replied that he had never been there, +but that he understood it was quite a lively town. + +"Good road over there?" + +"Pretty fair." + +"That means you can get through if you're lucky." + +The clerk smiled. "It won't be so bad to-day. You see we've been getting +a good deal of rain. That packs down the sand. You ought to get there +all right. Were you thinking of driving over?" + +"That's the only way to go, is it? Well, I'll see. Maybe a little later. +How far is it?" + +"The farmers call it eighteen miles." + +Bannon nodded his thanks and went back to Sloan's office. + +"Well, it didn't take you long," said the magnate. "Find out what was +the matter with 'em?" + +He enjoyed his well-earned reputation for choler, and as Bannon told him +what he had discovered that morning, the old man paced the room in a +regular beat, pausing every time he came to a certain tempting bit of +blank wall to deal it a thump with his big fist. When the whole +situation was made clear to him, he stopped walking and cursed the whole +G. & M. system, from the ties up. "I'll make 'em smart for that," he +said. "They haul those planks whether they want to or not. You hear me +say it. There's a law that covers a case like that. I'll prosecute 'em. +They'll see whether J. B. Sloan is a safe kind of man to monkey with. +Why, man," he added, turning sharply to Bannon, "why don't you get mad? +You don't seem to care--no more than the angel Gabriel." + +[Illustration: HE ... CURSED THE WHOLE G. & M. SYSTEM, FROM THE TIES UP] + +"I don't care a damn for the G. & M. I want the cribbing." + +"Don't you worry. I'll have the law on those fellows----" + +"And I'd get the stuff about five years from now, when I was likely +enough dead." + +"What's the best way to get it, according to your idea?" + +"Take it over to Manistogee in wagons and then down by barges." + +Sloan snorted. "You'd stand a chance to get some of it by Fourth of July +that way." + +"Do you want to bet on that proposition?" + +Sloan made no reply. He had allowed his wrath to boil for a few minutes +merely as a luxury. Now he was thinking seriously of the scheme. "It +sounds like moonshine," he said at last, "but I don't know as it is. How +are you going to get your barges?" + +"I've got one already. It leaves Milwaukee to-night." + +Sloan looked him over. "I wish you were out of a job," he said. Then +abruptly he went on: "Where are your wagons coming from? You haven't got +them all lined up in the yard now, have you? It'll take a lot of them." + +"I know it. Well, we'll get all there are in Ledyard. There's a +beginning. And the farmers round here ain't so very fond of the G. & M., +are they? Don't they think the railroad discriminates against them--and +ain't they right about it? I never saw a farmer yet that wouldn't grab a +chance to get even with a railroad." + +"That's about right, in this part of the country, anyway." + +"You get up a regular circus poster saying what you think of the G. & +M., and call on the farmers to hitch up and drive to your lumber yard. +We'll stick that up at every crossroads between here and Manistogee." + +Sloan was scribbling on a memorandum pad before Bannon had finished +speaking. He made a false start or two, but presently got something that +seemed to please him. He rang for his office boy, and told him to take +it to the _Eagle_ office. + +"It's got to be done in an hour," said Bannon. "That's when the +procession moves," he added; as Sloan looked at him questioningly. + +The other nodded. "In an hour," he said to the office boy. "What are you +going to do in an hour?" he asked, as the boy went out. + +"Why, it'll be four o'clock then, and we ought to start for Manistogee +as early as we can." + +"We! Well, I should think not!" said Sloan. + +"You're going to drive me over with that fast mare of yours, aren't +you?" + +Sloan laughed. "Look at it rain out there." + +"Best thing in the world for a sand road," said Bannon. "And we'll wash, +I guess. Both been wet before." + +"But it's twenty-five miles over there--twenty-five to thirty." + +Bannon looked at his watch. "We ought to get there by ten o'clock, I +should think." + +"Ten o'clock! What do you think she is--a sawhorse! She never took more +than two hours to Manistogee in her life." + +The corners of Bannon's mouth twitched expressively. Sloan laughed +again. "I guess it's up to me this time," he said. + +Before they started Sloan telephoned to the _Eagle_ office to tell them +to print a full-sized reproduction of his poster on the front page of +the Ledyard _Evening Eagle_. + +"Crowd their news a little, won't it?" Bannon asked. + +Sloan shook his head. "That helps 'em out in great shape." + +The _Eagle_ did not keep them waiting. The moment Sloan pulled up his +impatient mare before the office door, the editor ran out, bare-headed, +in the rain, with the posters. + +"They're pretty wet yet," he said. + +"That's all right. I only want a handful. Send the others to my office. +They know what to do with 'em." + +"I was glad to print them," the editor went on deferentially. "You have +expressed our opinion of the G. & M. exactly." + +"Guess I did," said Sloan as they drove away. "The reorganized G. & M. +decided they didn't want to carry him around the country on a pass." + +Bannon pulled out one of the sheets and opened it on his knee. He +whistled as he read the first sentence, and swore appreciatively over +the next. When he had finished, he buttoned the waterproof apron and +rubbed his wet hands over his knees. "It's grand," he said. "I never saw +anything like it." + +Sloan spoke to the mare. He had held her back as they jolted over the +worn pavement of cedar blocks, but now they had reached the city limits +and were starting out upon the rain-beaten sand. She was a tall, +clean-limbed sorrel, a Kentucky-bred Morgan, and as she settled into her +stride, Bannon watched her admiringly. Her wet flanks had the dull sheen +of bronze. + +"Don't tell me," said Sloan, "that Michigan roads are no good for +driving. You never had anything finer than this in your life." They sped +along as on velvet, noiselessly save when their wheels sliced through +standing pools of water. "She can keep this up till further notice, I +suppose," said Bannon. Sloan nodded. + +Soon they reached the first crossroad. There was a general store at one +corner, and, opposite, a blacksmith's shop. Sloan pulled up and Bannon +sprang out with a hammer, a mouthful of tacks, and three or four of the +posters. He put them up on the sheltered side of conspicuous trees, left +one with the storekeeper, and another with the smith. Then they drove +on. + +They made no pretence at conversation. Bannon seemed asleep save that he +was always ready with his hammer and his posters whenever Sloan halted +the mare. The west wind freshened as the evening came on and dashed +fine, sleety rain into their faces. Bannon huddled his wet coat closer +about him. Sloan put the reins between his knees and pulled on a pair of +heavy gloves. + +It had been dark for half an hour--Bannon could hardly distinguish the +moving figure of the mare--when Sloan spoke to her and drew her to a +walk. Bannon reached for his hammer. "No crossroad here," said Sloan. +"Bridge out of repair. We've got to fetch a circle here up to where she +can wade it." + +"Hold on," said Bannon sharply. "Let me get out." + +"Don't be scared. We'll make it all right." + +"We! Yes, but will fifteen hundred feet of lumber make it? I want to +take a look." + +He splashed forward in the dark, but soon returned. "It's nothing that +can't be fixed in two hours. Where's the nearest farmhouse?" + +"Fifty rods up the road to your right." + +Again Bannon disappeared. Presently Sloan heard the deep challenge of a +big dog. He backed the buggy around up against the wind so that he could +have shelter while he waited. Then he pulled a spare blanket from under +the seat and threw it over the mare. At the end of twenty minutes, he +saw a lantern bobbing toward him. + +The big farmer who accompanied Bannon held the lantern high and looked +over the mare. "It's her all right," he said. Then he turned so that the +light shone full in Sloan's face. "Good evening, Mr. Sloan," he said. +"You'll excuse me, but is what this gentleman tells me all straight?" + +"Guess it is," Sloan smiled. "I'd bank on him myself." + +The farmer nodded with satisfaction. "All right then, Mr. +What's-your-name. I'll have it done for you." + +Sloan asked no questions until they had forded the stream and were back +on the road. Then he inquired, "What's he going to do?" + +"Mend the bridge. I told him it had to be done to-night. Said he +couldn't. Hadn't any lumber. Couldn't think of it I told him to pull +down the lee side of his house if necessary; said you'd give him the +lumber to build an annex on it." + +"What!" + +"Oh, it's all right. Send the bill to MacBride. I knew your name would +go down and mine wouldn't." + +The delay had proved costly, and it was half-past seven before they +reached the Manistogee hotel. + +"Now," said Bannon, "we'll have time to rub down the mare and feed her +before I'm ready to go back." + +Sloan stared at him for a moment in unfeigned amazement. Then slowly he +shook his head. "All right, I'm no quitter. But I will say that I'm glad +you ain't coming to Ledyard to live." + +Bannon left the supper table before Sloan had finished, and was gone +nearly an hour. "It's all fixed up," he said when he returned. "I've +cinched the wharf." + +They started back as they had come, in silence, Bannon crowding as low +as possible in his ulster, dozing. But he roused when the mare, of her +own accord, left the road at the detour for the ford. + +"You don't need to do that," he said. "The bridge is fixed." So they +drove straight across, the mare feeling her way cautiously over the +new-laid planks. + +The clouds were thinning, so that there was a little light, and Bannon +leaned forward and looked about. + +"How did you get hold of the message from the general manager?" asked +Sloan abruptly. + +"Heard it. I can read Morse signals like print. Used to work for the +Grand Trunk." + +"What doing?" + +"Boss of a wrecking gang." Bannon paused. Presently he went on. + +"Yes, there was two years when I slept with my boots on. Didn't know a +quiet minute. Never could tell what I was going to get up against. I +never saw two wrecks that were anything alike. There was a junction +about fifty miles down the road where they used to have collisions +regular; but they were all different. I couldn't figure out what I was +going to do till I was on the ground, and then I didn't have time to. My +only order was, 'Clear the road--and be damn quick about it. 'What I +said went. I've set fire to fifty thousand dollars' worth of mixed +freight just to get it out of the way--and they never kicked. That ain't +the kind of life for me, though. No, nor this ain't, either. I want to +be quiet. I've never had a chance yet, and I've been looking for it ever +since I was twelve years old. I'd like to get a little farm and live on +it all by myself. I'd raise garden truck, cabbages, and such, and I'd +take piano lessons." + +"Is that why you quit the Grand Trunk? So that you could take piano +lessons?" Sloan laughed as he asked the question, but Bannon replied +seriously:-- + +"Why, not exactly. There was a little friction between me and the master +mechanic, so I resigned. I didn't exactly resign, either," he added a +moment later. "I wired the superintendent to go to hell. It came to the +same thing." + +"I worked for a railroad once myself," said Sloan. "Was a hostler in the +round-house at Syracuse, New York. I never worked up any higher than +that. I had ambitions to be promoted to the presidency, but it didn't +seem very likely, so I gave it up and came West." + +"You made a good thing of it. You seem to own most all Pottawatomie +County." + +"Pretty much." + +"I wish you would tell me how to do it. I have worked like an +all-the-year-round blast furnace ever since I could creep, and never +slighted a job yet, but here I am--can't call my soul my own. I have +saved fifteen thousand dollars, but that ain't enough to stop with. I +don't see why I don't own a county too." + +"There's some luck about it. And then I don't believe you look very +sharp for opportunities. I suppose you are too busy. You've got a chance +this minute to turn your fifteen thousand to fifty; maybe lot more." + +"I'm afraid I'm too thick-headed to see it." + +"Why, what you found out this morning was the straightest kind of a +straight tip on the wheat market for the next two months. A big elevator +like yours will be almost decisive. The thing's right in your own hands. +If Page & Company can't make that delivery, why, fellows who buy wheat +now are going to make money." + +"I see," said Bannon, quickly. "All I'd have to do would be to buy all +the wheat I could get trusted for and then hold back the job a little. +And while I was at it, I might just as well make a clean job and walk +off with the pay roll." He laughed. "I'd look pretty, wouldn't I, going +to old MacBride with my tail between my legs, telling him that the job +was too much for me and I couldn't get it done on time. He'd look me +over and say: 'Bannon, you're a liar. You've never had to lay down yet, +and you don't now. Go back and get that job done before New Year's or +I'll shoot you.'" + +"You don't want to get rich, that's the trouble with you," said Sloan, +and he said it almost enviously. + +Bannon rode to Manistogee on the first wagon. The barge was there, so +the work of loading the cribbing into her began at once. There were +numerous interruptions at first, but later in the day the stream of +wagons became almost continuous. Farmers living on other than the +Manistogee roads came into Ledyard and hurried back to tell their +neighbors of the chance to get ahead of the railroad for once. Dennis, +who was in charge at the yard, had hard work to keep up with the supply +of empty wagons. + +Sloan disappeared early in the morning, but at five o'clock Bannon had a +telephone message from him. "I'm here at Blake City," he said, "raising +hell. The general manager gets here at nine o'clock to-night to talk +with me. They're feeling nervous about your getting that message. I +think you'd better come up here and talk to him." + +So a little after nine that night the three men, Sloan, Bannon, and the +manager, sat down to talk it over. And the fact that in the first place +an attempt to boycott could be proved, and in the second that Page & +Company were getting what they wanted anyway--while they talked a long +procession of cribbing was creaking along by lantern light to +Manistogee--finally convinced the manager that the time had come to +yield as gracefully as possible. + +"He means it this time," said Sloan, when he and Bannon were left alone +at the Blake City hotel to talk things over. + +"Yes, I think he does. If he don't, I'll come up here again and have a +short session with him." + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +[Illustration: LAYOUT] + +It was nearly five o'clock when Bannon appeared at the elevator on +Thursday. He at once sought Peterson. + +"Well, what luck did you have?" he asked. "Did you get my message?" + +"Your message? Oh, sure. You said the cribbing was coming down by boat. +I don't see how, though. Ledyard ain't on the lake." + +"Well, it's coming just the same, two hundred thousand feet of it. What +have you done about it?" + +"Oh, we'll be ready for it, soon's it gets here." + +They were standing at the north side of the elevator near the paling +fence which bounded the C. & S. C. right of way. Bannon looked across +the tracks to the wharf; the pile of timber was still there. + +"Did you have any trouble with the railroad when you took your stuff +across for the spouting house?" he asked. + +"Not much of any. The section boss came around and talked a little, but +we only opened the fence in one place, and that seemed to suit him." + +Bannon was looking about, calculating with his eye the space that was +available for the incoming lumber. + +"How'd you manage that business, anyway?" asked Peterson. + +"What business?" + +"The cribbing. How'd you get it to the lake?" + +"Oh, that was easy. I just carried it off." + +"Yes, you did!" + +"Look here, Pete, that timber hasn't got any business out there on the +wharf. We've got to have that room for the cribbing." + +"That's all right. The steamer won't get in much before to-morrow night, +will it?" + +"We aren't doing any banking on that. I've got a notion that the Pages +aren't sending out any six-mile-an-hour scow to do their quick work. +That timber's got to come over here to-night. May as well put it where +the carpenters can get right at it. We'll be on the cupola before long, +anyhow." + +"But it's five o'clock already. There's the whistle." + +Bannon waited while the long blast sounded through the crisp air. Then +he said:-- + +"Offer the men double pay, and tell them that any man can go home that +wants to, right now, but if they say they'll stay, they've got to see it +through." + +Already the laborers were hurrying toward the tool house in a long, +irregular line. Peterson started toward the office, to give the word to +the men before they could hand in their time checks. + +"Mr. Bannon." + +The foreman turned; Vogel was approaching. + +"I wanted to see about that cribbing bill. How much of it's coming down +by boat?" + +"Two hundred thousand. You'd better help Peterson get that timber out of +the way. We're holding the men." + +"Yes, I've been waiting for directions about that. We can put a big gang +on it, and snake it across in no time." + +"You'll have to open up the fence in half a dozen places, and put on +every man you've got. There's no use in making an all-night job of it." + +"I'm afraid we'll have trouble with the railroad." + +"No, we won't. If they kick, you send them to me. Are your arc lights +in?" + +"Yes, all but one or two. They were going to finish it to-day, but they +ain't very spry about it." + +"Tell you what you do, Max; you call them up and tell them we want a man +to come out here and stay for a while. I may want to move the lights +around a little. And, anyhow, they may as well clean up their job and +have it done with." + +He was starting back after the returning laborers when Max said:-- + +"Mr. Bannon." + +"Hello?" + +"I heard you speaking about a stenographer the other day." + +"Yes--what about it? Haven't you got one yet?" + +"No, but I know of one that could do the work first-rate." + +"I want a good one--he's got to keep time besides doing the office +work." + +"Yes, I thought of that. I don't suppose she----" + +"She? We can't have any shes on this job." + +"Well, it's like this, Mr. Bannon; she's an A1 stenographer and +bookkeeper; and as for keeping the time, why, I'm out on the job all day +anyhow, and I reckon I could take care of it without cutting into my +work." + +Bannon looked quizzically down at him. + +"You don't know what you're talking about," he said slowly. "Just look +around at this gang of men--you know the likes of them as well as I +do--and then talk to me about bringing a girl on the job." He his head. +"I reckon it's some one you're interested in." + +"Yes," said Max, "it's my sister." + +Max evidently did not intend to be turned off. As he stood awaiting a +reply--his broad, flat features, his long arms and bow legs with their +huge hands and feet, his fringe of brick-red hair cropping out behind +his cap, each contributing to the general appearance of utter +homeliness--a faint smile came over Bannon's face. The half-formed +thought was in his mind, "If she looks anything like that, I guess she's +safe." He was silent for a moment, then he said abruptly:-- + +"When can she start?" + +"Right away." + +"All right. We'll try it for a day or so and see how it goes. Tell that +boy in the office that he can charge his time up to Saturday night, but +he needn't stay around any longer." + +Max hurried away. Group after group of laborers, peavies or cant-hooks +on shoulders, were moving slowly past him toward the wharf. It was +already nearly dark, and the arc lights on the elevator structure, and +on the spouting house, beyond the tracks, were flaring. He started +toward the wharf, walking behind a score of the laborers. + +From the east, over the flats and marshes through which the narrow, +sluggish river wanders to Lake Michigan, came the hoarse whistle of a +steamer. Bannon turned and looked. His view was blocked by some freight +cars that were standing on the C. & S. C tracks at some distance to the +east. He ran across the tracks and out on the wharf, climbing on the +timber pile, where Peterson and his gang were rolling down the big +sticks with cant-hooks. Not a quarter of a mile away was a big steamer, +ploughing slowly up the river; the cough of her engines and the swash of +the churning water at her bow and stern could be plainly heard. Peterson +stopped work for a moment, and joined him. + +"Well," Bannon said, "we're in for it now. I never thought they'd make +such time as this." + +"She can lay up here all night till morning, I guess." + +Bannon was thinking hard. + +"No," he finally said, "she can't. There ain't any use of wasting all +day to-morrow unloading that cribbing and getting it across." + +Peterson, too, was thinking; and his eye-brows were coming together in a +puzzled scowl. + +"Oh," he said, "you mean to do it to-night?" + +"Yes, sir. We don't get any sleep till every piece of that cribbing is +over at the annex, ready for business in the morning. Your sills are +laid--there's nothing in the way of starting those bins right up. This +ain't an all-night job if we hustle it." + +The steamer was a big lake barge, with high bow and stern, and a long, +low, cargo deck amidships that was piled squarely and high with yellow +two-inch plank. Her crew had clearly been impressed with the need of +hurry, for long before she could be worked into the wharf they had +rigged the two hoists and got the donkey engines into running order. The +captain stood by the rail on the bridge, smoking a cigar, his hand on +the bell-pull. + +"Where do you want it?" he called to Bannon. + +"Right here, where I'm standing. You can swing your bow in just below +the bridge there." + +The captain pulled the bell, and the snub-nosed craft, stirring up a +whirl of mud from the bottom of the river, was brought alongside the +wharf. + +"Where are you going to put it?" the captain called. + +"Here. We'll clean this up as fast as we can. I want that cribbing all +unloaded to-night, sure." + +"That suits me," said the captain. "I don't want to be held up +here--ought to pull out the first thing in the morning." + +"All right, you can do it." Bannon turned to Peterson and Vogel (who had +just reached the wharf). "You want to rush this, boys. I'll go over and +see to the piling." + +He hurried away, pausing at the office long enough to find the man sent +by the electric light company, and to set him at work. The arc lamps had +been placed, for the most part, where they would best illuminate the +annex and the cupola of the elevator, and there was none too much light +on the tracks, where the men were stumbling along, hindered rather than +helped by the bright light before them. On the wharf it was less dark, +for the lights of the steamer were aided by two on the spouting house. +Before seven o'clock Bannon had succeeded in getting two more lights up +on poles, one on each side of the track. + +It was just at seven that the timbers suddenly stopped coming in. Bannon +looked around impatiently. The six men that had brought in the last +stick were disappearing around the corner of the great, shadowy +structure that shut off Bannon's view of the wharf. He waited for a +moment, but no more gangs appeared, and then he ran around the elevator +over the path the men had already trampled. Within the circle of light +between him and the C. & S. C. tracks stood scattered groups of the +laborers, and others wandered about with their hooks over their +shoulders. There was a larger, less distinct crowd out on the tracks. +Bannon ran through an opening in the fence, and pushed into the largest +group. Here Peterson and Vogel were talking to a stupid-looking man with +a sandy mustache. + +"What does this mean, Pete?" he said shortly. "We can't be held up this +way. Get your men back on the work." + +"No, he won't," said the third man. "You can't go on with this work." + +Bannon sharply looked the man over. There was in his manner a dogged +authority. + +"Who are you?" Bannon asked. "Who do you represent?" + +"I represent the C. & S. C. railroad, and I tell you this work stops +right here." + +"Why?" + +The man waved his arm toward the fence. + +"You can't do that sort of business." + +"What sort?" + +"You look at that fence and then talk to me about what sort." + +"What's the matter with the fence?" + +"What's the matter with it! There ain't more'n a rod of it left, that's +what." + +Bannon's scowl relaxed. + +"Oh," he said, "I see. You're the section boss, ain't you?" + +"Yes." + +"That's all right then. Come over here and I'll show you how we've got +things fixed." + +He walked across the track, followed by the section boss and Pete, and +pointed out the displaced sections of the fence, each of which had been +carefully placed at one side. + +"We'll have it all up all right before morning," he said. + +The man was running his fingers up under his cap. + +"I don't know anything about that," he replied sullenly. "I've got my +orders. We didn't make any kick when you opened up in one place, but we +can't stand for all this." + +He was not speaking firmly, and Bannon, watching him closely, jumped at +the conclusion that his orders were not very definite. Probably his +superintendent had instructed him to keep a close eye on the work, and +perhaps to grant no privileges. Bannon wished he knew more about the +understanding between the railroad and MacBride & Company. He felt sure, +however, that an understanding did exist or he would not have been told +to go ahead. + +"That's all right," he said, with an air of easy authority. "We've got +to be working over your tracks for the next two months. It's as much to +our interest as it is to yours to be careful, and I guess we can pull +together. We've got an agreement with your general manager, and that's +what goes." He turned away, but paused and added, "I'll see that you +don't have any reason to complain." + +The section boss looked about with an uncertain air at the crowd of +waiting men. + +"Don't go too fast there----" he began. + +"Look here," said Bannon, abruptly. "We'll sit right down here and send +a message to the general manager. That's the quickest way to settle +it--tell him that we're carrying out timber across the tracks and you've +stopped us." + +It was a bluff, but Bannon knew his man. + +"Now, how about this?" was the reply. "How long will it take you?" + +"Till some time before daylight." Bannon was feeling for his pencil. + +"You see that the fence goes back, will you? We ain't taking any +chances, you understand." + +Bannon nodded. + +"All right, Max," he shouted. "Get to work there. And look here, Max," +in a stern voice, "I expect you to see that the road is not blocked or +delayed in any way. That's your business now, mind." He turned to the +boss as the men hurried past to the wharf. "I used to be a railroad man +myself--chief wrecker on the Grand Trunk--and I guess we won't have any +trouble understanding each other." + +Again the six long lines of men were creeping from the brightly lighted +wharf across the shadowy tracks and around the end of the elevator. +Bannon had held the electric light man within call, and now set him at +work moving two other arc lamps to a position where they made the ground +about the growing piles of timber nearly as light as day. Through the +night air he could hear the thumping of the planks on the wharf. Faintly +over this sound came the shouting of men and the tramp and shuffle of +feet. And at intervals a train would rumble in the distance, slowly +coming nearer, until with a roar that swallowed all the other noises it +was past. The arc lamps glowed and buzzed over the heads of the +sweating, grunting men, as they came along the path, gang after gang, +lifting an end of a heavy stick to the level of the steadily rising +pile, and sliding it home. + +Bannon knew from long experience how to pile the different sizes so that +each would be ready at the hands of the carpenters when the morning +whistle should blow. He was all about the work, giving a hand here, an +order there, always good-humored, though brusque, and always inspiring +the men with the sight of his own activity. + +Toward the middle of the evening Vogel came up from the wharf with a +question. As he was about to return, Bannon, who had been turning over +in his mind the incident of the section boss, said:-- + +"Wait a minute, Max. What about this railroad business--have they +bothered you much before now?" + +"Not very much, only in little ways. I guess it's just this section boss +that does it on his own hook. He's a sort of a fool, you know, and he's +got it into his head that we're trying to do him some way." + +Bannon put his hands into his pockets, and studied the checkered pattern +in the ground shadow of the nearest arc lamp. Then he slowly shook his +head. + +"No," he said, "that ain't it. He's too big a fool to do much on his own +hook. He's acting on orders of some sort, and that's just what I don't +understand. As a general thing a railroad's mighty white to an elevator. +Come to think of it, they said something about it up at the office,"--he +was apparently speaking to himself, and Max quietly waited,--"Brown said +something about the C. & S. C. having got in the way a little down here, +but I didn't think much about it at the time." + +"What could they do?" Max asked. + +"A lot, if they wanted to. But that ain't what's bothering me. They +haven't any connection with the G. & M., have they?" + +"No"--Max shook his head--"no, not that I know of." + +"Well, it's funny, that's all. The man behind those orders that the +section boss talks about is the general manager; and it's my notion that +we're likely to hear from him again. I'll tell you what it is. +Somebody--I don't know who, but somebody--is mighty eager to keep this +house from being finished by the first of January. After this I wish +you'd keep your eyes open for this section boss. Have you had any +trouble with the men?" + +"No, only that clerk that we laid off to-day, he 'lowed he was going to +make trouble. I didn't say anything about it, because they always talk +like that." + +"Yes, I know. What's his name?" + +"Briggs." + +"I guess he can't hurt us any." + +Bannon turned back to his work; and Vogel disappeared in the shadows +along the path. + +Nine o'clock came, and the timber was still coming in. The men were +growing tired and surly from the merciless strain of carrying the long, +heavy sticks. The night was raw and chill. Bannon felt it as he stood +directing the work, and he kept his hands in his pockets, and wished he +had worn his overcoat; but the laborers, barearmed and bare-headed, clad +only in overalls or in thin trousers and cotton shirts, were shaking +sweat from their eyes, and stealing moments between trips to stand where +the keen lake breeze could cool them. Another half-hour or so should see +the last stick on the piles, and Bannon had about decided to go over to +the office when he saw Vogel moving among the men, marking their time in +his book. + +"Here, Max," he called, adding, when Vogel had reached his side: "Just +keep an eye on this, will you? I'll be at the office. Keep things going +just as they are." + +There was a light in the office. Bannon stepped into the doorway, and, +with a suppressed word of impatience, stood looking at the scene within. +The desk that Peterson had supplied for the use of his clerk was +breast-high from the floor, built against the wall, with a high stool +before it. The wall lamp had been taken down; now it stood with its +reflector on the top of the desk, which was covered with books and +papers. A girl was sitting on the stool, bending over a ledger and +rapidly footing up columns. Bannon could not see her face, for a young +fellow stood leaning over the railing by the desk, his back to the door. +He had just said something, and now he was laughing in a conscious +manner. + +Bannon quietly stepped to one side. The girl looked up for a moment and +brushed her hair back from her face. The fellow spoke again in a low +tone, but beyond a slight compressing of her lips she did not seem to +hear him. Without a word, Bannon came forward, took him by the arm, and +led him out of the door. Still holding his arm, he took a step back, and +(they stood in the outer circle of the electric light) looked him over. + +"Let's see," he said, "you're the man that was clerking here." + +There was no reply. + +"And your name's--what?" + +"Briggs." + +"Well, Mr. Briggs, did you get a message from me?" + +"I don't know what you mean," said the young man, his eyes on the +ground. "Max, he come around, but I wanted to wait and see you. He's a +mean cuss----" + +"You see me now, don't you?" + +"Yes." The reply was indistinct. + +"You keep out of the office after this. If I catch you in there again, I +won't stop to talk. Now, clear out." + +Briggs walked a little way, then turned. + +"Maybe you think you can lay me off without notice--but you'll wish----" + +Bannon turned back to the office, giving no heed to Briggs' last words: +"I've got you fixed already." He was thinking of the girl there on the +stool. She did not look like the girl he had expected to see. To be sure +her hair was red, but it was not of the red that outcropped from Max's +big head; it was of a dark, rich color, and it had caught the light from +the lamp with such a shine as there is in new red gold. When he entered, +she was again footing columns. She was slender, and her hand, where it +supported her forehead was white. Again Bannon stood motionless, slowly +shaking his head. Then he came forward. She heard his step and looked +up, as if to answer a question, letting her eyes rest on his face. He +hesitated, and she quietly asked:-- + +"What is it, please?" + +"Miss Vogel?" + +"Yes." + +"I'm Mr. Bannon. There wasn't any need of your working to-night. I'm +just keeping the men on so we can get in this cribbing. When did you +come?" + +"My brother telephoned to me. I wanted to look things over before +starting in to-morrow." + +"How do you find it?" + +She hesitated, glancing over the jumble of papers on the desk. + +"It hasn't been kept up very well," she presently said. "But it won't be +hard, I think, to straighten it out." + +Bannon leaned on the rail and glanced at the paper on which she had been +setting down totals. + +"I guess you'd better go home, Miss Vogel. It's after nine o'clock." + +"I can finish in an hour." + +"You'd better go. There'll be chances enough for night work without your +making them." + +She smiled, cleared up the desk, and reached for her jacket, which hung +from the nail behind her. Then she paused. + +"I thought I would wait for my brother, Mr. Bannon." + +"That's all right. I guess we can spare him. I'll speak to him. Do you +live far?" + +"No; Max and I are boarding at the same place." + +He had got to the door when she asked:-- + +"Shall I put out the light?" + +He turned and nodded. She was drawing on her gloves. She perhaps was not +a very pretty girl, but there was something in her manner, as she stood +there in the dim light, her hair straying out from beneath her white +"sombrero" hat, that for the moment took Bannon far away from this +environment of railroad tracks and lumber piles. He waited till she came +out, then he locked the door. + +"I'll walk along with you myself, if you don't mind," he said. And after +they had crossed the Belt Line tracks, and he had helped her, with a +little laugh from each of them, to pick her way over the switches and +between the freight cars, he said: "You don't look much like your +brother." + +It was not a long walk to the boarding house but before they had reached +it Bannon was nervous. It was not a custom with him to leave his work on +such an errand. He bade her a brusque good-night, and hurried back, +pausing only after he had crossed the tracks, to cast his eye over the +timber. There was no sign of activity, though the two arc lamps were +still in place. "All in, eh," he said. + +He followed the path beside the elevator and on around the end, and +then, with an exclamation, he hurried forward; for there was the same +idle crowd about the tracks that had been there during the trouble with +the section boss--the same buzz of talk, and the idle laughter and +shouting. As he ran, his foot struck a timber-end, and he sprawled +forward for nearly a rod before recovering his balance; then he stopped +and looked along the ground. A long line of timbers lay end to end, the +timber hooks across them or near by on the ground, where they had been +dropped by the laborers. On along the path, through the fence openings, +and out on the tracks, lay the lines of timber. Here and there Bannon +passed gangs of men lounging on the ground, waiting for the order to +move on. As he passed through the fence, walking on the timbers, and +hurried through the crowd, which had been pushed back close to the +fence, he heard a low laugh that came along like a wave from man to man. +In a moment he was in front of them all. + +The middle tracks were clear, excepting a group of three or four men, +who stood a little to one side. Bannon could not make them out. Another +crowd of laborers was pressed back against the opposite fence. These had +moved apart at one of the fence openings, and as Bannon looked, two men +came through, stumbling and staggering under a long ten-by-twelve +timber, which they were carrying on their shoulders. Bannon looked +sharply; the first, a big, deep-chested man, bare-headed and in his +shirt sleeves, was Peterson. + +Bannon started forward, when Max, who had been hurrying over to him, +touched his arm. + +"What's all this, Max?" + +"I'm glad you've come. It's Grady, the walking delegate--that's him over +there where those men are standing, the little fellow with his hat on +one side--he's been here for ten minutes." + +"Speak quick. What's the trouble?" + +"First he wanted to know how much we were paying the men for night work, +and I told him. Thought I might as well be civil to him. Then he said +we'd got to take Briggs back, and I told him Briggs wasn't a union man, +and he hadn't anything to say about it. He and Briggs seemed to know +each other. Finally he came out here on the job and said we were working +the men too hard--said we'd have to put ten men on the heavy sticks and +eight on the others. I was going to do it, but Peterson came up and said +he wouldn't do it, and Grady called the men off, just where they were. +He wouldn't let 'em lift a finger. You see there's timber all over the +tracks. Then Pete got mad, and said him and Donnelly could bring a +twenty-foot stick over alone, and it was all rot about putting on more +men. Here they come--just look at Pete's arms! He could lift a house." + +Some of the men were laughing, others growling, but all had their eyes +fixed on Peterson and Donnelly as they came across the tracks, slowly +picking their way, and shifting the weight a little, at every few +seconds, on their shoulders. Bannon was glancing swiftly about, taking +in the situation. He would not imperil his discipline by reproving +Peterson before the men, so he stood for a moment, thinking, until the +task should be accomplished. + +"It's Briggs that did the whole business," Max was saying. "He brought +the delegate around--he was blowing about it among the men when I found +him." + +"Is he on the job now?" Bannon asked. + +"No, and I don't think he'll be around again very soon. There were some +loafers with him, and they took him away." + +Peterson and Donnelly had disappeared through the fence, and a few of +the crowd were following, to see them get the timber clear around the +building to the pile. + +"Have you sent out flagmen, Max?" Bannon asked. + +"No, I didn't." + +"Get at it quick--send a man each way with a lantern--put something red +over them, their shirts if necessary." + +"None of the men will dare do it while the delegate's here." + +"Find some one--take one side yourself, if you have to." + +Max hurried away for the lanterns, Bannon walked out to the group of men +on the middle tracks. + +"Where's Mr. Grady?" he said. + +One of the men pointed, but the delegate gave no attention. + +"You're Mr. Grady, are you?" said Bannon. "I'm Mr. Bannon, of MacBride & +Company. What's the trouble here?" + +The delegate was revelling in his authority: his manner was not what it +was to be when he should know Bannon better. He waved his hand toward +the wharf. + +"You ought to know better than that," he said curtly. + +"Than what?" + +"Than what?--than running a job the way this is run." + +"I think I can run this job," said Bannon, quietly. "You haven't told me +what's the trouble yet." + +"It's right here--you're trying to make money by putting on one man to +do the work of two." + +"How?" + +Bannon's quiet manner exasperated the delegate. + +"Use your eyes, man--you can't make eight men carry a twelve-by-fourteen +stick." + +"How many shall I put on?" + +"Ten." + +"All right." + +"And you'd better put eight men on the other sticks." + +The delegate looked up, nettled that Bannon should yield so easily. + +"That's all right," said Bannon. "We aren't fighting the union. After +this, if you've got anything to say, I wish you'd come to me with it +before you call off the men. Is there anything else before I start up?" + +Grady was chewing the stub of a cigar. He stood looking about with an +ugly air, then he said:-- + +"You ain't starting up just yet." + +"Why not?" + +The delegate's reply was lost in the shout that suddenly went up from +the western end of the line of laborers. Then came the sound of a +locomotive bell and exhaust. Bannon started down the track, jumping the +timbers as he ran, toward Vogel's lantern, that was bobbing along toward +him. The train had stopped, but now it was puffing slowly forward, +throwing a bright light along the rails. + +"It's a C. & S. C. local," Max shouted. "Can't we clear up the right +track?" + +Bannon stopped and looked around. About half of the men had followed +him, and were strung out in irregular groups between him and the +timbers. Walking up between the groups came the delegate, with two men, +chewing his cigar in silence as he walked. The train was creeping along, +the fireman leaning far out of the cab window, closely scanning the +track for signs of an obstruction. On the steps between the cars a few +passengers were trying to get a view up the track; and others were +running along beside the train. + +"This has gone too far," Bannon muttered. He turned and shouted to the +men: "Clear up that track. Quick, now!" + +Some of the men started, but stopped, and all looked at the delegate. He +stepped to one side and coolly looked over the train; then he raised his +hand. + +"Don't touch the timbers," he said. "It ain't a mail train." + +His voice was not loud, but those near at hand passed the word along, +and the long line of men stood motionless. By that time the train had +stopped, and three of the crew had come forward. They saw the timbers on +the track and hurried toward them, but the delegate called out:-- + +"Watch those sticks, boys! Don't let a man touch them!" + +There was no hesitation when the delegate spoke in that tone. A score of +men blocked the way of the train crew. + +Bannon was angry. He stood looking at Grady with snapping eyes, and his +hands closed into knotted fists. But Bannon knew the power of the +unions, and he knew that a rash step now might destroy all hope of +completing the elevator in time. He crossed over to the delegate. + +"What do you want?" he said gruffly. + +"Nothing from you." + +"What do you want?" Bannon repeated, and there was something in his +voice that caused the delegate to check a second retort. + +"You'll kill these men if you work them like this. They've been on the +job all day." + +Bannon was beginning to see that Grady was more eager to make trouble +than to uphold the cause of the men he was supposed to represent. In his +experience with walking delegates he had not met this type before. He +was proud of the fact that he had never had any serious trouble in +dealing with his workmen or their representatives. Mr. MacBride was fond +of saying that Bannon's tact in handling men was unequalled; but Bannon +himself did not think of it in this way--to him, trouble with the +laborers or the carpenters or the millwrights meant loss of time and +loss of money, the two things he was putting in his time to avoid; and +until now he had found the maligned walking delegate a fair man when he +was fairly dealt with. So he said:-- + +"Well, what are you asking?" + +"These gangs ought to be relieved every two hours." + +"I'll do it. Now clear up those timbers." + +The delegate turned with a scowl, and waved the men back to their work. +In a moment the track was clear, and the train was moving slowly onward +between the long lines of men. + +Bannon started the gangs at work. When the timbers were again coming +across from the wharf in six slowly moving streams that converged at the +end of the elevator, he stood looking after the triangle of red lights +on the last car of the train until they had grown small and close +together in the distance. Then he went over to the wharf to see how much +timber remained, and to tell Peterson to hurry the work; for he did not +look for any further accommodation on the part of the C. & S. C. +railroad, now that a train had been stopped. The steamer lay quietly at +the dock, the long pile of cribbing on her deck shadowed by the high bow +deckhouse from the lights on the spouting house. Her crew were bustling +about, rigging the two hoisting engines, and making all ready for +unloading when the order should be given. + +Peterson had been working through the timber pile from the shore side, +so that now only a thin wall remained at the outer edge of the wharf. +Bannon found him standing on the pile, rolling down the sticks with a +peavey to where the carrying gangs could pick them up. + +"Better bring all your men up here, Pete, and clean it all away by the +steamer. She may as well begin unloading now." + +Bannon walked back to the tracks, in time to see a handcar and trailer, +packed with men, come up the track and stop near at hand. The men at +once scattered, and brushing aside Bannon's laborers, they began +replacing the sections of fence. Bannon crossed to the section boss, who +recognized him and without comment handed him a telegraphed order. + +"There's no getting around that," he said, when Bannon had read it. +"That's straight from the old man." + +Bannon returned it, called Peterson, and hurried with him around the +elevator to find Max, who was overseeing the piling. + +"What'll we do?" Peterson asked, as they ran; but Bannon made no reply +until the three were together. Then he said, speaking shortly:-- + +"Get the wire cable off one of your hoisting engines, Pete, and make one +end fast as high as you can on the spouting house. We'll run it across +the tracks, on a slope, down to this side. Max, you get a light rope and +a running block, and hang a hook on it." + +"I see," said Max, eagerly. "You're going to run it over on a trolley." + +"Yes. The engineers have gone, haven't they?" + +"Went at five," said Peterson. + +"That's all right. We'll only need the hoist at the spouting house. The +rest of it's just plain sliding down hill." + +"But who'll run it?" + +"I will. Pete, you get up on the spouting house and see that they're +started down. Max will stay over here and watch the piling. Now rush +it." + +Half an hour had gone before the cable could be stretched from the +spouting house, high over the tracks, down to the elevator structure, +and before the hoisting engine could be got under steam. Meanwhile, for +the third time since five o'clock, the laborers stood about, grumbling +and growing more impatient. But at last it was all under way. The +timbers were hoisted lightly up the side of the spouting house, hooked +to the travelling block, and sent whirling down to Max's waiting hands, +to be snatched away and piled by the men. But compared with the other +method, it was slow work, and Bannon found that, for lack of employment, +it was necessary to let half of the men go for the night. + +Soon, to the rattle of blocks and the tramping of feet and the calling +and shouting of men, was added the creak of the steamer's hoists, and +the groan of her donkey engines as her crew began the work of dumping +out the cribbing by hand and steam, on the cleared space on the wharf. +And then, when the last big stick had gone over, Peterson began sending +bundles of two-inch cribbing. Before the work was finished, and the last +plank from the steamer's cargo had been tossed on the pile by the annex, +the first faint color was spreading over the eastern sky, and the damp +of a low-country morning was in the air. + +Bannon stopped the engine and drew the fire; Peterson and his crew +clambered to the ground, and Max put on his coat and waited for the two +foremen to come across the tracks. When they joined him, Bannon looked +sharply at him in the growing light. + +"Hello, Max," he said; "where did you get that black eye?" + +"That ain't much," Max replied. "You ought to see Briggs." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +When Bannon came on the job on Friday morning at seven o'clock, a group +of heavy-eyed men were falling into line at the timekeeper's window. Max +was in the office, passing out the checks. His sister was continuing her +work of the night before, going over what books and papers were to be +found in the desk. Bannon hung up his overcoat and looked through the +doorway at the square mass of the elevator that stood out against the +sky like some gigantic, unroofed barn. The walls rose nearly eighty feet +from the ground--though the length and breadth of the structure made +them appear lower--so close to the tops of the posts that were to +support the cupola frame that Bannon's eyes spoke of satisfaction. He +meant to hide those posts behind the rising walls of cribbing before the +day should be gone. He glanced about at the piles of two-inch plank that +hid the annex foundation work. There it lay, two hundred thousand feet +of it--not very much, to be sure, but enough to keep the men busy for +the present, and enough, too, to give a start to the annex bins and +walls. + +Peterson was approaching from the tool house, and Bannon called. + +"How many laborers have you got, Pete?" + +"Hardly any. Max, there, can tell." + +Max, who had just passed out his last check, now joined them at the +doorstep. + +"There's just sixty-two that came for checks," he said, "not counting +the carpenters." + +"About what I expected," Bannon replied. "This night business lays them +out." He put his head in at the door. "You'd better give checks to any +new men that we send to the window, Miss Vogel; but keep the names of +the old men, and if they show up in the morning, take them back on the +job. Now, boys"--to Peterson and Max--"pick up the men you see hanging +around and send them over. I'll be at the office for a while. We'll push +the cribbing on the main house and start right in on the annex bins. +There ain't much time to throw around if we're going to eat our +Christmas dinner." + +The two went at once. The hoisting engines were impatiently blowing off +steam. New men were appearing every moment, delaying only to answer a +few brisk questions and to give their names to Miss Vogel, and then +hurrying away to the tool house, each with his brass check fastened to +his coat. When Bannon was at last ready to enter the office, he paused +again to look over the ground. The engines were now puffing steadily, +and the rapping of many hammers came through the crisp air. Gangs of +laborers were swarming over the lumber piles, pitching down the planks, +and other gangs were carrying them away and piling them on "dollies," to +be pushed along the plank runways to the hoist. There was a black fringe +of heads between the posts on the top of the elevator, where the +carpenters were spiking down the last planks of the walls and bins. + +Miss Vogel was at work on the ledger when Bannon entered the office. He +pushed his hat back on his head and came up beside her. + +"How's it coming out?" he asked. "Do we know how much we're good for?" + +She looked up, smiling. + +"I think so. I'm nearly through. It's a little mixed in some places, but +I think everything has been entered." + +"Can you drop it long enough to take a letter or so?" + +"Oh, yes." She reached for her notebook, saying, with a nod toward the +table: "The mail is here." + +Bannon went rapidly through the heap of letters and bills. + +"There's nothing much," he said. "You needn't wait for me to open it +after this. You'll want to read everything to keep posted. These bills +for cribbing go to your brother, you know." There was one chair within +the enclosure; he brought it forward and sat down, tipping back against +the railing. "Well, I guess we may as well go ahead and tell the firm +that we're still moving around and drawing our salaries. To MacBride & +Company, Minneapolis, Gentlemen: Cribbing is now going up on elevator +and annex. A little over two feet remains to be done on the elevator +beneath the distributing floor. The timber is ready for framing the +cupola. Two hundred thousand feet of the Ledyard cribbing reached here +by steamer last night, and the balance will be down in a few days. Very +truly yours, MacBride & Company. That will do for them. Now, we'll write +to Mr. Brown--no, you needn't bother, though; I'll do that one myself. +You might run off the other and I'll sign it." He got up and moved his +chair to the table. "I don't generally seem able to say just what I want +to Brown unless I write it out." His letter ran:-- + + DEAR MR. BROWN: We've finally got things going. Had to stir them up + a little at Ledyard. Can you tell me who it is that's got hold of + our coat tails on this job? There's somebody trying to hold us + back, all right. Had a little fuss with a red-headed walking + delegate last night, but fixed him. That hat hasn't come yet. Shall + I call up the express company and see what's the matter? 7-1/4 is + my size. + + Yours, + BANNON. + +He had folded the letter and addressed the envelope, when he paused and +looked around. The typewritten letter to MacBride & Company lay at his +elbow. He signed it before he spoke. + +"Miss Vogel, have you come across any letters or papers about an +agreement with the C. & S. C.?" + +"No," she replied, "there is nothing here about the railroad." + +Bannon drummed on the table; then he went to the door and called to a +laborer who was leaving the tool house:-- + +"Find Mr. Peterson and ask him if he will please come to the office for +a moment." + +He came slowly back and sat on the corner of the table, watching Miss +Vogel as her pencil moved rapidly up column after column. + +"Had quite a time up there in Michigan," he said. "Those G. & M. people +were after us in earnest. If they'd had their way, we'd never have got +the cribbing." + +She looked up. + +"You see, they had told Sloan--he's the man that owns the lumber company +and the city of Ledyard and pretty much all of the Lower Peninsula--that +they hadn't any cars; and he'd just swallowed it down and folded up his +napkin. I hadn't got to Ledyard before I saw a string of empties on a +siding that weren't doing a thing but waiting for our cribbing, so I +caught a train to Blake City and gave the Division Superintendent some +points on running railroads. He was a nice, friendly man"--Bannon +clasped his hands about one knee and smiled reminiscently--"I had him +pretty busy there for a while thinking up lies. He was wondering how he +could get ready for the next caller, when I came at him and made him +wire the General Manager of the line. The operator was sitting right +outside the door, and when the answer came I just took it in--it gave +the whole snap away, clear as you want." + +Miss Vogel turned on her stool. + +"You took his message?" + +"I should say I did. It takes a pretty lively man to crowd me off the +end of a wire. He told the superintendent not to give us cars. That was +all I wanted to know. So I told him how sorry I was that I couldn't stay +to lunch, caught the next train back to Ledyard, and built a fire under +Sloan." + +Miss Vogel was looking out of the window. + +"He said he could not give us cars?" she repeated. + +Bannon smiled. + +"But we didn't need them," he said. "I got a barge to come over from +Milwaukee, and we loaded her up and started her down." + +"I don't understand, Mr. Bannon. Ledyard isn't on the lake--and you +couldn't get cars." + +"That wasn't very hard." He paused, for a step sounded outside the door +and in a moment Peterson had come in. + +"I guess you wanted to talk to me, didn't you, Charlie?" + +"Yes, I'm writing to the office. It's about this C. & S. C. business. +You said you'd had trouble with them before." + +"Oh, no," said Peterson, sitting on the railing and removing his hat, +with a side glance at Miss Vogel, "not to speak of. There wasn't nothing +so bad as last night." + +"What was it?" + +"Why, just a little talk when we opened the fence first time. That +section boss was around, but I told him how things was, and he didn't +seem to have no kick coming as long as we was careful." + +Bannon had taken up his letter to Brown, and was slowly unfolding it and +looking it over. When Peterson got to his feet, he laid it on the table. + +"Anything else, Charlie? I'm just getting things to going on the annex. +We're going to make her jump, I tell you. I ain't allowing any loafing +there." + +"No," Bannon replied, "I guess not." He followed the foreman out of +doors. "Do you remember having any letters, Pete, about our agreement +with the C. & S. C. to build over the tracks--from the office or +anybody?" + +Peterson brought his brows together and tried to remember. After a +moment he slowly shook his head. + +"Nothing, eh?" said Bannon. + +"Not that I can think of. Something may have come in while Max was here +in the office----" + +"I wish you'd ask him." + +"All right. He'll be around my way before long, taking the time." + +"And say," Bannon added, with one foot on the doorstep, "you haven't +seen anything more of that man Briggs, have you?" + +Peterson shook his head. + +"If you see him hanging around, you may as well throw him right off the +job." + +Peterson grinned. + +"I guess he won't show up very fast. Max did him up good last night, +when he was blowing off about bringing the delegate around." + +Bannon had drawn the door to after him when he came out. He was turning +back, with a hand on the knob, when Peterson, who was lingering, said in +a low voice, getting out the words awkwardly:-- + +"Say, Charlie, she's all right, ain't she." + +Bannon did not reply, and Peterson jerked his thumb toward the office. + +"Max's sister, there. I never saw any red hair before that was up to the +mark. Ain't she a little uppish, though, don't you think?" + +"I guess not." + +"Red-haired girls generally is. They've got tempers, too, most of them. +It's funny about her looks. She don't look any more like Max than +anything." He grinned again. "Lord, Max is a peach, though, ain't he." + +Bannon nodded and reëntered the office. He sat down and added a +postscript to his letter: + + The C. & S. C. people are trying to make it warm for us about + working across their tracks. Can't we have an understanding with + them before we get ready to put up the belt gallery? If we don't, + we'll have to build a suspension bridge. + + C. B. + +He sealed the envelope and tossed it to one side. + +"Miss Vogel," he said, pushing his chair back, "didn't you ask me +something just now?" + +"It was about getting the cribbing across the lake," she replied. "I +don't see how you did it." + +Her interest in the work pleased Bannon. + +"It ain't a bad story. You see the farmers up in that country hate the +railroads. It's the tariff rebate, you know. They have to pay more to +ship their stuff to market than some places a thousand miles farther +off. And I guess the service is pretty bad all around. I was figuring on +something like that as soon as I had a look at things. So we got up a +poster and had it printed, telling what they all think of the G. & +M."--he paused, and his eyes twinkled--"I wouldn't mind handing one to +that Superintendent just for the fun of seeing him when he read it. It +told the farmers to come around to Sloan's lumber yard with their +wagons." + +"And you carried it across in the wagons?" + +"I guess we did." + +"Isn't it a good ways?" + +"Eighteen to thirty miles, according to who you ask. As soon as things +got to going we went after the General Manager and gave him a bad half +hour; so I shouldn't be surprised to see the rest of the bill coming in +by rail any time now." + +Bannon got up and slowly buttoned his coat. He was looking about the +office, at the mud-tracked floor and the coated windows, and at the +hanging shreds of spider web in the corners and between the rafters +overhead. + +"It ain't a very cheerful house to live in all day, is it?" he said. "I +don't know but what we'd better clean house a little. There's not much +danger of putting a shine on things that'll hurt your eyes. We ought to +be able to get hold of some one that could come in once in a while and +stir up the dust. Do you know of any one?" + +"There is a woman that comes to our boarding-house. I think they know +about her at the hotel." + +He went to the telephone and called up the hotel. + +"She'll be here this afternoon," he said as he hung up the receiver. +"Will she bring her own scrubbing things, or are we supposed to have +them for her? This is some out of my line." + +Miss Vogel was smiling. + +"She'll have her own things, I guess. When she comes, would you like me +to start her to work?" + +"If you'd just as soon. And tell her to make a good job of it. I've got +to go out now, but I'll be around off and on during the day." + +When the noon whistle blew Bannon and Max were standing near the annex. +Already the bins and walls had been raised more than a foot above the +foundation, which gave it the appearance of a great checker-board. + +"Looks like business, doesn't it," said Max. He was a little excited, +for now there was to be no more delaying until the elevator should stand +completed from the working floor to the top, one hundred and sixty feet +above the ground; until engines, conveyors, and scales should be working +smoothly and every bin filled with grain. Indeed, nearly everybody on +the job had by this time caught the spirit of energy that Bannon had +infused into the work. + +"I'll be glad when it gets up far enough to look like something, so we +can feel that things are really getting on." + +"They're getting on all right," Bannon replied. + +"How soon will we be working on the cupola?" + +"To-morrow." + +"To-morrow!" Max stopped (they had started toward the office) and looked +at Bannon in amazement. "Why, we can't do it, can we?" + +"Why not?" Bannon pointed toward a cleared space behind the pile of +cribbing, where the carpenters had been at work on the heavy timbers. +"They're all ready for the framing." + +Max made no reply, but he looked up as they passed the elevator and +measured with his eyes the space remaining between the cribbing and the +tops of the posts. He had yet to become accustomed to Bannon's methods; +but he had seen enough of him to believe that it would be done if Bannon +said so. + +They were halfway to the office when Max said, with a touch of +embarrassment:-- + +"How's Hilda going to take hold, Mr. Bannon?" + +"First-class." + +Max's eyes sparkled. + +"She can do anything you give her. Her head's as clear as a bell." + +For the moment Bannon made no reply, but as they paused outside the +office door he said: + +"We'd better make a point of dropping in at the office now and then +during the day. Any time you know I'm out on the job and you're up this +way, just look in." + +Max nodded. + +"And nights when we're working overtime, there won't be any trouble +about your getting off long enough to see your sister home. She won't +need to do any night work." + +They entered the office. Miss Vogel was standing by the railing gate, +buttoning her jacket and waiting for Max. Behind her, bending over the +blue prints on the table, stood Peterson, apparently too absorbed to +hear the two men come in. Bannon gave him a curious glance, for no blue +prints were needed in working on the annex, which was simply a matter of +building bins up from the foundation. When Max and his sister had gone +the foreman looked around, and said, with a show of surprise:-- + +"Oh, hello, Charlie. Going up to the house?" + +"Yes." + +Peterson's manner was not wholly natural. As they walked across the +flats his conversation was a little forced, and he laughed occasionally +at certain occurrences in the morning's work that were not particularly +amusing. + +Bannon did not get back to the office until a half hour after work had +commenced for the afternoon. He carried a large bundle under one arm and +in his hand a wooden box with a slot cut in the cover. He found the +scrub-woman hard at work on the office floor. The chair and the unused +stool were on the table. He looked about with satisfaction. + +"It begins to look better already," he said to Miss Vogel. "You know +we're not going to be able to keep it all clean; there'll be too many +coming in. But there's going to be a law passed about tracking mud +inside the railing." He opened his bundle and unrolled a door mat, which +he laid in front of the gate. + +Miss Vogel was smiling, but Bannon's face was serious. He cut a square +piece from the wrapping paper, and sitting on the table, printed the +placard: "Wipe your feet! Or put five cents in the box." Then he nailed +both box and placard to the railing, and stood back to look at his work. + +"That will do it," he said. + +She nodded. "There's no danger that they won't see it." + +"We had a box down on the New Orleans job," said Bannon, "only that was +for swearing. Every time anybody swore he put in a nickel, and then when +Saturday came around we'd have ten or fifteen dollars to spend." + +"It didn't stop the swearing, then?" + +"Oh, yes. Everybody was broke a day or so after pay day, and for a few +days every week it was the best crowd you ever saw. But we won't spend +this money that way. I guess we'll let you decide what to do with it." + +Hour by hour the piles of cribbing dwindled, and on the elevator the +distance from bin walls to post-tops grew shorter. Before five o'clock +the last planks were spiked home on the walls and bins in the northwest +corner. A few hours' work in the morning would bring the rest of the +house to the same level, and then work could commence on the +distributing floor and on the frame of the cupola. Before the middle of +the afternoon he had started two teams of horses dragging the cupola +timbers, which had been cut ready for framing, to the foot of the hoist. +By ten o'clock in the morning, Bannon figured, the engine would be +lifting timbers instead of bundles of cribbing. + +There was a chill wind, up there on the top of the elevator, coming +across the flats out of the glowing sunset. But Bannon let his coat flap +open, as he gave a hand now and then to help the men. He liked to feel +the wind tugging at sleeves and cap, and he leaned against it, +bare-throated and bare-handed--bare-headed, too, he would have been had +not a carpenter, rods away on the cribbing, put out a hand to catch his +cap as it tried to whirl past on a gust. The river wound away toward the +lake, touched with the color of the sky, to lose itself half a mile away +among the straggling rows of factories and rolling mills. From the +splendid crimson of the western sky to the broken horizon line of South +Chicago, whose buildings hid Lake Michigan, the air was crisp and clear; +but on the north, over the dim shops and blocks of houses that grew +closer together as the eye went on, until spires and towers and gray +walls were massed in confusion, hung a veil of smoke, like a black +cloud, spreading away farther than eye could see. This was Chicago. + +Bannon climbed to the ground and took a last look about the work before +going to the office. The annex was growing slowly but surely; and +Peterson, coatless and hatless as usual, with sleeves rolled up, was at +work with the men, swinging a hammer here, impatiently shouldering a +bundle of planks there. And Bannon saw more clearly what he had known +before, that Peterson was a good man when kept within his limitations. +Certainly the annex could not have been better started. + +When Bannon entered the office, Miss Vogel handed him a sheet of paper. +He came in through the gate and stood at the desk beside her to have the +light of the lamp. It was a balance sheet, giving the results of her +examination of the books. + +"All right, eh?" he said. A glance had been enough to show him that +hereafter there would be no confusion in the books; the cashier of a +metropolitan bank could not have issued a more businesslike statement. +He tossed it on the desk, saying, "You might file it." + +Then he took time to look about the office. It was as clean as +blackened, splintered planks could be made; even the ceiling had been +attacked and every trace of cobweb removed. + +"Well," he said, "this is business. And we'll keep it this way, too." + +She had faced about on the stool and was looking at him with a twinkle +in her eye. + +"Yes," she said, evidently trying not to laugh; "we'll try to." + +He was not looking at her as she spoke, but when, a moment later, the +laugh broke away from her, he turned. She was looking at his feet. He +glanced down and saw a row of black footprints leading from the door to +where he stood, one of them squarely in the centre of the new mat. He +gazed ruefully, then he reached into his pocket and drew out a quarter, +dropping it in the box. + +"Well----" he said, wiping his feet; but the whistle just then gave a +long blast, and he did not finish the sentence. + +After supper Bannon and Peterson sat in the room they occupied together. +In the walk home and during supper there had been the same sullen manner +about the younger man that Bannon had observed at noon. Half a day was a +long time for Peterson to keep to himself something that bothered him, +and before the close of dinner he had begun working the talk around. +Now, after a long silence, that Bannon filled with sharpening pencils, +he said: + +"Some people think a lot of themselves, don't they, Charlie?" + +Bannon looked up from his pencils; he was sitting on the edge of the +bed. + +"She seems to think she's better'n Max and you and me, and everybody. I +thought she looked pretty civil, and I didn't say a word she need to +have got stuck-up about." + +Bannon asked no questions. After waiting to give him an opportunity, +Peterson went on:-- + +"There's going to be a picnic Sunday of the Iron Workers up at +Sharpshooters' Park. I know a fellow that has tickets. It'd be just as +quiet as anywhere--and speeches, you know. I don't see that she's any +better than a lot of the girls that'll be there." + +"Do you mean to say you asked her to go?" Bannon asked. + +"Yes, and she----" + +Bannon had turned away to strop his razor on his hand, and Peterson, +after one or two attempts to begin the story, let the subject drop. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +Bannon had the knack of commanding men. He knew the difference between +an isolated--or better, perhaps, an insulated--man and the same man in a +crowd. Without knowing how he did it, he could, nevertheless, +distinguish between the signs of temporary ill feeling among the men and +the perhaps less apparent danger signal that meant serious mischief. + +Since his first day on the job the attitude of the men had worried him a +little. There was something in the air he did not like. Peterson, +accustomed to handling smaller bodies of men, had made the natural +mistake of driving the very large force employed on the elevator with +much too loose a rein. The men were still further demoralized by the +episode with the walking delegate, Grady, on Thursday night. Bannon knew +too much to attempt halfway measures, so he waited for a case of +insubordination serious enough to call for severe treatment. + +When he happened into the office about the middle of Saturday morning, +Miss Vogel handed him two letters addressed to him personally. One was +from Brown,--the last paragraph of it as follows:-- + + Young Page has told MacBride in so many words what we've all been + guessing about, that is, that they are fighting to break the corner + in December wheat. They have a tremendous short line on the Chicago + Board, and they mean to deliver it. Twenty-two hundred thousand has + got to be in the bins there at Calumet before the first of January + unless the Day of Judgment happens along before then. Never mind + what it costs you. + + BROWN. + + P.S. MacBride has got down an atlas and is trying to figure out how + you got that cribbing to the lake. I told him you put the barge on + rollers and towed it up to Ledyard with a traction engine. + +The letter from Sloan was to the effect that twelve cars were at that +moment on the yard siding, loading with cribbing, and that all of it, +something more than eighteen hundred thousand feet, would probably be in +Chicago within a week. A note was scribbled on the margin in Sloan's +handwriting. "Those fool farmers are still coming in expecting a job. +One is out in the yard now. Came clear from Victory. I've had to send +out a man to take down the posters." + +"That's just like a farmer," Bannon said to Miss Vogel. "Time don't +count with him. To-morrow morning or two weeks from next Tuesday--he +can't see the difference. I suppose if one of those posters on an +inconspicuous tree happens to be overlooked that some old fellow'll come +driving in next Fourth of July." + +He buttoned his coat as though going out, but stood looking at her +thoughtfully awhile. "All the same," he said, "I'd like to be that way +myself; never do anything till to-morrow. I'm going to turn farmer some +day. Once I get this job done, I'd like to see the man who can hurry me. +I'll say to MacBride: 'I'm willing to work on nice, quiet, easy little +jobs that never have to be finished. I'll want to sit at the desk and +whittle most of the time. But if you ever try to put me on a rush job +I'll quit and buy a small farm.' I could make the laziest farmer in +twelve states. Well, I've got to go out on the job." + +An elevator is simply a big grain warehouse, and of course the bins +where the grain is kept occupy most of the building. But for handling +the grain more than bin room is necessary. Beneath the bins is what is +called the working story, where is the machinery for unloading cars and +for lifting the grain. The cupola, which Bannon was about to frame, is a +five-story building perched atop the bins. It contains the appliances +for weighing the grain and distributing it. + +When Bannon climbed out on top of the bins, he found the carpenters +partially flooring over the area, preparatory to putting in place the +framework of the cupola. Below them in the bins, like bees in a +honeycomb, laborers were taking down the scaffolding which had served in +building their walls. At the south side of the building a group of +laborers, under one of the foremen, was rigging what is known as a boom +hoist, which was to lift the timbers for framing the cupola. + +While Bannon stood watching the carpenters, one of them sawed off the +end of a plank and dropped it down into the bin. There was a low laugh, +and one or two of the men glanced uneasily at Bannon. He spoke to the +offender "Don't do that again if you want to stay on this job. You know +there are men at work down there." Then: "Look here," he called, getting +the attention of all the carpenters, "every man that drops anything into +the bins gets docked an hour's pay. If he does it twice he leaves the +job just as quick as we can make out a time-check. I want you to be +careful." + +He was picking his way over to the group of men about the hoisting pole, +when he heard another general laugh from the carpenters. Turning back he +saw them all looking at a fellow named Reilly, who, trying to suppress a +smile, was peering with mock concern down into the dark bin. "My hammer +slipped," Bannon heard him say in a loud aside to the man nearest him. +Then, with a laugh: "Accidents will happen." + +Bannon almost smiled himself, for the man had played right into his +hand. He had, in the four days since he took command, already become +aware of Reilly and had put him down for the sort ambitious to rise +rather in the organization of his union than in his trade. + +"I guess we won't take the trouble to dock you," he said. "Go to the +office and get your time. And be quick about it, too." + +"Did ye mean me?" the man asked impudently, but Bannon, without heeding, +went over to the hoist. Presently a rough hand fell on his shoulder. +"Say," demanded Reilly again, "did ye mean me?" + +"No doubt of that. Go and get your time." + +"I guess not," said the man. "Not me. My hammer just slipped. How're you +going to prove I meant to do it?" + +"I'm not. I'm going to fire you. You ain't laid off, you understand; +you're fired. If you ever come back, I'll have you kicked off the +place." + +"You don't dare fire me," the man said, coming nearer. "You'll have to +take me back to-morrow." + +"I'm through talking with you," said Bannon, still quietly. "The faster +you can light out of here the better." + +"We'll see about that. You can't come it on the union that way----" + +Then, without any preparatory gesture whatever, Bannon knocked him down. +The man seemed to fairly rebound from the floor. He rushed at the boss, +but before he could come within striking distance, Bannon whipped out a +revolver and dropped it level with Reilly's face. + +"I've talked to you," he said slowly, his eye blazing along the barrel, +"and I've knocked you down. But----" + +The man staggered back, then walked away very pale, but muttering. +Bannon shoved back the revolver into his hip pocket. "It's all right, +boys," he said, "nothing to get excited about." + +He walked to the edge and looked over. "We can't wait to pick it up a +stick at a time," he said. "I'll tell 'em to load four or five on each +larry. Then you can lift the whole bunch." + +"We run some chances of a spill or a break that way," said the foreman. + +"I know it," answered Bannon, dryly. "That's the kind of chances we'll +have to run for the next two months." + +Descending to the ground, he gave the same order to the men below; then +he sent word to Peterson and Vogel that he wished to see them in the +office. He wiped his feet on the mat, glancing at Hilda as he did so, +but she was hard at work and did not look up. He took the one unoccupied +chair and placed it where he could watch the burnished light in her red +hair. Presently she turned toward him. + +"Did you want something?" she asked. + +"Excuse me. I guess--I----" + +In the midst of his embarrassment, Max and Pete came in. "I've got a +couple of letters I want to talk over with you boys," he said. "That's +why I sent for you." + +Pete laughed and vaulted to a seat on the draughting-table. "I was most +afraid to come," he said. "I heard you drawed a gun on that fellow, +Reilly. What was he doing to make you mad?" + +"Nothing much." + +"Well, I'm glad you fired him. He's made trouble right along. How'd it +happen you had a gun with you? Do you always carry one?" + +"Haven't been without one on a job since I've worked for the old man." + +"Well," said Pete, straightening up, "I've never so much as owned one, +and I never want to. I don't like 'em. If my fists ain't good enough to +take care of me against any fellow that comes along, why, he's welcome +to lick me, that's all." + +Hilda glanced at him, and for a moment her eyes rested on his figure. +There was not a line of it but showed grace and strength and a +magnificent confidence. Then, as if for the contrast, she looked at +Bannon. He had been watching her all the while, and he seemed to guess +her thought. + +"That's all right," he said in answer to Peterson, "when it's just you +and him and a fellow to hold your coats. But it don't always begin that +way. I've been in places where things got pretty miscellaneous +sometimes, but I never had a man come up and say: 'Mr. Bannon, I'm going +to lick you. Any time when you're ready,' There's generally from three +to thirty, and they all try to get on your back." + +Peterson laughed reminiscently. "I was an attendant in the insane ward +of the Massachusetts General Hospital for a while, and one time when I +wasn't looking for it, twenty-four of those lunatics all jumped on me at +once. They got me on the floor and 'most killed me." He paused, as +though there was nothing more to tell. + +"Don't stop there," said Max. + +"Why," he went on, "I crawled along the floor till I got to a chair, and +I just knocked 'em around with that till they was quiet." + +Bannon looked at his watch; then he took Brown's letter from his pocket. +"It's from the office," he said. "We've got to have the bins full before +New Year's Day." + +"Got to!" exclaimed Pete. "I don't see it that way. We can't do it." + +"Can or can't, that don't interest MacBride a bit. He says it's got to +be done and it has." + +"Why, he can't expect us to do it. He didn't say anything about January +first to me. _I_ didn't know it was a rush job. And then we played in +hard luck, too, before you came. That cribbing being tied up, for +instance. He certainly can't blame us if----" + +"That's got nothing to do with it," Bannon cut in shortly. "He don't pay +us to make excuses; he pays us to do as we're told. When I have to begin +explaining to MacBride why it can't be done, I'll send my resignation +along in a separate envelope and go to peddling a cure for corns. What +we want to talk about is how we're going to do it." + +Peterson flushed, but said nothing, and Bannon went on: "Now, here's +what we've got to do. We've got to frame the cupola and put on the roof +and sheathe the entire house with galvanized iron; we've got to finish +the spouting house and sheathe that; we've got to build the belt +gallery--and we'll have no end of a time doing it if the C. & S. C. is +still looking for trouble. Then there's all the machinery to erect and +the millwright work to do. And we've got to build the annex." + +"I thought you was going to forget that," said Pete. "That's the worst +job of all." + +"No, it ain't. It's the easiest. It'll build itself. It's just a case of +two and two makes four. All you've got to do is spike down two-inch +planks till it's done, and then clap on some sort of a roof. There's no +machinery, no details, just straight work. It's just a question of +having the lumber to do it with, and we've got it now. It's the little +work that can raise Ned with you. There is more than a million little +things that any man ought to do in half an hour, but if one of 'em goes +wrong, it may hold you up for all day. Now, I figure the business this +way." + +He took a memorandum from his pocket and began reading. There was very +little guesswork about it; he had set down as nearly as possible the +amount of labor involved in each separate piece of construction, and the +number of men who could work on it at once. Allowing for the different +kinds of work that could be done simultaneously, he made out a total of +one hundred and twenty days. + +"Well, that's all right, I guess," said Pete, "but you see that takes us +way along into next year sometime." + +"About March first," said Max. + +"You haven't divided by three yet," said Bannon. "We'll get three +eight-hour days into every twenty-four hours, and twenty-one of 'em into +every week." + +"Why, that's better than we need to do," said Pete, after a moment. +"That gets us about two weeks ahead of time." + +"Did you ever get through when you thought you would?" Bannon demanded. +"I never did. Don't you know that you always get hit by something you +ain't looking for? I'm figuring in our hard-luck margin, that's all. +There are some things I _am_ looking for, too. We'll have a strike here +before we get through." + +"Oh, I guess not," said Pete, easily. "You're still thinking of Reilly, +aren't you." + +"And for another thing, Page & Company are likely to spring something on +us at the last moment." + +"What sort of thing?" + +"If I knew I'd go ahead and build it now, but I don't." + +"How are you going to work three gangs? Who'll look after 'em?" + +"One of us has got to stay up nights, I guess," said Bannon. "We'll have +to get a couple of boys to help Max keep time. It may take us a day or +two to get the good men divided up and the thing to running properly, +but we ought to be going full blast by the first of the week." + +He arose and buttoned his coat. "You two know the men better than I do. +I wish you'd go through the pay roll and pick out the best men and find +out, if you can, who'll work nights at regular night wages." + +Peterson came out of the office with him. "I suppose you'll put me in +the night gang," he said. + +"I haven't decided yet what I'll do." + +"When I came by the main hoist," Pete went on, "they was picking up four +and five sticks at once. I stopped 'em, and they said it was your +orders. You'll come to smash that way, sure as a gun." + +"Not if they don't take more than I told 'em to and if they're careful. +They have to do it to keep up with the carpenters." + +"Well, it's running a big risk, that's all. I don't like it." + +"My God, don't I know it's a risk! Do you suppose I like it? We've got +something to do, and we've got to do it somehow." + +Pete laughed uneasily. "I--I told 'em not to pick up more than two +sticks at a time till they heard from me." + +"I think," said Bannon, with a look that was new to Pete, "I think you'd +better go as fast as you can and tell them to go on as they were when +you found them." + +Late on Tuesday afternoon the hoist broke. It was not easy to get from +the men a clear account of the accident. The boss of the gang denied +that he had carried more of a load than Bannon had authorized, but some +of the talk among the men indicated the contrary. Only one man was +injured and he not fatally, a piece of almost miraculous good luck. Some +scaffolding was torn down and a couple of timbers badly sprung, but the +total damage was really slight. + +Bannon in person superintended rigging the new hoist. It was ready for +work within two hours after the accident. "She's guyed a little better +than the other was, I think," said Bannon to the foreman. "You won't +have any more trouble. Go ahead." + +"How about the load?" + +"Carry the same load as before. You weren't any more than keeping up." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Five minutes after the noon whistle blew, on Saturday, every carpenter +and laborer knew that Bannon had "pulled a gun" on Reilly. Those who +heard it last heard more than that, for when the story had passed +through a few hands it was bigger and it took longer to tell. And every +man, during the afternoon, kept his eyes more closely on his work. Some +were angry, but these dropped from muttering into sullenness; the +majority were relieved, for a good workman is surer of himself under a +firm than under a slack hand; but all were cowed. And Bannon, when after +dinner he looked over the work, knew more about all of them and their +feelings, perhaps, than they knew themselves. He knew, too, that the +incident might in the long run make trouble. But trouble was likely in +any case, and it was better to meet it after he had established his +authority than while discipline was at loose ends. + +But Hilda and Max were disappointed. They were in the habit of talking +over the incidents and problems of the day every night after supper. And +while Hilda, as Max used to say, had a mind of her own, she had fallen +into the habit of seeing things much as Max saw them. Max had from the +start admired, in his boyish way, Peterson's big muscles and his easy +good nature. He had been the first to catch the new spirit that Bannon +had got into the work, but it was more the outward activity that he +could understand and admire than Bannon's finer achievements in +organization. Like Hilda, he did not see the difference between dropping +a hammer down a bin and overloading a hoist. Bannon's distinction +between running risks in order to push the work and using caution in +minor matters was not recognized in their talks. And as Bannon was not +in the habit of giving his reasons, the misunderstanding grew. But more +than all Max felt, and in a way Hilda felt, too, that Peterson would +never have found it necessary to use a revolver; his fists would have +been enough for a dozen Reillys. Max did not tell Hilda about all the +conversations he and Peterson had had during the last week, for they +were confidential. Peterson had never been without a confidant, and +though he still shared a room with Bannon, he could not talk his mind +out with him. Max, who to Bannon was merely an unusually capable +lumber-checker, was to Peterson a friend and adviser. And though Max +tried to defend Bannon when Peterson fell into criticism of the way the +work was going, he was influenced by it. + +During the few days after the accident Hilda was so deeply distressed +about the injured man that Max finally went to see him. + +"He's pretty well taken care of," he said when he returned. "There's +some ribs broken, he says, and a little fever, but it ain't serious. +He's got a couple of sneaking little lawyers around trying to get him to +sue for damages, but I don't think he'll do it. The Company's giving him +full pay and all his doctor's bills." + +Nearly every evening after that Max took him some little delicacy. Hilda +made him promise that he would not tell who sent them. + +Bannon had quickly caught the changed attitude toward him, and for +several days kept his own counsel. But one morning, after dictating some +letters to Hilda, he lingered. + +"How's our fund getting on?" he said, smiling. "Have you looked lately?" + +"No," she said, "I haven't." + +He leaned over the railing and opened the box. + +"It's coming slow," he said, shaking his head. "Are you sure nobody's +been getting away from us?" + +Hilda was seated before the typewriter. She turned partly around, +without taking her fingers from the keys. + +"I don't know," she said quietly. "I haven't been watching it." + +"We'll have to be stricter about it," said Bannon. "These fellows have +got to understand that rules are rules." + +He spoke with a little laugh, but the remark was unfortunate. The only +men who came within the railing were Max and Peterson. + +"I may have forgotten it, myself," she said. + +"That won't do, you know. I don't know but what I can let you off this +time--I'll tell you what I'll do, Miss Vogel: I'll make a new rule that +you can come in without wiping your feet if you'll hand in a written +excuse. That's the way they did things when I went to school." He turned +to go, then hesitated again. "You haven't been out on the job yet, have +you?" + +"No, I haven't." + +"I rather think you'd like it. It's pretty work, now that we're framing +the cupola. If you say so, I'll fix it for you to go up to the +distributing floor this afternoon." + +She looked back at the machine. + +"The view ain't bad," he went on, "when you get up there. You can see +down into Indiana, and all around. You could see all Chicago, too, if it +wasn't for the smoke." + +There was a moment's silence. + +"Why, yes, Mr. Bannon," she said; "I'd like to go very much." + +"All right," he replied, his smile returning. "I'll guarantee to get you +up there somehow, if I have to build a stairway. Ninety feet's pretty +high, you know." + +When Bannon reached the elevator he stood for a moment in the well at +the west end of the structure. This well, or "stairway bin," sixteen by +thirty-two feet, and open from the ground to the distributing floor, +occupied the space of two bins. It was here that the stairway would be, +and the passenger elevator, and the rope-drive for the transmission of +power from the working to the distributing floor. The stairway was +barely indicated by rude landings. For the present a series of eight +ladders zigzagged up from landing to landing. Bannon began climbing; +halfway up he met Max, who was coming down, time book in hand. + +"Look here, Max," he said, "we're going to have visitors this afternoon. +If you've got a little extra time I'd like to have you help get things +ready." + +"All right," Max replied. "I'm not crowded very hard to-day." + +"I've asked your sister to come up and see the framing." + +Max glanced down between the loose boards on the landing. + +"I don't know," he said slowly; "I don't believe she could climb up here +very well." + +"She won't have to. I'm going to put in a passenger elevator, and carry +her up as grand as the Palmer House. You put in your odd minutes between +now and three o'clock making a box that's big and strong enough." + +Max grinned. + +"Say, that's all right. She'll like that. I can do most of it at noon." + +Bannon nodded and went on up the ladders. At the distributing floor he +looked about for a long timber, and had the laborers lay it across the +well opening. The ladders and landings occupied only about a third of +the space; the rest was open, a clear drop of eighty feet. + +At noon he found Max in an open space behind the office, screwing iron +rings into the corners of a stout box. Max glanced up and laughed. + +"I made Hilda promise not to come out here," he said. He waved his hand +toward the back wall of the office. Bannon saw that he had nailed strips +over the larger cracks and knot holes. "She was peeking, but I shut that +off before I'd got very far along. I don't think she saw what it was. I +only had part of the frame done." + +"She'll be coming out in a minute," said Bannon. + +"I know. I thought of that." Max threw an armful of burlap sacking over +the box. "That'll cover it up enough. I guess it's time to quit, anyway, +if I'm going to get any dinner. There's a little square of carpet up to +the house that I'm going to get for the bottom, and we can run pieces of +half-inch rope from the rings up to a hook, and sling it right on the +hoist." + +"It's not going on the hoist," said Bannon. "I wouldn't stop the timbers +for Mr. MacBride himself. When you go back, you'll see a timber on the +top of the well. I'd like you to sling a block under it and run an +inch-and-a-quarter rope through. We'll haul it up from below." + +"What power?" + +"Man power." + +"All right, Mr. Bannon. I'll see to it. There's Hilda now." + +He called to her to wait while he got his coat, and then the two +disappeared across the tracks. Hilda had bowed to Bannon, but without +the smile and the nod that he liked. He looked after her as if he would +follow; but he changed his mind, and waited a few minutes. + +The "elevator" was ready soon after the afternoon's work had commenced. +Bannon found time between two and three o'clock to inspect the tackle. +He picked up an end of rope and lashed the cross timber down securely. +Then he went down the ladders and found Max, who had brought the carpet +for the box and was looking over his work. The rope led up to the top of +the well through a pulley and then back to the working floor and through +another pulley, so that the box could be hoisted from below. + +"It's all ready," said Max. "It'll run up as smooth as you want." + +"You'd better go for your sister, then," Bannon replied. + +Max hesitated. + +"You meant for me to bring her?" + +"Yes, I guess you might as well." + +Bannon stood looking after Max as he walked along the railroad track out +into the open air. Then he glanced up between the smooth walls of +cribbing that seemed to draw closer and closer together until they +ended, far overhead, in a rectangle of blue sky. The beam across the top +was a black line against the light. The rope, hanging from it, swayed +lazily. He walked around the box, examining the rings and the four +corner ropes, and testing them. + +Hilda was laughing when she came with Max along the track. Bannon could +not see her at first for the intervening rows of timbers that supported +the bins. Then she came into view through an opening between two "bents" +of timber, beyond a heap of rubbish that had been thrown at one side of +the track. She was trying to walk on the rail, one arm thrown out to +balance, the other resting across Max's shoulders. Her jacket was +buttoned snugly up to the chin, and there was a fresh color in her face. + +Bannon had called in three laborers to man the rope; they stood at one +side, awaiting the order to haul away. He found a block of wood, and set +it against the box for a step. + +"This way, Miss Vogel," he called. "The elevator starts in a minute. You +came pretty near being late." + +"Am I going to get in that?" she asked; and she looked up, with a little +gasp, along the dwindling rope. + +"Here," said Max, "don't you say nothing against that elevator. I call +it pretty grand." + +She stood on the block, holding to one of the ropes, and looking +alternately into the box and up to the narrow sky above them. + +"It's awfully high," she said. "Is that little stick up there all that's +going to hold me up?" + +"That little stick is ten-by-twelve," Max replied. "It would hold more'n +a dozen of you." + +She laughed, but still hesitated. She lowered her eyes and looked about +the great dim space of the working story with its long aisles and its +solid masses of timber. Suddenly she turned to Bannon, who was standing +at her side, waiting to give her a hand. + +"Oh, Mr. Bannon," she said, "are you sure it's strong enough? It doesn't +look safe." + +"I think it's safe," he replied quietly. He vaulted into the box and +signalled to the laborers. Hilda stepped back off the block as he went +up perhaps a third of the way, and then came down. She said nothing, but +stepped on the block. + +"How shall I get in?" she asked, laughing a little, but not looking at +Bannon. + +"Here," said Bannon, "give us each a hand. A little jump'll do it. Max +here'll go along the ladders and steady you if you swing too much. Wait +a minute, though." He hurried out of doors, and returned with a light +line, one end of which he made fast to the box, the other he gave to +Max. + +"Now," he said, "you can guide it as nice as walking upstairs." + +They started up, Hilda sitting in the box and holding tightly to the +sides, Max climbing the ladders with the end of the line about his +wrist. Bannon joined the laborers, and kept a hand on the hoisting rope. + +"You'd better not look down," he called after her. + +She laughed and shook her head. Bannon waited until they had reached the +top, and Max had lifted her out on the last landing; then, at Max's +shout, he made the rope fast and followed up the ladders. + +He found them waiting for him near the top of the well. + +"We might as well sit down," he said. He led the way to a timber a few +steps away. "Well, Miss Vogel, how do you like it?" + +She was looking eagerly about; at the frame, a great skeleton of new +timber, some of it still holding so much of the water of river and +mill-yard that it glistened in the sunlight; at the moving groups of +men, the figure of Peterson standing out above the others on a high +girder, his arms knotted, and his neck bare, though the day was not +warm; at the straining hoist, trembling with each new load that came +swinging from somewhere below, to be hustled off to its place, stick by +stick; and then out into the west, where the November sun was dropping, +and around at the hazy flats and the strip of a river. She drew in her +breath quickly, and looked up at Bannon with a nervous little gesture. + +"I like it," she finally said, after a long silence, during which they +had watched a big stick go up on one of the small hoists, to be swung +into place and driven home on the dowel pins by Peterson's sledge. + +"Isn't Pete a hummer?" said Max. "I never yet saw him take hold of a +thing that was too much for him." + +Neither Hilda nor Bannon replied to this, and there was another silence. + +"Would you like to walk around and see things closer to?" Bannon asked, +turning to Miss Vogel. + +"I wouldn't mind. It's rather cold, sitting still." + +He led the way along one side of the structure, guiding her carefully in +places where the flooring was not yet secure. + +"I'm glad you came up," he said. "A good many people think there's +nothing in this kind of work but just sawing wood and making money for +somebody up in Minneapolis. But it isn't that way. It's pretty, and +sometimes it's exciting; and things happen every little while that are +interesting enough to tell to anybody, if people only knew it. I'll have +you come up a little later, when we get the house built and the +machinery coming in. That's when we'll have things really moving. +There'll be some fun putting up the belt gallery, too. That'll be over +here on the other side." + +He turned to lead the way across the floor to the north side of the +building. They had stopped a little way from the boom hoist, and she was +standing motionless, watching as the boom swung out and the rope rattled +to the ground. There was the puffing of the engine far below, the +straining of the rope, and the creaking of the blocks as the heavy load +came slowly up. Gangs of men were waiting to take the timbers the moment +they reached the floor. The foreman of the hoist gang was leaning out +over the edge, looking down and shouting orders. + +Hilda turned with a little start and saw that Bannon was waiting for +her. Following him, she picked her way between piles of planks and +timber, and between groups of laborers and carpenters, to the other +side. Now they could look down at the four tracks of the C. & S. C., the +unfinished spouting house on the wharf, and the river. + +"Here's where the belt gallery will go," he said, pointing downward: +"right over the tracks to the spouting house. They carry the grain on +endless belts, you know." + +"Doesn't it ever fall off?" + +"Not a kernel. It's pretty to watch. When she gets to running we'll come +up some day and look at it." + +They walked slowly back toward the well. Before they reached it Peterson +and Max joined them. Peterson had rolled down his sleeves and put on his +coat. + +"You ain't going down now, are you?" he said. "We'll be starting in +pretty soon on some of the heavy framing. This is just putting in +girders." + +He was speaking directly to Miss Vogel, but he made an effort to include +Bannon in the conversation by an awkward movement of his head. This +stiffness in Peterson's manner when Bannon was within hearing had been +growing more noticeable during the past few days. + +"Don't you think of going yet," he continued, with a nervous laugh, for +Hilda was moving on. "She needn't be in such a rush to get to work, eh, +Charlie?" + +Hilda did not give Bannon a chance to reply. + +"Thank you very much, Mr. Peterson," she said, smiling, "but I must go +back, really. Maybe you'll tell me some day when you're going to do +something special, so I can come up again." + +Peterson's disappointment was so frankly shown in his face that she +smiled again. "I've enjoyed it very much," she said. She was still +looking at Peterson, but at the last word she turned to include Bannon, +as if she had suddenly remembered that he was in the party. There was an +uncomfortable feeling, shown by all in their silence and in their +groping about for something to say. + +"I'll go ahead and clear the track," said Bannon. "I'll holler up to +you, Max, when we're ready down below." + +"Here," said Max, "let me go down." + +But Bannon had already started down the first ladder. + +"The next time you come to visit us, Miss Vogel," he called back, "I +guess we'll have our real elevator in, and we can run you up so fast +it'll take your breath away. We'll be real swells here yet." + +When he reached the working floor, he called in the laborers and shouted +to Max. But when the box, slowly descending, appeared below the bin +walls, it was Peterson who held the line and chatted with Hilda as he +steadied her. + +The next day a lot of cribbing came from Ledyard, and Bannon at once set +about reorganizing his forces so that work could go on night and day. He +and Peterson would divide the time equally into twelve-hour days; but +three divisions were necessary for the men, the morning shift working +from midnight until eight o'clock, the day shift from eight to four, and +the night shift from four to midnight. + +Finally, when the whistle blew, at noon, Bannon tipped back his chair +and pushed his hat back on his head. + +"Well," he said, "that's fixed." + +"When will we begin on it?" Peterson asked. + +"To-day. Have the whistle blow at four. It'll make some of the men work +overtime to-day, but we'll pay them for it." + +Miss Vogel was putting on her jacket. Before joining Max, who was +waiting at the door, she asked:-- + +"Do you want me to make any change in my work, Mr. Bannon?" + +"No, you'd better go ahead just as you are. We won't try to cut you up +into three shifts yet awhile. We can do what letters and accounts we +have in the daytime." + +She nodded and left the office. + +All through the morning's work Peterson had worn a heavy, puzzled +expression, and now that they had finished, he seemed unable to throw it +off. Bannon, who had risen and was reaching for his ulster, which he had +thrown over the railing, looked around at him. + +"You and I'll have to make twelve-hour days of it, you know," he said. +He knew, from his quick glance and the expression almost of relief that +came over his face, that this was what Peterson had been waiting for. +"You'd better come on in the evening, if it's all the same to you--at +seven. I'll take it in the morning and keep an eye on it during the +day." + +Peterson's eyes had lowered at the first words. He swung one leg over +the other and picked up the list of carpenters that Max had made out, +pretending to examine it. Bannon was not watching him closely, but he +could have read the thoughts behind that sullen face. If their +misunderstanding had arisen from business conditions alone, Bannon would +have talked out plainly. But now that Hilda had come between them, and +particularly that it was all so vague--a matter of feeling, and not at +all of reason--he had decided to say nothing. It was important that he +should control the work during the day, and coming on at seven in the +morning, he would have a hand on the work of all three shifts. He knew +that Peterson would not see it reasonably; that he would think it was +done to keep him away from Hilda. He stood leaning against the gate to +keep it open, buttoning his ulster. + +"Coming on up to the house, Pete?" + +Peterson got down off the railing. + +"So you're going to put me on the night shift," he said, almost as a +child would have said it. + +"I guess that's the way it's got to work out," Bannon replied. "Coming +up?" + +"No--not yet. I'll be along pretty soon." + +Bannon started toward the door, but turned with a snap of his finger. + +"Oh, while we're at it, Pete--you'd better tell Max to get those men to +keep time for the night shifts." + +"You mean you want him to go on with you in the daytime?" + +"That's just as he likes. But I guess he'll want to be around while his +sister is here. You see about that after lunch, will you?" + +Peterson came in while Bannon was eating his dinner and stayed after he +had gone. In the evening, when he returned to the house for his supper, +after arranging with Peterson to share the first night's work, Bannon +found that the foreman's clothes and grip had been taken from the room. +On the stairs he met the landlady, and asked her if Mr. Peterson had +moved. + +"Yes," she replied; "he took his things away this noon. I'm sorry he's +gone, for he was a good young man. He never give me any trouble like +some of the men do that's been here. The trouble with most of them is +that they get drunk on pay-days and come home simply disgusting." + +Bannon passed on without comment. During the evening he saw Peterson on +the distributing floor, helping the man from the electric light company +rig up a new arc light. His expression when he caught sight of Bannon, +sullen and defiant, yet showing a great effort to appear natural, was +the only explanation needed of how matters stood between them. + +It took a few days to get the new system to running smoothly--new +carpenters and laborers had to be taken on, and new foremen worked into +their duties--but it proved to be less difficult than Max and Hilda had +supposed from what Peterson had to say about the conduct of the work. +The men all worked better than before; each new move of Bannon's seemed +to infuse more vigor and energy into the work; and the cupola and annex +began rapidly, as Max said, "to look like something." Bannon was on hand +all day, and frequently during a large part of the night. He had a way +of appearing at any hour to look at the work and keep it moving. Max, +after hearing the day men repeat what the night men had to tell of the +boss and his work, said to his sister: "Honest, Hilda, I don't see how +he does it. I don't believe he ever takes his clothes off." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +The direct result of the episode with the carpenter Reilly was +insignificant. He did not attempt to make good his boast that he would +be back at work next day, and when he did appear, on Wednesday of the +next week, his bleared eyes and dilapidated air made the reason plain +enough. A business agent of his union was with him; Bannon found them in +the office. + +He nodded to the delegate. "Sit down," he said. Then he turned to +Reilly. "I don't ask you to do the same. You're not wanted on the +premises. I told you once before that I was through talking." + +Reilly started to reply, but his companion checked him. "That's all +right," he said. "I know your side of it. Wait for me up by the car +line." + +When Reilly had gone Bannon repeated his invitation to sit down. + +"You probably know why I've come," the delegate began. "Mr. Reilly has +charged you with treating him unjustly and with drawing a revolver on +him. Of course, in a case like this, we try to get at both sides before +we take any action. Would you give me your account of it?" + +Bannon told in twenty words just how it had happened. The agent said +cautiously: "Reilly told another story." + +"I suppose so. Now, I don't ask you to take my word against his. If +you'd like to investigate the business, I'll give you all the +opportunity you want." + +"If we find that he did drop the hammer by accident, would you be +willing to take him back?" + +Bannon smiled. "There's no use in my telling you what I'll do till you +tell me what you want me to do, is there?" + +Bannon held out his hand when the man rose to go. + +"Any time you think there's something wrong out here, or anything you +don't understand, come out and we'll talk it over. I treat a man as well +as I can, if he's square with me." + +He walked to the door with the agent and closed it after him. As he +turned back to the draughting table, he found Hilda's eyes on him. + +"They're very clean chaps, mostly, those walking delegates," he said. +"If you treat 'em half as well as you'd treat a yellow dog, they're +likely to be very reasonable. If one of 'em does happen to be a rascal, +though, he's meaner to handle than frozen dynamite. I expect to be +white-headed before I'm through with that man Grady." + +"Is he a rascal?" she asked. + +"He's as bad as you find 'em. Even if he'd been handled right----" + +Bannon broke off abruptly and began turning over the blue prints. +"Suppose I'd better see how this next story looks," he said. Hilda had +heard how Pete had dealt with Grady at their first meeting, and she +could complete the broken sentence. + +Bannon never heard whether the agent from the carpenters' union had +looked further into Reilly's case, but he was not asked to take him back +on the pay roll. But that was not the end of the incident. Coming out on +the distributing floor just before noon on Thursday, he found Grady in +the act of delivering an impassioned oration to the group of laborers +about the hoist. Before Grady saw him, Bannon had come near enough to +hear something about being "driven at the point of a pistol." + +The speech came suddenly to an end when Grady, following the glances of +his auditors, turned and saw who was coming. Bannon noted with +satisfaction the scared look of appeal which he turned, for a second, +toward the men. It was good to know that Grady was something of a +coward. + +Bannon nodded to him pleasantly enough. "How are you, Grady?" he said. + +Seeing that he was in no danger, the delegate threw back his shoulders, +held up his head, and, frowning in an important manner, he returned +Bannon's greeting with the scantest civility. + +Bannon walked up and stood beside him. "If you can spare the time," he +said politely, "I'd like to see you at the office for a while." + +Convinced now that Bannon was doing everything in his power to +conciliate him, Grady grew more important "Very well," he said; "when +I've got through up here, ye can see me if ye like." + +"All right," said Bannon, patiently; "no hurry." + +During the full torrent of Grady's eloquence the work had not actually +been interrupted. The big boom bearing its load of timber swept in over +the distributing floor with unbroken regularity; but the men had worked +with only half their minds and had given as close attention as they +dared to the delegate's fervid utterances. But from the moment Bannon +appeared there had been a marked change in the attitude of the little +audience; they steered the hoist and canted the timbers about with a +sudden enthusiasm which made Bannon smile a little as he stood watching +them. + +Grady could not pump up a word to say. He cleared his throat loudly once +or twice, but the men ignored him utterly. He kept casting his shifty +little sidewise glances at the boss, wondering why he didn't go away, +but Bannon continued to stand there, giving an occasional direction, and +watching the progress of the work with much satisfaction. The little +delegate shifted his weight from one foot to the other and cleared his +throat again. Then he saw that two or three of the men were grinning. +That was too much. + +"Well, I'll go with you," he snapped. + +Bannon could not be sure how much of an impression Grady's big words and +his ridiculous assumption of importance had made upon the men, but he +determined to counteract it as thoroughly as possible, then and there. +It was a sort of gallery play that he had decided on, but he felt sure +it would prove effective. + +Grady turned to go down as he had come up, by the ladders, but Bannon +caught him by the shoulder, saying with a laugh: "Oh, don't waste your +time walking. Take the elevator." His tone was friendly but his grip was +like a man-trap, and he was propelling Grady straight toward the edge of +the building. Four big timbers had just come up and Bannon caught the +released rope as it came trailing by. "Here," he said; "put your foot in +the hook and hang on, and you'll come down in no time." + +Grady laughed nervously. "No you don't. I suppose you'd be glad to get +rid of me that way. You don't come that on me." + +The men were watching with interest; Bannon raised his voice a little. +"All right," he said, thrusting his foot into the great hook, "if you +feel that way about it. We'll have a regular passenger elevator in here +by and by, with an electric bell and sliding door, for the capitalist +crowd that are going to own the place. But we workingmen get along all +right on this. Swing off, boys." + +He waited for Grady down below. It mattered very little to him now +whether the walking delegate chose to follow him down the hoist or to +walk down on the ladders, for every one had seen that Grady was afraid. +Bannon had seen all the men grinning broadly as he began his descent, +and that was all he wanted. + +Evidently Grady's fear of the rope was less than his dread of the +ridicule of the men, for Bannon saw him preparing to come down after the +next load. He took a long time getting ready, but at last they started +him. He was the color of a handful of waste when he reached the ground, +and he staggered as he walked with Bannon over to the office. He dropped +into a chair and rubbed his forehead with his coat-sleeve. + +"Well," said Bannon, "do you like the look of things? I hope you didn't +find anything out of the way?" + +"Do you dare ask me that?" Grady began. His voice was weak at first, but +as his giddiness passed away it arose again to its own inimitable +oratorical level. "Do you dare pretend that you are treating these men +right? Who gave you the right to decide that this man shall live and +this man shall die, and that this poor fellow who asks no more than to +be allowed to earn his honest living with his honest sweat shall be +stricken down with two broken ribs?" + +"I don't know," said Bannon. "You're speaking of the hoist accident, I +suppose. Well, go and ask that man if he has any complaint to make. If +he has, come and let me know about it." + +"They call this a free country, and yet you oppressors can compel men to +risk their lives----" + +"Have you any changes to suggest in the way that hoist is rigged?" +Bannon cut in quietly. "You've been inspecting it. What did you think +was unsafe about it?" + +Grady was getting ready for his next outburst, but Bannon prevented him. +"There ain't many jobs, if you leave out tacking down carpets, where a +man don't risk his life more or less. MacBride don't compel men to risk +their lives; he pays 'em for doing it, and you can bet he's done it +himself. We don't like it, but it's necessary. Now, if you saw men out +there taking risks that you think are unnecessary, why, say so, and +we'll talk it over." + +"There's another thing you've got to answer for, Mr. Bannon. These are +free men that are devoting their honest labor to you. You may think +you're a slave driver, but you aren't. You may flourish your revolver in +the faces of slaves, but free American citizens will resent it----" + +"Mr. Grady, the man I drew a gun on was a carpenter. His own union is +looking after him. He had thrown a hammer down into a bin where some of +your laborers were at work, so I acted in their defence." + +Grady stood up. "I come here to give you warning to-day, Mr. Bannon. +There is a watchful eye on you. The next time I come it will not be to +warn, but to act. That's all I've got to say to you now." + +Bannon, too, was on his feet. "Mr. Grady, we try to be fair to our men. +It's your business to see that we are fair, so we ought to get on all +right together. After this, if the men lodge any complaint with you, +come to me; don't go out on the job and make speeches. If you're looking +for fair play, you'll get it. If you're looking for trouble, you'll get +it. Good-morning." + +The new _régime_ in operation at the elevator was more of a hardship to +Peterson than to any one else, because it compelled him to be much +alone. Not only was he quite cut off from the society of Max and Hilda, +but it happened that the two or three under-foremen whom he liked best +were on the day shift. The night's work with none of those pleasant +little momentary interruptions that used to occur in the daytime was +mere unrelieved drudgery, but the afternoons, when he had given up +trying to sleep any longer, were tedious enough to make him long for six +o'clock. + +Naturally, his disposition was easy and generous, but he had never been +in the habit of thinking much, and thinking, especially as it led to +brooding, was not good for him. From the first, of course, he had been +hurt that the office should have thought it necessary to send Bannon to +supersede him, but so long as he had plenty to do and was in Bannon's +company every hour of the day, he had not taken time to think about it +much. But now he thought of little else, and as time went on he +succeeded in twisting nearly everything the new boss had said or done to +fit his theory that Bannon was jealous of him and was trying to take +from him the credit which rightfully belonged to him. And Bannon had put +him in charge of the night shift, so Peterson came to think, simply +because he had seen that Hilda was beginning to like him. + +About four o'clock one afternoon, not many days after Grady's talk with +Bannon, Peterson sat on the steps of his boarding-house, trying to make +up his mind what to do, and wishing it were six o'clock. He wanted to +stroll down to the job to have a chat with his friends, but he had +somewhat childishly decided he wasn't wanted there while Miss Vogel was +in the office, so he sat still and whittled, and took another view of +his grievances. Glancing up, he saw Grady, the walking delegate, coming +along the sidewalk. Now that the responsibility of the elevator was off +his shoulders he no longer cherished any particular animosity toward the +little Irishman, but he remembered their last encounter and wondered +whether he should speak to him or not. + +But Grady solved his doubt by calling out cheerfully to know how he was +and turning in toward the steps. "I suppose I ought to lick you after +what's passed between us," he added with a broad smile, "but if you're +willing we'll call it bygones." + +"Sure," said Peterson. + +"It's fine seasonable weather we're having, and just the thing for you +on the elevator. It's coming right along." + +"First-rate." + +"It's as interesting a bit of work as I ever saw. I was there the other +day looking at it. And, by the way, I had a long talk with Mr. Bannon. +He's a fine man." + +Grady had seated himself on the step below Peterson. Now for the first +time he looked at him. + +"He's a good hustler," said Peterson. + +"Well, that's what passes for a fine man, these days, though mistakes +are sometimes made that way. But how does it happen that you're not down +there superintending? I hope some carpenter hasn't taken it into his +head to fire the boss." + +"I'm not boss there any longer. The office sent Bannon down to take it +over my head." + +"You don't tell me that? It's a pity." Grady was shaking his head +solemnly. "It's a pity. The men like you first-rate, Mr. Peterson. I'm +not saying they don't like anybody else, but they like you. But people +in an office a thousand miles away can't know everything, and that's a +fact. And so he laid you off." + +"Oh, no, I ain't quite laid off--yet. He's put me in charge of the night +shift." + +"So you're working nights, then? It seemed to me you was working fast +enough in the daytime to satisfy anybody. But I suppose some rich man is +in a hurry for it and you must do your best to accommodate him." + +"You bet, he's in a hurry for it. He won't listen to reason at all. Says +the bins have got to be chock full of grain before January first, no +matter what happens to us. He don't care how much it costs, either." + +"I must be going along," said Grady, getting to his feet. "That man must +be in a hurry. January first! That's quick work, and he don't care how +much it costs him. Oh, these rich devils! They're hustlers, too, Mr. +Peterson. Well, good-night to you." + +Peterson saw Bannon twice every day,--for a half hour at night when he +took charge of the job, and for another half hour in the morning when he +relinquished it. That was all except when they chanced to meet during +Bannon's irregular nightly wanderings about the elevator. As the days +had gone by these conversations had been confined more and more rigidly +to necessary business, and though this result was Peterson's own +bringing about, still he charged it up as another of his grievances +against Bannon. + +When, about an hour after his conversation with Grady, he started down +to the elevator to take command, he knew he ought to tell Bannon of his +conversation with Grady, and he fully intended doing so. But his +determination oozed away as he neared the office, and when he finally +saw Bannon he decided to say nothing about it whatever. He decided thus +partly because he wished to make his conversation with Bannon as short +as possible, partly because he had not made up his mind what +significance, if any, the incident had, and (more than either of these +reasons) because ever since Grady had repeated the phrase: "He don't +care what it costs him," Peterson had been uneasily aware that he had +talked too much. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +Grady's affairs were prospering beyond his expectations, confident +though he had been. Away back in the summer, when the work was in its +early stages, his eye had been upon it; he had bided his time in the +somewhat indefinite hope that something would turn up. But he went away +jubilant from his conversation with Peterson, for it seemed that all the +cards were in his hands. + +Just as a man running for a car is the safest mark for a gamin's +snowball, so Calumet K, through being a rush job as well as a rich one, +offered a particularly advantageous field for Grady's endeavors. Men who +were trying to accomplish the impossible feat of completing, at any +cost, the great hulk on the river front before the first of January, +would not be likely to stop to quibble at paying the five thousand +dollars or so that Grady, who, as the business agent of his union was +simply in masquerade, would like to extort. + +He had heard that Peterson was somewhat disaffected to Bannon's +authority, but had not expected him to make so frank an avowal of it. +That was almost as much in his favor as the necessity for hurry. These, +with the hoist accident to give a color of respectability to the +operation, ought to make it simple enough. He had wit enough to see that +Bannon was a much harder man to handle than Peterson, and that with +Peterson restored to full authority, the only element of uncertainty +would be removed. And he thought that if he could get Peterson to help +him it might be possible to secure Bannon's recall. If the scheme +failed, he had still another shot in his locker, but this one was worth +a trial, anyway. + +One afternoon in the next week he went around to Peterson's +boarding-house and sent up his card with as much ceremony as though the +night boss had been a railway president. + +"I hope you can spare me half an hour, Mr. Peterson. There's a little +matter of business I'd like to talk over with you." + +The word affected Peterson unpleasantly. That was a little farther than +he could go without a qualm. "Sure," he said uneasily, looking at his +watch. + +"I don't know as I should call it business, either," Grady went on. +"When you come right down to it, it's a matter of friendship, for surely +it's no business of mine. Maybe you think it's queer--I think it's queer +myself, that I should be coming 'round tendering my friendly services to +a man who's had his hands on my throat threatening my life. That ain't +my way, but somehow I like you, Mr. Peterson, and there's an end of it. +And when I like a man, I like him, too. How's the elevator? Everything +going to please you?" + +"I guess it's going all right. It ain't----" Pete hesitated, and then +gave up the broken sentence. "It's all right," he repeated. + +Grady smiled. "There's the good soldier. Won't talk against his general. +But, Mr. Peterson, let me ask you a question; answer me as a man of +sense. Which makes the best general--the man who leads the charge +straight up to the intrenchments, yellin': 'Come on, boys!'--or the one +who says, very likely shaking a revolver in their faces: 'Get in there, +ye damn low-down privates, and take that fort, and report to me when +I've finished my breakfast'? Which one of those two men will the +soldiers do the most for? For the one they like best, Mr. Peterson, and +don't forget it. And which one of these are they going to like best, do +you suppose--the brave leader who scorns to ask his men to go where he +wouldn't go himself, who isn't ashamed to do honest work with honest +hands, whose fists are good enough to defend him against his enemies; or +the man who is afraid to go out among the men without a revolver in his +hip pocket? Answer me as a man of sense, Mr. Peterson." + +Peterson was manifestly disturbed by the last part of the harangue. Now +he said: "Oh, I guess Bannon wasn't scared when he drawed that gun on +Reilly. He ain't that kind." + +"Would _you_ draw a gun on an unarmed, defenceless man?" Grady asked +earnestly. + +"No, I wouldn't. I don't like that way of doing." + +"The men don't like it either, Mr. Peterson. No more than you do. They +like you. They'll do anything you ask them to. They know that you can do +anything that they can. But, Mr. Peterson, I'll be frank with you. They +don't like the man who crowded you out. That's putting it mild. I won't +say they hate him for an uncivil, hard-tongued, sneaking weasel of a +spy----" + +"I never knew Bannon to do anything like that," said Peterson, slowly. + +"I did. Didn't he come sneaking up and hear what I was saying--up on top +of the elevator the other day? I guess he won't try that again. I told +him that when I was ready to talk to _him_, I'd come down to the office +to do it." + +Grady was going almost too far; Pete would not stand very much more; +already he was trying to get on his feet to put an end to the +conversation. "I ask your pardon, Mr. Peterson. I forgot he was a friend +of yours. But the point is right here. The men don't like him. They've +been wanting to strike these three days, just because they don't want to +work for that ruffian. I soothed them all I can, but they won't hold in +much longer. Mark my words, there'll be a strike on your hands before +the week's out unless you do something pretty soon." + +"What have they got to strike about? Don't we treat them all right? What +do they kick about?" + +"A good many things, big and little. But the real reason is the one I've +been giving you--Bannon. Neither more nor less." + +"Do you mean they'd be all right if another man was in charge?" + +Grady could not be sure from Peterson's expression whether the ice were +firm enough to step out boldly upon, or not. He tested it cautiously. + +"Mr. Peterson, I know you're a good man. I know you're a generous man. I +know you wouldn't want to crowd Bannon out of his shoes the way he +crowded you out of yours; not even after the way he's treated you. But +look here, Mr. Peterson. Who's your duty to? The men up in Minneapolis +who pay your salary, or the man who has come down here and is giving +orders over your head? + +"--No, just let me finish, Mr. Peterson. I know what you're going to +say. But do your employers want to get the job done by New Year's? They +do. Do they pay you to help get it done? They do. Will it be done if +that would-be murderer of a Bannon is allowed to stay here? It will not, +you can bet on that. Then it's your duty to get him out of here, and I'm +going to help you do it." + +Grady was on his feet when he declaimed the last sentence. He flung out +his hand toward Pete. "Shake on it!" he cried. + +Peterson had also got to his feet, but more slowly. He did not take the +hand. "I'm much obliged, Mr. Grady," he said. "It's very kind in you. If +that's so as you say, I suppose he'll have to go. And he'll go all right +without any shoving when he sees that it is so. You go and tell just +what you've told me to Charlie Bannon. He's boss on this job." + +Grady would have fared better with a man of quicker intelligence. +Peterson was so slow at catching the blackmailer's drift that he spoke +in perfectly good faith when he made the suggestion that he tell Bannon, +and Grady went away a good deal perplexed as to the best course to +pursue,--whether to go directly to Bannon, or to try the night boss +again. + +As for Peterson, four or five times during his half-hour talk with +Bannon at the office that evening, he braced himself to tell the boss +what Grady had said, but it was not till just as Bannon was going home +that it finally came out. "Have you seen Grady lately?" Pete asked, as +calmly as he could. + +"He was around here something more than a week ago; gave me a little +bombthrowers' anniversary oratory about oppressors and a watchful eye. +There's no use paying any attention to him yet. He thinks he's got some +trouble cooking for us on the stove, but we'll have to wait till he +turns it into the dish. He ain't as dangerous as he thinks he is." + +"He's been around to see me lately--twice." + +"He has! What did he want with you? When was it he came?" + +"The first time about a week ago. That was nothing but a little friendly +talk, but----" + +"Friendly! Him! What did he have to say?" + +"Why, it was nothing. I don't remember. He wanted to know if I was laid +off, and I told him I was on the night shift." + +"Was that all?" + +"Pretty near. He wanted to know what we was in such a hurry about, +working nights, and I said we had to be through by January first. Then +he said he supposed it must be for some rich man who didn't care how +much it cost him; and I said yes, it was. That was all. He didn't mean +nothing. We were just passing the time of day. I don't see any harm in +that." + +Bannon was leaning on the rail, his face away from Peterson. After a +while he spoke thoughtfully. "Well, that cinches it. I guess he meant to +hold us up, anyway, but now he knows we're a good thing." + +"How's that? I don't see," said Peterson; but Bannon made no reply. + +"What did he have to offer the next time he came around? More in the +same friendly way? When was it?" + +"Just this afternoon. Why, he said he was afraid we'd have a strike on +our hands." + +"He ought to know," said Bannon. "Did he give any reason?" + +"Yes, he did. You won't mind my speaking it right out, I guess. He said +the men didn't like you, and if you wasn't recalled they'd likely +strike. He said they'd work under me if you was recalled, but he didn't +think he could keep 'em from going out if you stayed. That ain't what I +think, mind you; I'm just telling you what he said. Then he kind of +insinuated that I ought to do something about it myself. That made me +tired, and I told him to come to you about it. I said you was the boss +here now, and I was only the foreman of the night shift." + +Until that last sentence Bannon had been only half listening. He made no +sign, indeed, of having heard anything, but stood hacking at the pine +railing with his pocket-knife. He was silent so long that at last +Peterson arose to go. Bannon shut his knife and wheeled around to face +him. + +"Hold on, Pete," he said. "We'd better talk this business out right +here." + +"Talk out what?" + +"Oh, I guess you know. Why don't we pull together better? What is it +you're sore about?" + +"Nothing. You don't need to worry about it." + +"Look here, Pete. You've known me a good many years. Do you think I'm +square?" + +"I never said you wasn't square." + +"You might have given me the benefit of the doubt, anyway. I know you +didn't like my coming down here to take charge. Do you suppose I did? +You were unlucky, and a man working for MacBride can't afford to be +unlucky; so he told me to come and finish the job. And once I was down +here he held me responsible for getting it done. I've got to go ahead +just the best I can. I thought you saw that at first, and that we'd get +on all right together, but lately it's been different." + +"I thought I'd been working hard enough to satisfy anybody." + +"It ain't that, and you know it ain't. It's just the spirit of the +thing. Now, I don't ask you to tell me why it is you feel this way. If +you want to talk it out now, all right. If you don't, all right again. +But if you ever think I'm not using you right, come to me and say so. +Just look at what we've got to do here, Pete, before the first of +January. Sometimes I think we can do it, and sometimes I think we can't, +but we've got to anyway. If we don't, MacBride will just make up his +mind we're no good. And unless we pull together, we're stuck for sure. +It ain't a matter of work entirely. I want to feel that I've got you +with me. Come around in the afternoon if you happen to be awake, and +fuss around and tell me what I'm doing wrong. I want to consult you +about a good many things in the course of a day." + +Pete's face was simply a lens through which one could see the feelings +at work beneath, and Bannon knew that he had struck the right chord at +last. "How is it? Does that go?" + +"Sure," said Pete. "I never knew you wanted to consult me about +anything, or I'd have been around before." + +Friday afternoon Bannon received a note from Grady saying that if he had +any regard for his own interests or for those of his employers, he would +do well to meet the writer at ten o'clock Sunday morning at a certain +downtown hotel. It closed with a postscript containing the disinterested +suggestion that delays were dangerous, and a hint that the writer's time +was valuable and he wished to be informed whether the appointment would +be kept or not. + +Bannon ignored the note, and all day Monday expected Grady's appearance +at the office. He did not come, but when Bannon reached his +boarding-house about eight o'clock that evening, he found Grady in his +room waiting for him. + +"I can't talk on an empty stomach," said the boss, cheerfully, as he was +washing up. "Just wait till I get some supper." + +"I'll wait," said Grady, grimly. + +When Bannon came back to talk, he took off his coat and sat down astride +a chair. "Well, Mr. Grady, when you came here before you said it was to +warn me, but the next time you came you were going to begin to act. I'm +all ready." + +"All right," said Grady, with a vicious grin. "Be as smart as you like. +I'll be paid well for every word of it and for every minute you've kept +me waiting yesterday and to-night That was the most expensive supper you +ever ate. I thought you had sense enough to come, Mr. Bannon. That's why +I wasted a stamp on you. You made the biggest mistake of your life----" + +During the speech Bannon had sat like a man hesitating between two +courses of action. At this point he interrupted:-- + +"Let's get to business, Mr. Grady." + +"I'll get to it fast enough. And when I do you'll see if you can safely +insult the representative of the mighty power of the honest workingman +of this vast land." + +"Well?" + +"I hear you folks are in a hurry, Mr. Bannon?" + +"Yes." + +"And that you'll spend anything it costs to get through on time. How'd +it suit you to have all your laborers strike about now? Don't that idea +make you sick?" + +"Pretty near." + +"Well, they will strike inside two days." + +"What for? Suppose we settle with them direct." + +"Just try that," said Grady, with withering sarcasm. "Just try that and +see how it works." + +"I don't want to. I only wanted to hear you confess that you are a +rascal." + +"You'll pay dear for giving me that name. But we come to that later. Do +you think it would be worth something to the men who hire you for a +dirty slave-driver to be protected against a strike? Wouldn't they be +willing to pay a round sum to get this work done on time? Take a minute +to think about it. Be careful how you tell me they wouldn't. You're not +liked here, Mr. Bannon, by anybody----" + +"You're threatening to have me recalled, according to your suggestions +to Mr. Peterson the other night. Well, that's all right if you can do +it. But I think that sooner than recall me or have a strike they would +be willing to pay for protection." + +"You do. I didn't look for that much sense in you. If you'd shown it +sooner it might have saved your employers a large wad of bills. If you'd +taken the trouble to be decent when I went to you in a friendly way a +very little would have been enough. But now I've got to be paid. What do +you say to five thousand as a fair sum?" + +"They'd be willing to pay fully that to save delay," said Bannon, +cheerfully. + +"They would!" To save his life Grady could not help looking crestfallen. +It seemed then that he might have got fifty. "All right," he went on, +"five thousand it is; and I want it in hundred-dollar bills." + +"You do!" cried Bannon, jumping to his feet. "Do you think you're going +to get a cent of it? I might pay blackmail to an honest rascal who +delivered the goods paid for. But I had your size the first time you +came around. Don't you think I knew what you wanted? If I'd thought you +were worth buying, I'd have settled it up for three hundred dollars and +a box of cigars right at the start. That's about your market price. But +as long as I knew you'd sell us out again if you could, I didn't think +you were even worth the cigars. No; don't tell me what you're going to +do. Go out and do it if you can. And get out of here." + +For the second time Bannon took the little delegate by the arm. He +marched him to the head of the long, straight flight of stairs. Then he +hesitated a moment. "I wish you were three sizes larger," he said. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +The organization of labor unions is generally democratic. The local +lodge is self-governing; it elects its delegate, who attends a council +of fellow-delegates, and this council may send representatives to a +still more powerful body. But however high their titles, or their +salaries, these dignitaries have power only to suggest action, except in +a very limited variety of cases. There must always be a reference back +to the rank and file. The real decision lies with them. + +That is the theory. The laborers on Calumet K, with some others at work +in the neighborhood, had organized into a lodge and had affiliated with +the American Federation of Labor. Grady, who had appeared out of +nowhere, who had urged upon them the need of combining against the +forces of oppression, and had induced them to organize, had been, +without dissent, elected delegate. He was nothing more in theory than +this: simply their concentrated voice. And this theory had the fond +support of the laborers. "He's not our boss; he's our servant," was a +sentiment they never tired of uttering when the delegate was out of +earshot. + +They met every Friday night, debated, passed portentous resolutions, and +listened to Grady's oratory. After the meeting was over they liked to +hear their delegate, their servant, talk mysteriously of the doings of +the council, and so well did Grady manage this air of mystery that each +man thought it assumed because of the presence of others, but that he +himself was of the inner circle. They would not have dreamed of +questioning his acts in meeting or after, as they stood about the dingy, +reeking hall over Barry's saloon. It was only as they went to their +lodgings in groups of two and three that they told how much better they +could manage things themselves. + +Bannon enjoyed his last conversation with Grady, though it left him a +good deal to think out afterward. He had acted quite deliberately, had +said nothing that afterward he wished unsaid; but as yet he had not +decided what to do next. After he heard the door slam behind the little +delegate, he walked back into his room, paced the length of it two or +three times, then put on his ulster and went out. He started off +aimlessly, paying no attention to whither he was going, and consequently +he walked straight to the elevator. He picked his way across the C. & S. +C. tracks, out to the wharf, and seated himself upon an empty nail keg +not far from the end of the spouting house. + +He sat there for a long while, heedless of all that was doing about him, +turning the situation over and over in his mind. Like a good strategist, +he was planning Grady's campaign as carefully as his own. Finally he was +recalled to his material surroundings by a rough voice which commanded, +"Get off that keg and clear out. We don't allow no loafers around here." + +Turning, Bannon recognized one of the under-foremen. "That's a good +idea," he said. "Are you making a regular patrol, or did you just happen +to see me?" + +"I didn't know it was you. No, I'm tending to some work here in the +spouting house." + +"Do you know where Mr. Peterson is?" + +"He was right up here a bit ago. Do you want to see him?" + +"Yes, if he isn't busy. I'm not the only loafer here, it seems," added +Bannon, nodding toward where the indistinct figures of a man and a woman +could be seen coming slowly toward them along the narrow strip of wharf +between the building and the water. "Never mind," he added, as the +foreman made a step in their direction, "I'll look after them myself." + +The moment after he had called the foreman's attention to them he had +recognized them as Hilda and Max. He walked over to meet them. "We can't +get enough of it in the daytime, can we." + +"It's a great place for a girl, isn't it, Mr. Bannon," said Max. "I was +coming over here and Hilda made me bring her along. She said she thought +it must look pretty at night." + +"Doesn't it?" she asked. "Don't you think it does, Mr. Bannon?" + +He had been staring at it for half an hour. Now for the first time he +looked at it. For ninety feet up into the air the large mass was one +unrelieved, unbroken shadow, barely distinguishable from the night sky +that enveloped it. Above was the skeleton of the cupola, made brilliant, +fairly dazzling, in contrast, by scores of arc lamps. At that distance +and in that confused tangle of light and shadow the great timbers of the +frame looked spidery. The effect was that of a luminous crown upon a +gigantic, sphinx-like head. + +"I guess you are right," he said slowly. "But I never thought of it that +way before. And I've done more or less night work, too." + +A moment later Peterson came up. "Having a tea party out here?" he +asked; then turning to Bannon: "Was there something special you wanted, +Charlie? I've got to go over to the main house pretty soon." + +"It's our friend Grady. He's come down to business at last. He wants +money." + +Hilda was quietly signalling Max to come away, and Bannon, observing it, +broke off to speak to them. "Don't go," he said. "We'll have a brief +council of war right here." So Hilda was seated on the nail keg, while +Bannon, resting his elbows on the top of a spile which projected waist +high through the floor of the wharf, expounded the situation. + +"You understand his proposition," he said, addressing Hilda, rather than +either of the men. "It's just plain blackmail. He says, 'If you don't +want your laborers to strike, you'll have to pay my price.'" + +"Not much," Pete broke in. "I'd let the elevator rot before I'd pay a +cent of blackmail." + +"Page wouldn't," said Bannon, shortly, "or MacBride, neither. They'd be +glad to pay five thousand or so for protection. But they'd want +protection that would protect. Grady's trying to sell us a gold brick. +He hated us to begin with, and when he'd struck us for about all he +thought we'd stand, he'd call the men off just the same, and leave us to +waltz the timbers around all by ourselves." + +"How much did he want?" + +"All he could get. I think he'd have been satisfied with a thousand, but +he'd come 'round next week for a thousand more." + +"What did you tell him?" + +"I told him that a five-cent cigar was a bigger investment than I cared +to make on him and that when we paid blackmail it would be to some +fellow who'd deliver the goods. I said he could begin to make trouble +just as soon as he pleased." + +"Seems to me you might have asked for a few days' time to decide. Then +we could have got something ready to come at him with. He's liable to +call our men out to-night, ain't he?" + +"I don't think so. I thought of trying to stave him off for a few days, +but then I thought, 'Why, he'll see through that game and he'll go on +with his scheme for sewing us up just the same.' You see, there's no +good saying we're afraid. So I told him that we didn't mind him a bit; +said he could go out and have all the fun he liked with us. If he thinks +we've got something up our sleeve he may be a little cautious. Anyway, +he knows that our biggest rush is coming a little later, and he's likely +to wait for it." + +Then Hilda spoke for the first time. "Has he so much power as that? Will +they strike just because he orders them to?" + +"Why, not exactly," said Bannon. "They decide that for themselves, or at +least they think they do. They vote on it." + +"Well, then," she asked hesitatingly, "why can't you just tell the men +what Mr. Grady wants you to do and show them that he's dishonest? They +know they've been treated all right, don't they?" + +Bannon shook his head. "No use," he said. "You see, these fellows don't +know much. They aren't like skilled laborers who need some sense in +their business. They're just common roustabouts, and most of 'em have +gunpowder in place of brains. They don't want facts or reason either; +what they like is Grady's oratory. They think that's the finest thing +they ever heard. They might all be perfectly satisfied and anxious to +work, but if Grady was to sing out to know if they wanted to be slaves, +they'd all strike like a freight train rolling down grade. + +"No," he went on, "there's nothing to be done with the men. Do you know +what would happen if I was to go up to their lodge and tell right out +that Grady was a blackmailer? Why, after they'd got through with me, +personally, they'd pass a resolution vindicating Grady. They'd resolve +that I was a thief and a liar and a murderer and an oppressor of the +poor and a traitor, and if they could think of anything more than that, +they'd put it in, too. And after vindicating Grady to their +satisfaction, they'd take his word for law and the gospel more than +ever. In this sort of a scrape you want to hit as high as you can, +strike the biggest man who will let you in his office. It's the small +fry that make the trouble. I guess that's true 'most everywhere. I know +the general manager of a railroad is always an easier chap to get on +with than the division superintendent." + +"Well," said Pete, after waiting a moment to see if Bannon had any +definite suggestion to make as to the best way to deal with Grady, "I'm +glad you don't think he'll try to tie us up to-night. Maybe we'll think +of something to-morrow. I've got to get back on the job." + +"I'll go up with you," said Max, promptly. Then, in answer to Hilda's +gesture of protest, "You don't want to climb away up there to-night. +I'll be back in ten minutes," and he was gone before she could reply. "I +guess I can take care of you till he comes back," said Bannon. Hilda +made no answer. She seemed to think that silence would conceal her +annoyance better than anything she could say. So, after waiting a +moment, Bannon went on talking. + +"I suppose that's the reason why I get ugly sometimes and call names; +because I ain't a big enough man not to. If I was getting twenty-five +thousand a year maybe I'd be as smooth as anybody. I'd like to be a +general manager for a while, just to see how it would work." + +"I don't see how anybody could ever know enough to run a railroad." +Hilda was looking up at the C. & S. C. right of way, where red and white +semaphore lights were winking. + +"I was offered that job once myself, though, and turned it down," said +Bannon. "I was superintendent of the electric light plant at Yawger. +Yawger's quite a place, on a branch of the G. T. There was another road +ran through the town, called the Bemis, Yawger and Pacific. It went from +Bemis to Stiles Corners, a place about six miles west of Yawger. It +didn't get any nearer the Pacific than that. Nobody in Yawger ever went +to Bemis or Stiles, and there wasn't anybody in Bemis and Stiles to come +to Yawger, or if they did come they never went back, so the road didn't +do a great deal of business. They assessed the stock every year to pay +the officers' salaries--and they had a full line of officers, too--but +the rest of the road had to scrub along the best it could. + +"When they elected me alderman from the first ward up at Yawger, I found +out that the B. Y. & P. owed the city four hundred and thirty dollars, +so I tried to find out why they wasn't made to pay. It seemed that the +city had had a judgment against them for years, but they couldn't get +hold of anything that was worth seizing. They all laughed at me when I +said I meant to get that money out of 'em. + +"The railroad had one train; there was an engine and three box cars and +a couple of flats and a combination--that's baggage and passenger. It +made the round trip from Bemis every day, fifty-two miles over all, and +considering the roadbed and the engine, that was a good day's work. + +"Well, that train was worth four hundred and thirty dollars all right +enough, if they could have got their hands on it, but the engineer was +such a peppery chap that nobody ever wanted to bother him. But I just +bided my time, and one hot day after watering up the engine him and the +conductor went off to get a drink. I had a few lengths of log chain +handy, and some laborers with picks and shovels, and we made a neat, +clean little job of it. Then I climbed up into the cab. When the +engineer came back and wanted to know what I was doing there, I told him +we'd attached his train. 'Don't you try to serve no papers on me,' he +sung out, 'or I'll split your head.' 'There's no papers about this job,' +said I. 'We've attached it to the track,' At that he dropped the fire +shovel and pulled open the throttle. The drivers spun around all right, +but the train never moved an inch. + +"He calmed right down after that and said he hadn't four hundred and +thirty dollars with him, but if I'd let the train go, he'd pay me in a +week. I couldn't quite do that, so him and the conductor had to walk +'way to Bemis, where the general offices was. They was pretty mad. We +had that train chained up there for 'most a month, and at last they paid +the claim." + +"Was that the railroad that offered to make you general manager?" Hilda +asked. + +"Yes, provided I'd let the train go. I'm glad I didn't take it up, +though. You see, the farmers along the road who held the stock in it +made up their minds that the train had quit running for good, so they +took up the rails where it ran across their farms, and used the ties for +firewood. That's all they ever got out of their investment." + +A few moments later Max came back and Bannon straightened up to go. "I +wish you'd tell Pete when you see him to-morrow," he said to the boy, +"that I won't be on the job till noon." + +"Going to take a holiday?" + +"Yes. Tell him I'm taking the rest cure up at a sanitarium." + +At half-past eight next morning Bannon entered the outer office of R. S. +Carver, president of the Central District of the American Federation of +Labor, and seated himself on one of the long row of wood-bottomed chairs +that stood against the wall. Most of them were already occupied by +poorly dressed men who seemed also to be waiting for the president. One +man, in dilapidated, dirty finery, was leaning over the stenographer's +desk, talking about the last big strike and guessing at the chance of +there being any fun ahead in the immediate future. But the rest of them +waited in stolid, silent patience, sitting quite still in unbroken rank +along the wall, their overcoats, if they had them, buttoned tight around +their chins, though the office was stifling hot. The dirty man who was +talking to the stenographer filled a pipe with some very bad tobacco and +ostentatiously began smoking it, but not a man followed his example. + +Bannon sat in that silent company for more than an hour before the great +man came. Even then there was no movement among those who sat along the +wall, save as they followed him almost furtively with their eyes. The +president never so much as glanced at one of them; for all he seemed to +see the rank of chairs might have been empty. He marched across to his +private office, and, leaving the door open behind him, sat down before +his desk. Bannon sat still a moment, waiting for those who had come +before him to make the first move, but not a man of them stirred, so, +somewhat out of patience with this mysteriously solemn way of doing +business, he arose and walked into the president's office with as much +assurance as though it had been his own. He shut the door after him. The +president did not look up, but went on cutting open his mail. + +"I'm from MacBride & Company, of Minneapolis," said Bannon. + +"Guess I don't know the parties." + +"Yes, you do. We're building a grain elevator at Calumet." + +The president looked up quickly. "Sit down," he said. "Are you +superintending the work?" + +"Yes. My name's Bannon--Charles Bannon." + +"Didn't you have some sort of an accident out there? An overloaded +hoist? And you hurt a man, I believe." + +"Yes." + +"And I think one of your foremen drew a revolver on a man." + +"I did, myself." + +The president let a significant pause intervene before his next +question. "What do you want with me?" + +"I want you to help me out. It looks as though we might get into trouble +with our laborers." + +"You've come to the wrong man. Mr. Grady is the man for you to talk +with. He's their representative." + +"We haven't got on very well with Mr. Grady. The first time he came on +the job he didn't know our rule that visitors must apply at the office, +and we weren't very polite to him. He's been down on us ever since. We +can't make any satisfactory agreement with him." + +Carver turned away impatiently. "You'll have to," he said, "if you want +to avoid trouble with your men. It's no business of mine. He's acting on +their instructions." + +"No, he isn't," said Bannon, sharply. "What they want, I guess, is to be +treated square and paid a fair price. What he wants is blackmail." + +"I've heard that kind of talk before. It's the same howl that an +employer always makes when he's tried to bribe an agent who's active in +the interest of the men, and got left at it. What have you got to show +for it? Anything but just your say so?" + +Bannon drew out Grady's letter of warning and handed it to him. Carver +read it through, then tossed it on his desk. "You certainly don't offer +that as proof that he wants blackmail, Mr. Bannon." + +"There's never any proof of blackmail. When a man can see me alone, he +isn't going to talk before witnesses, and he won't commit himself in +writing. Grady told me that unless we paid his price he'd tie us up. No +one else was around when he said it." + +"Then you haven't anything but your say so. But I know him, and I don't +know you. Do you think I'd take your word against his?" + +"That letter doesn't prove blackmail," said Bannon, "but it smells of +it. And there's the same smell about everything Grady has done. When he +came to my office a day or two after that hoist accident, I tried to +find out what he wanted, and he gave me nothing but oratory. I tried to +pin him down to something definite, but my stenographer was there and +Grady didn't have a suggestion to make. Then by straining his neck and +asking questions, he found out we were in a hurry, that the elevator was +no good unless it was done by January first, and that we had all the +money we needed. + +"Two days after he sent me that letter. Look at it again. Why does he +want to take both of us to Chicago on Sunday morning, when he can see me +any time at my office on the job?" Bannon spread the letter open before +Carver's face. "Why doesn't he say right here what it is he wants, if +it's anything he dares to put in black and white? I didn't pay any +attention to that letter; it didn't deserve any. And then will you tell +me why he came to my room at night to see me instead of to my office in +the daytime? I can prove that he did. Does all that look as if I tried +to bribe him? Forget that we're talking about Grady, and tell me what +you think it looks like." + +Carver was silent for a moment. "That wouldn't do any good," he said at +last. "If you had proof that I could act on, I might be able to help +you. I haven't any jurisdiction in the internal affairs of that lodge; +but if you could offer proof that he is what you say he is, I could tell +them that if they continued to support him, the federation withdraws its +support. But I don't see that I can help you as it is. I don't see any +reason why I should." + +"I'll tell you why you should. Because if there's any chance that what +I've said is true, it will be a lot better for your credit to have the +thing settled quietly. And it won't be settled quietly if we have to +fight. It isn't very much you have to do; just satisfy yourself as to +how things are going down there. See whether we're square, or Grady is. +Then when the scrap comes on you'll know how to act. That's all. Do your +investigating in advance." + +"That's just what I haven't any right to do. I can't mix up in the +business till it comes before me in the regular way." + +"Well," said Bannon, with a smile, "if you can't do it yourself, maybe +some man you have confidence in would do it for you." + +Carver drummed thoughtfully on his desk for a few minutes. Then he +carefully folded Grady's letter and put it in his pocket. "I'm glad to +have met you, Mr. Bannon," he said, holding out his hand. "Good +morning." + +Next morning while Bannon was opening his mail, a man came to the +timekeeper's window and asked for a job as a laborer. "Guess we've got +men enough," said Max. "Haven't we, Mr. Bannon?" + +The man put his head in the window. "A fellow down in Chicago told me if +I'd come out here to Calumet K and ask Mr. Bannon for a job, he'd give +me one." + +"Are you good up high?" Bannon asked. + +The man smiled ruefully, and said he was afraid not. + +"Well, then," returned Bannon, "we'll have to let you in on the ground +floor. What's your name?" + +"James." + +"Go over to the tool house and get a broom. Give him a check, Max." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +On the twenty-second of November Bannon received this telegram:-- + + MR. CHARLES BANNON, care of MacBride & Company, South Chicago: + + We send to-day complete drawings for marine tower which you will + build in the middle of spouting house. Harahan Company are building + the Leg. + + MACBRIDE & CO. + +Bannon read it carefully, folded it, opened it and read it again, then +tossed it on the desk. + +"We're off now, for sure," he said to Miss Vogel. "I've known that was +coming sure as Christmas." + +Hilda picked it up. + +"Is there an answer, Mr. Bannon?" + +"No, just file it. Do you make it out?" + +She read it and shook her head. Bannon ignored her cool manner. + +"It means that your friends on MacBride & Company's Calumet house are +going to have the time of their lives for the next few weeks. I'm going +to carry compressed food in my pockets, and when meal time comes around, +just take a capsule." + +"I think I know," she said slowly; "a marine leg is the thing that takes +grain up out of ships." + +"That's right. You'd better move up head." + +"And we've been building a spouting house instead to load it into +ships." + +"We'll have to build both now. You see, it's getting around to the time +when the Pages'll be having a fit every day until the machinery's +running, and every bin is full. And every time they have a fit, the +people up at the office'll have another, and they'll pass it on to us." + +"But why do they want the marine leg?" she asked, "any more now than +they did at first?" + +"They've got to get the wheat down by boat instead of rail, that's all. +Or likely it'll be coming both ways. There's no telling now what's +behind it. Both sides have got big men fighting. You've seen it in the +papers, haven't you?" + +She nodded. + +"Of course, what the papers say isn't all true, but it's lively doings +all right." + +The next morning's mail brought the drawings and instructions; and with +them came a letter from Brown to Bannon. "I suppose there's not much +good in telling you to hurry," it ran; "but if there is another minute a +day you can crowd in, I guess you know what to do with it. Page told me +to-day that this elevator will make or break them. Mr. MacBride says +that you can have all January for a vacation if you get it through. We +owe you two weeks off, anyhow, that you didn't take last summer. We're +running down that C. & S. C. business, though I don't believe, myself, +that they'll give you any more trouble." + +Bannon read it to Hilda, saying as he laid it down:-- + +"That's something like. I don't know where'll I go, though. Winter ain't +exactly the time for a vacation, unless you go shooting, and I'm no hand +for that." + +"Couldn't you put it off till summer?" she asked, smiling a little. + +"Not much. You don't know those people. By the time summer'd come +around, they'd have forgotten I ever worked here. I'd strike for a month +and Brown would grin and say: 'That's all right, Bannon, you deserve it +if anybody does. It'll take a week or so to get your pass arranged, and +you might just run out to San Francisco and see if things are going the +way they ought to,' And then the first thing I knew I'd be working three +shifts somewhere over in China, and Brown would be writing me I was +putting in too much time at my meals. No, if MacBride & Company offer +you a holiday, the best thing you can do is to grab it, and run, and saw +off the telegraph poles behind you. And you couldn't be sure of yourself +then." + +He turned the letter over in his hand. + +"I might go up on the St. Lawrence," he went on. "That's the only place +for spending the winter that ever struck me." + +"Isn't it pretty cold?" + +"It ain't so bad. I was up there last winter. We put up at a house at +Coteau, you know. When I got there the foundation wasn't even begun, and +we had a bad time getting laborers. I put in the first day sitting on +the ice sawing off spiles." + +Hilda laughed. + +"I shouldn't think you'd care much about going back." + +"Were you ever there?" he asked. + +"No, I've never been anywhere but home and here, in Chicago." + +"Where is your home?" + +"It was up in Michigan. That's where Max learned the lumber business. +But he and I have been here for nearly two years." + +"Well," said Bannon, "some folks may think it's cold up there, but there +ain't anywhere else to touch it. It's high ground, you know--nothing +like this"--he swept his arm about to indicate the flats outside--"and +the scenery beats anything this side of the Rockies. It ain't that +there's mountains there, you understand, but it's all big and open, and +they've got forests there that would make your Michigan pine woods look +like weeds on a sandhill. And the river's great. You haven't seen +anything really fine till you've seen the rapids in winter. The people +there have a good time too. They know how to enjoy life--it isn't all +grime and sweat and making money." + +"Well," said Hilda, looking down at her pencil and drawing aimless +designs as she talked, "I suppose it is a good place to go. I've seen +the pictures, of course, in the time-tables; and one of the railroad +offices on Clark Street used to have some big photographs of the St. +Lawrence in the window. I looked at them sometimes, but I never thought +of really seeing anything like that. I've had some pretty good times on +the lake and over at St. Joe. Max used to take me over to Berrien +Springs last summer, when he could get off. My aunt lives there." + +Bannon was buttoning his coat, and looking at her. He felt the different +tone that had got into their talk. It had been impersonal a few minutes +before. + +"Oh, St. Joe isn't bad," he was saying; "it's quiet and restful and all +that, but it's not the same sort of thing at all. You go over there and +ride up the river on the May Graham, and it makes you feel lazy and +comfortable, but it doesn't stir you up inside like the St. Lawrence +does." + +She looked up. Her eyes were sparkling as they had sparkled that +afternoon on the elevator when she first looked out into the sunset. + +"Yes," she replied. "I think I know what you mean. But I never really +felt that way; I've only thought about it." + +Bannon turned half away, as if to go. + +"You'll have to go down there, that's all," he said abruptly. He looked +back at her over his shoulder, and added, "That's all there is about +it." + +Her eyes were half startled, half mischievous, for his voice had been +still less impersonal than before. Then she turned back to her work, her +face sober, but an amused twinkle lingering in her eyes. + +"I should like to go," she said, her pencil poised at the top of a long +column. "Max would like it, too." + +After supper that evening Max returned early from a visit to the injured +man, and told Hilda of a new trouble. + +"Do you know that little delegate that's been hanging around?" he asked. + +"Grady," she said, and nodded. + +"Yes, he's been working the man. I never saw such a change in my life. +He just sat up there in bed and swore at me, and said I needn't think I +could buy him off with this stuff"--he looked down and Hilda saw that +the bowl in his hand was not empty--"and raised a row generally." + +"Why?" she asked. + +"Give it up. From what he said, I'm sure Grady's behind it." + +"Did he give his name?" + +"No, but he did a lot of talking about justice to the down-trodden and +the power of the unions, and that kind of stuff. I couldn't understand +all he said--he's got a funny lingo, you know; I guess it's Polack--but +I got enough to know what he meant, and more, too." + +"Can he do anything?" + +"I don't think so. If we get after him, it'll just set him worse'n pig's +bristles. A man like that'll lose his head over nothing. He may be all +right in the morning." + +But Hilda, after Max had given her the whole conversation as nearly as +he could remember it, thought differently. She did not speak her mind +out to Max, because she was not yet certain what was the best course to +take. The man could easily make trouble, she saw that. But if Max were +to lay the matter before Bannon, he would be likely to glide over some +of the details that she had got only by close questioning. And a blunder +in handling it might be fatal to the elevator, so far as getting it done +in December was concerned. Perhaps she took it too seriously; for she +was beginning, in spite of herself, to give a great deal of thought to +the work and to Bannon. At any rate, she lay awake later than usual that +night, going over the problem, and she brought it up, the next morning, +the first time that Bannon came into the office after Max had gone out. + +"Mr. Bannon," she said, when he had finished dictating a letter to the +office, "I want to tell you about that man that was hurt." + +Bannon tried not to smile at the nervous, almost breathless way in which +she opened the conversation. He saw that, whatever it was, it seemed to +her very important, and he settled comfortably on the table, leaning +back against the wall with his legs stretched out before him. She had +turned on her stool. + +"You mean the hoist man?" he asked. + +She nodded. "Max goes over to see him sometimes. We've been trying to +help make him comfortable----" + +"Oh," said Bannon; "it's you that's been sending those things around to +him." + +She looked at him with surprise. + +"Why, how did you know?" + +"I heard about it." + +Hilda hesitated. She did not know exactly how to begin. It occurred to +her that perhaps Bannon was smiling at her eager manner. + +"Max was there last night and he said the man had changed all around. +He's been friendly, you know, and grateful"--she had forgotten herself +again, in thinking of her talk with Max--"and he's said all the time +that he wasn't going to make trouble----" She paused. + +"Yes, I know something about that," said Bannon. "The lawyers always get +after a man that's hurt, you know." + +"But last night he had changed all around. He said he was going to have +you arrested. He thinks Max has been trying to buy him off with the +things we've sent him." + +Bannon whistled. + +"So our Mr. Grady's got his hands on him!" + +"That's what Max and I thought, but he didn't give any names. He +wouldn't take the jelly." + +"I'm glad you told me," said Bannon, swinging his legs around and +sitting up. "It's just as well to know about these things. Grady's made +him think he can make a good haul by going after me, poor fool--he isn't +the man that'll get it." + +"Can he really stop the work?" Hilda asked anxiously. + +"Not likely. He'll probably try to make out a case of criminal +carelessness against me, and get me jerked up. He ought to have more +sense, though. I know how many sticks were on that hoist when it broke. +I'll drop around there to-night after dinner and have a talk with him. +I'd like to find Grady there--but that's too good to expect." + +Hilda had stepped down from the stool, and was looking out through the +half-cleaned window at a long train of freight cars that was clanking in +on the Belt Line. + +"That's what I wanted to see you about most," she said slowly. "Max says +he's been warned that you'll come around and try to buy him off, and it +won't go, because he can make more by standing out." + +"Well," said Bannon, easily, amused at her unconscious drop into Max's +language, "there's usually a way of getting after these fellows. We'll +do anything within reason, but we won't be robbed. I'll throw Mr. Grady +into the river first, and hang him up on the hoist to dry." + +"But if he really means to stand out," she said, "wouldn't it hurt us +for you to go around there?" + +"Why?" He was openly smiling now. Then, of a sudden, he looked at her +with a shrewd, close gaze, and repeated, "Why?" + +"Maybe I don't understand it." she said nervously. "Max doesn't think I +see things very clearly. But I thought perhaps you would be willing for +me to see him this evening. I could go with Max, and----" + +She faltered, when she saw how closely he was watching her, but he +nodded, and said, "Go on." + +"Why, I don't know that I could do much, but--no"--she tossed her head +back and looked at him--"I won't say that. If you'll let me go, I'll fix +it. I know I can." + +Bannon was thinking partly of her--of her slight, graceful figure that +leaned against the window frame, and of her eyes, usually quiet, but now +snapping with determination--and partly of certain other jobs that had +been imperiled by the efforts of injured workingmen to get heavy +damages. One of the things his experience in railroad and engineering +work had taught him was that men will take every opportunity to bleed a +corporation. No matter how slight the accident, or how temporary in its +effects, the stupidest workman has it in his power to make trouble. It +was frankly not a matter of sentiment to Bannon. He would do all that he +could, would gladly make the man's sickness actually profit him, so far +as money would go; but he did not see justice in the great sums which +the average jury will grant. As he sat there, he recognized what Hilda +had seen at a flash, that this was a case for delicate handling. + +She was looking at him, tremendously in earnest, yet all the while +wondering at her own boldness. He slowly nodded. + +"You're right," he said. "You're the one to do the talking. I won't ask +you what you're going to say. I guess you understand it as well as +anybody." + +"I don't know yet, myself," she answered. "It isn't that, it isn't that +there's something particular to say, but he's a poor man, and they've +been telling him that the company is cheating him and stealing from +him--I wouldn't like it myself, if I were in his place and didn't know +any more than he does. And maybe I can show him that we'll be a good +deal fairer to him before we get through than Mr. Grady will." + +"Yes," said Bannon, "I think you can. And if you can keep this out of +the courts I'll write Brown that there's a young lady down here that's +come nearer to earning a big salary than I ever did to deserving a silk +hat." + +"Oh," she said, the earnest expression skipping abruptly out of her +eyes; "did your hat come?" + +"Not a sign of it. I'd clean forgotten. I'll give Brown one more +warning--a long 'collect' telegram, about forty words--and then if he +doesn't toe up, I'll get one and send him the bill. + +"There was a man that looked some like Grady worked for me on the +Galveston house. He was a carpenter, and thought he stood for the whole +Federation of Labor. He got gay one day. I warned him once, and then I +threw him off the distributing floor." + +Hilda thought he was joking until she looked up and saw his face. + +"Didn't it--didn't it kill him?" she asked. + +"I don't remember exactly. I think there were some shavings there." He +stood looking at her for a moment. "Do you know," he said, "if Grady +comes up on the job again, I believe I'll tell him that story? I wonder +if he'd know what I meant." + +The spouting house, or "river house," was a long, narrow structure, one +hundred feet by thirty-six, built on piles at the edge of the wharf. It +would form, with the connecting belt gallery that was to reach out over +the tracks, a T-shaped addition to the elevator. The river house was no +higher than was necessary for the spouts that would drop the grain +through the hatchways of the big lake steamers, twenty thousand bushels +an hour--it reached between sixty and seventy feet above the water. The +marine tower that was to be built, twenty-four feet square, up through +the centre of the house, would be more than twice as high. A careful +examination convinced Bannon that the pile foundations would prove +strong enough to support this heavier structure, and that the only +changes necessary would be in the frame of the spouting house. On the +same day that the plans arrived, work on the tower commenced. + +Peterson had about got to the point where startling developments no +longer alarmed him. He had seen the telegram the day before, but his +first information that a marine tower was actually under way came when +Bannon called off a group of laborers late in the afternoon to rig the +"trolley" for carrying timber across the track. + +"What are you going to do, Charlie?" he called. "Got to slide them +timbers back again?" + +"Some of 'em," Bannon replied. + +"Don't you think we could carry 'em over?" said Peterson. "If we was +quiet about it, they needn't be any trouble?" + +Bannon shook his head. + +"We're not taking any more chances on this railroad. We haven't time." + +Once more the heavy timbers went swinging through the air, high over the +tracks, but this time back to the wharf. Before long the section boss of +the C. & S. C. appeared, and though he soon went away, one of his men +remained, lounging about the tracks, keeping a close eye on the sagging +ropes and the timbers. Bannon, when he met Peterson a few minutes later, +pointed out the man. + +"What'd I tell you, Pete? They're watching us like cats. If you want to +know what the C. & S. C. think about us, you just drop one timber and +you'll find out." + +But nothing dropped, and when Peterson, who had been on hand all the +latter part of the afternoon, took hold, at seven o'clock, the first +timbers of the tower had been set in place, somewhere down inside the +rough shed of a spouting house, and more would go in during the night, +and during other days and nights, until the narrow framework should go +reaching high into the air. Another thing was recognized by the men at +work on that night shift, even by the laborers who carried timbers, and +grunted and swore in strange tongues; this was that the night shift men +had suddenly begun to feel a most restless energy crowding them on, and +they worked nearly as well as Bannon's day shifts. For Peterson's +spirits had risen with a leap, once the misunderstanding that had been +weighing on him had been removed, and now he was working as he had never +worked before. The directions he gave showed that his head was clearer; +and there was confidence in his manner. + +Hilda was so serious all day after her talk with Bannon that once, in +the afternoon, when he came into the office for a glance at the new pile +of blue prints, he smiled, and asked if she were laying out a campaign. +It was the first work of the kind that she had ever undertaken, and she +was a little worried over the need for tact and delicacy. After she had +closed her desk at supper time, she saw Bannon come into the circle of +the electric light in front of the office, and, asking Max to wait, she +went to meet him. + +"Well," he said, "are you loaded up to fight the 'power of the union'?" + +She smiled, and then said, with a trace of nervousness:-- + +"I don't believe I'm quite so sure about it as I was this morning." + +"It won't bother you much. When you've made him see that we're square +and Grady isn't, you've done the whole business. We won't pay fancy +damages, that's all." + +"Yes," she said, "I think I know. What I wanted to see you about +was--was--Max and I are going over right after supper, and----" + +She stopped abruptly; and Bannon, looking down at her, saw a look of +embarrassment come into her face; and then she blushed, and lowering her +eyes, fumbled with her glove. Bannon was a little puzzled. His eyes +rested on her for a moment, and then, without understanding why, he +suddenly knew that she had meant to ask him to see her after the visit, +and that the new personal something in their acquaintance had flashed a +warning. He spoke quickly, as if he were the first to think of it. + +"If you don't mind, I'll come around to-night and hear the report of the +committee of adjusters. That's you, you know. Something might come up +that I ought to know right away." + +"Yes," she replied rapidly, without looking up, "perhaps that would be +the best thing to do." + +He walked along with her toward the office, where Max was waiting, but +she did not say anything, and he turned in with: "I won't say +good-night, then. Good luck to you." + +It was soon after eight that Bannon went to the boarding-house where +Hilda and Max lived, and sat down to wait in the parlor. When a quarter +of an hour had gone, and they had not returned, he buttoned up his coat +and went out, walking slowly along the uneven sidewalk toward the river. +The night was clear, and he could see, across the flats and over the +tracks, where tiny signal lanterns were waving and circling, and freight +trains were bumping and rumbling, the glow of the arc lamps on the +elevator, and its square outline against the sky. Now and then, when the +noise of the switching trains let down, he could hear the hoisting +engines. Once he stopped and looked eastward at the clouds of +illuminated smoke above the factories and at the red blast of the +rolling mill. He went nearly to the river and had to turn back and walk +slowly. Finally he heard Max's laugh, and then he saw them coming down a +side street. + +"Well," he said, "you don't sound like bad news." + +"I don't believe we are very bad," replied Hilda. + +"Should say not," put in Max. "It's finer'n silk." + +Hilda said, "Max," in a low voice, but he went on:-- + +"The best thing, Mr. Bannon, was when I told him it was Hilda that had +been sending things around. He thought it was you, you see, and Grady'd +told him it was all a part of the game to bamboozle him out of the money +that was rightfully his. It's funny to hear him sling that Grady talk +around. I don't think he more'n half knows what it means. I'd promised +not to tell, you know, but I just saw there wasn't no use trying to make +him understand things without talking pretty plain. There ain't a thing +he wouldn't do for Hilda now----" + +"Max," said Hilda again, "please don't." + +When they reached the house, Max at once started in. Hilda hesitated, +and then said:-- + +"I'll come in a minute, Max." + +"Oh," he replied, "all right" But he waited a moment longer, evidently +puzzled. + +"Well," said Bannon, "was it so hard?" + +"No--not hard exactly. I didn't know he was so poor. Somehow you don't +think about it that way when you see them working. I don't know that I +ever thought about it at all before." + +"You think he won't give us any trouble?" + +"I'm sure he won't. I--I had to promise I'd go again pretty soon." + +"Maybe you'll let me go along." + +"Why--why, yes, of course." + +She had been hesitating, looking down and picking at the splinters on +the gate post. Neither was Bannon quick to speak. He did not want to +question her about the visit, for he saw that it was hard for her to +talk about it. Finally she straightened up and looked at him. + +"I want to tell you," she said, "I haven't understood exactly until +to-night--what they said about the accident and the way you've talked +about it--well, some people think you don't think very much about the +men, and that if anybody's hurt, or anything happens, you don't care as +long as the work goes on." She was looking straight at him. "I thought +so, too. And to-night I found out some things you've been doing for +him--how you've been giving him tobacco, and the things he likes best +that I'd never have thought of, and I knew it was you that did it, and +not the Company--and I--I beg your pardon." + +Bannon did not know what to reply. They stood for a moment without +speaking, and then she smiled, and said "Good night," and ran up the +steps without looking around. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +It was the night of the tenth of December. Three of the four stories of +the cupola were building, and the upright posts were reaching toward the +fourth. It still appeared to be a confused network of timbers, with only +the beginnings of walls, but as the cupola walls are nothing but a shell +of light boards to withstand the wind, the work was further along than +might have been supposed. Down on the working story the machinery was +nearly all in, and up here in the cupola the scales and garners were +going into place as rapidly as the completing of the supporting +framework permitted. The cupola floors were not all laid. If you had +stood on the distributing floor, over the tops of the bins, you might +have looked not only down through a score of openings between plank +areas and piles of timbers, into black pits, sixteen feet square by +seventy deep, but upward through a grill of girders and joists to the +clear sky. Everywhere men swarmed over the work, and the buzz of the +electric lights and the sounds of hundreds of hammers blended into a +confused hum. + +If you had walked to the east end of the building, here and there +balancing along a plank or dodging through gangs of laborers and around +moving timbers, you would have seen stretching from off a point not +halfway through to the ground, the annex bins, rising so steadily that +it was a matter only of a few weeks before they would be ready to +receive grain. Now another walk, this time across the building to the +north side, would show you the river house, out there on the wharf, and +the marine tower rising up through the middle with a single arc lamp on +the topmost girder throwing a mottled, checkered shadow on the wharf and +the water below. + +At a little after eight o'clock, Peterson, who had been looking at the +stairway, now nearly completed, came out on the distributing floor. He +was in good spirits, for everything was going well, and Bannon had +frankly credited him, of late, with the improvement in the work of the +night shifts. He stood looking up through the upper floors of the +cupola, and he did not see Max until the timekeeper stood beside him. + +"Hello, Max," he said. "We'll have the roof on here in another ten +days." + +Max followed Peterson's glance upward. + +"I guess that's right. It begins to look as if things was coming 'round +all right. I just come up from the office. Mr. Bannon's there. He'll be +up before long, he says. I was a-wondering if maybe I hadn't ought to go +back and tell him about Grady. He's around, you know." + +"Who? Grady?" + +"Yes. Him and another fellow was standing down by one of the cribbin' +piles. I was around there on the way up." + +"What was they doing?" + +"Nothing. Just looking on." + +Peterson turned to shout at some laborers, then he pushed back his hat +and scratched his head. + +"I don't know but what you'd ought to 'a' told Charlie right off. That +man Grady don't mean us no good." + +"I know it, but I wasn't just sure." + +"Well, I'll tell you----" + +Before Peterson could finish, Max broke in:-- + +"That's him." + +"Where?" + +"That fellow over there, walking along slow. He's the one that was with +Grady." + +"I'd like to know what he thinks he's doing here." Peterson started +forward, adding, "I guess I know what to say to him." + +"Hold on, Pete," said Max, catching his arm. "Maybe we'd better speak to +Mr. Bannon. I'll go down and tell him, and you keep an eye on this +fellow." + +Peterson reluctantly assented, and Max walked slowly away, now and then +pausing to look around at the men. But when he had nearly reached the +stairway, where he could slip behind the scaffolding about the only +scale hopper that had reached a man's height above the floor, he moved +more rapidly. He met Bannon on the stairway, and told him what he had +seen. Bannon leaned against the wall of the stairway bin, and looked +thoughtful. + +"So he's come, has he?" was his only comment. "You might speak to Pete, +Max, and bring him here. I'll wait." + +Max and Peterson found him looking over the work of the carpenters. + +"I may not be around much to-night," he said, with a wink, "but I'd like +to see both of you to-morrow afternoon some time. Can you get around +about four o'clock, Pete?" + +"Sure," the night boss replied. + +"We've got some thinking to do about the work, if we're going to put it +through. I'll look for you at four o'clock then, in the office." He +started down the stairs. "I'm going home now." + +"Why," said Peterson, "you only just come." + +Bannon paused and looked back over his shoulder. The light came from +directly overhead, and the upper part of his face was in the shadow of +his hat brim, but Max, looking closely at him, thought that he winked +again. + +"I wanted to tell you," the foreman went on; "Grady's come around, you +know--and another fellow----" + +"Yes, Max told me. I guess they won't hurt you. Good night." + +As he went on down he passed a group of laborers who were bringing +stairway material to the carpenters. + +"I don't know but what you was talking pretty loud," said Max to +Peterson, in a low voice. "Here's some of 'em now." + +"They didn't hear nothing," Peterson replied, and the two went back to +the distributing floor. They stood in a shadow, by the scale hopper, +waiting for the reappearance of Grady's companion. He had evidently gone +on to the upper floors, where he could not be distinguished from the +many other moving figures; but in a few minutes he came back, walking +deliberately toward the stairs. He looked at Peterson and Max, but +passed by without a second glance, and descended. Peterson stood looking +after him. + +"Now, I'd like to know what Charlie meant by going home," he said. + +Max had been thinking hard. Finally he said:-- + +"Say, Pete, we're blind." + +"Why?" + +"Did you think he was going home?" + +Peterson looked at him, but did not reply. + +"Because he ain't." + +"Well, you heard what he said." + +"What does that go for? He was winking when he said it. He wasn't going +to stand there and tell the laborers all about it, like we was trying to +do. I'll bet he ain't very far off." + +"I ain't got a word to say," said Peterson. "If he wants to leave Grady +to me, I guess I can take care of him." + +Max had come to the elevator for a short visit--he liked to watch the +work at night--but now he settled down to stay, keeping about the hopper +where he could see Grady if his head should appear at the top of the +stairs. Something told him that Bannon saw deeper into Grady's +man[oe]uvres than either Peterson or himself, and while he could not +understand, yet he was beginning to think that Grady would appear before +long, and that Bannon knew it. + +Sure enough, only a few minutes had gone when Max turned back from a +glance at the marine tower and saw the little delegate standing on the +top step, looking about the distributing floor and up through the +girders overhead, with quick, keen eyes. Then Max understood what it all +meant: Grady had chosen a time when Bannon was least likely to be on the +job; and had sent the other man ahead to reconnoitre. It meant +mischief--Max could see that; and he felt a boy's nervousness at the +prospect of excitement. He stepped farther back into the shadow. + +Grady was looking about for Peterson; when he saw his burly figure +outlined against a light at the farther end of the building, he walked +directly toward him, not pausing this time to talk to the laborers or to +look at them. Max, moving off a little to one side, followed, and +reached Peterson's side just as Grady, his hat pushed back on his head +and his feet apart, was beginning to talk. + +"I had a little conversation with you the other day, Mr. Peterson. I +called to see you in the interests of the men, the men that are working +for you--working like galley slaves they are, every man of them. It's +shameful to a man that's seen how they've been treated by the nigger +drivers that stands over them day and night." He was speaking in a loud +voice, with the fluency of a man who is carefully prepared. There was +none of the bitterness or the ugliness in his manner that had slipped +out in his last talk with Bannon, for he knew that a score of laborers +were within hearing, and that his words would travel, as if by wire, +from mouth to mouth about the building and the grounds below. "I stand +here, Mr. Peterson, the man chosen by these slaves of yours, to look +after their rights. I do not ask you to treat them with kindness, I do +not ask that you treat them as gentlemen. What do I ask? I demand what's +accorded to them by the Constitution of the United States and the +Declaration of Independence, that says even a nigger has more rights +than you've given to these men, the men that are putting money into your +pocket, and Mr. Bannon's pocket, and the corporation's pocket, by the +sweat of their brows. Look at them; will you look at them?" He waved his +arm toward the nearest group, who had stopped working and were +listening; and then, placing a cigar in his mouth and tilting it upward, +he struck a match and sheltered it in his hands, looking over it for a +moment at Peterson. + +The night boss saw by this time that Grady meant business, that his +speech was preliminary to something more emphatic, and he knew that he +ought to stop it before the laborers should be demoralized. + +"You can't do that here, Mister," said Max, over Peterson's shoulder, +indicating the cigar. + +Grady still held the match, and looked impudently across the tip of his +cigar. Peterson took it up at once. + +"You'll have to drop that," he said. "There's no smoking on this job." + +The match had gone out, and Grady lighted another. + +"So that's one of your rules, too?" he said, in the same loud voice. +"It's a wonder you let a man eat." + +Peterson was growing angry. His voice rose as he talked. + +"I ain't got time to talk to you," he said. "The insurance company says +there can't be no smoking here. If you want to know why, you'd better +ask them." + +Grady blew out the match and returned the cigar to his pocket, with an +air of satisfaction that Peterson could not make out. + +"That's all right, Mr. Peterson. I didn't come here to make trouble. I +come here as a representative of these men"--he waved again toward the +laborers--"and I say right here, that if you'd treated them right in the +first place, I wouldn't be here at all. I've wanted you to have a fair +show. I've put up with your mean tricks and threats and insults ever +since you begun--and why? Because I wouldn't delay you and hurt the +work. It's the industries of to-day, the elevators and railroads, and +the work of strong men like these that's the bulwark of America's +greatness. But what do I get in return, Mister Peterson? I come up here +as a gentleman and talk to you. I treat you as a gentleman. I overlook +what you've showed yourself to be. And how do you return it? By talking +like the blackguard you are--you knock an innocent cigar----" + +"Your time's up!" said Pete, drawing a step nearer. "Come to business, +or clear out. That's all I've got to say to you." + +"All right, _Mister_ Peterson--_all_ right. I'll put up with your +insults. I can afford to forget myself when I look about me at the +heavier burdens these men have to bear, day and night. Look at +that--look at it, and then try to talk to me." + +He pointed back toward the stairs where a gang of eight laborers were +carrying a heavy timber across the shadowy floor. + +"Well, what about it?" said Pete, with half-controlled rage. + +"What about it! But never mind. I'm a busy man myself. I've got no more +time to waste on the likes of you. Take a good look at that, and then +listen to me. That's the last stick of timber that goes across this +floor until you put a runway from the hoist to the end of the building. +And every stick that leaves the runway has got to go on a dolly. Mark my +words now--I'm talking plain. My men don't lift another pound of timber +on this house--everything goes on rollers. I've tried to be a patient +man, but you've run against the limit. You've broke the last back you'll +have a chance at." He put his hand to his mouth as if to shout at the +gang, but dropped it and faced around. "No, I won't stop them. I'll be +fair to the last." He pulled out his watch. "I'll give you one hour from +now. At ten o'clock, if your runway and the dollies ain't working, the +men go out. And the next time I see you, I won't be so easy." + +He turned away, waved to the laborers, with an, "All right, boys; go +ahead," and walked grandly toward the stairway. + +Max whistled. + +"I'd like to know where Charlie is," said Peterson. + +"He ain't far. I'll find him;" and Max hurried away. + +Bannon was sitting in the office chair with his feet on the +draughting-table, figuring on the back of a blotter. The light from the +wall lamp was indistinct, and Bannon had to bend his head forward to see +the figures. He did not look up when the door opened and Max came to the +railing gate. + +"Grady's been up on the distributing floor," said Max, breathlessly, for +he had been running. + +"What did he want?" + +"He's going to call the men off at ten o'clock if we don't put in a +runway and dollies on the distributing floor." + +Bannon looked at his watch. + +"Is that all he wants?" + +Max, in his excitement, did not catch the sarcasm in the question. + +"That's all he said, but it's enough. We can't do it" + +Bannon closed his watch with a snap. + +"No," he said, "and we won't throw away any good time trying. You'd +better round up the committee that's supposed to run this lodge and send +them here. That young Murphy's one of them--he can put you straight. +Bring Pete back with you, and the new man, James." + +Max lingered, with a look of awe and admiration. + +"Are you going to stand out, Mr. Bannon?" he asked. + +Bannon dropped his feet to the floor, and turned toward the table. + +"Yes," he said. "We're going to stand out." + +Since Bannon's talk with President Carver a little drama had been going +on in the local lodge, a drama that neither Bannon, Max, nor Peterson +knew about. James had been selected by Carver for this work because of +proved ability and shrewdness. He had no sooner attached himself to the +lodge, and made himself known as an active member, than his personality, +without any noticeable effort on his part, began to make itself felt. Up +to this time Grady had had full swing, for there had been no one among +the laborers with force enough to oppose him. + +The first collision took place at an early meeting after Grady's last +talk with Bannon. The delegate, in the course of the meeting, bitterly +attacked Bannon, accusing him, at the climax of his oration, of an +attempt to buy off the honest representative of the working classes for +five thousand dollars. This had a tremendous effect on the excitable +minds before him. He finished his speech with an impassioned tirade +against the corrupt influences of the money power, and was mopping his +flushed face, listening with elation to the hum of anger that resulted, +confident that he had made his point, when James arose. The new man was +as familiar with the tone of the meetings of laborers as Grady himself. +At the beginning he had no wish further than to get at the truth. Grady +had not stated his case well. It had convinced the laborers, but to +James it had weak points. He asked Grady a few pointed questions, that, +had the delegate felt the truth behind him, should not have been hard to +answer. But Grady was still under the spell of his own oratory, and in +attempting to get his feet back on the ground, he bungled. James did not +carry the discussion beyond the point where Grady, in the bewilderment +of recognizing this new element in the lodge, lost his temper, but when +he sat down, the sentiment of the meeting had changed. Few of those men +could have explained their feelings; it was simply that the new man was +stronger than they were, perhaps as strong as Grady, and they were +influenced accordingly. + +There was no decision for a strike at that meeting. Grady, cunning at +the business, immediately dropped open discussion, and, smarting under +the sense of lost prestige, set about regaining his position by +well-planned talk with individual laborers. This went on, largely +without James' knowledge, until Grady felt sure that a majority of the +men were back in his control. This time he was determined to carry +through the strike without the preliminary vote of the men. It was a +bold stroke, but boldness was needed to defeat Charlie Bannon; and +nobody knew better than Grady that a dashing show of authority would be +hard for James or any one else to resist. + +And so he had come on the job this evening, at a time when he supposed +Bannon safe in bed, and delivered his ultimatum. Not that he had any +hope of carrying the strike through without some sort of a collision +with the boss, but he well knew that an encounter after the strike had +gathered momentum would be easier than one before. Bannon might be able +to outwit an individual, even Grady himself, but he would find it hard +to make headway against an angry mob. And now Grady was pacing stiffly +about the Belt Line yards, while the minute hand of his watch crept +around toward ten o'clock. Even if Bannon should be called within the +hour, a few fiery words to those sweating gangs on the distributing +floor should carry the day. But Grady did not think that this would be +necessary. He was still in the mistake of supposing that Peterson and +the boss were at outs, and he had arrived, by a sort of reasoning that +seemed the keenest strategy, at the conclusion that Peterson would take +the opportunity to settle the matter himself. In fact, Grady had evolved +a neat little campaign, and he was proud of himself. + +Bannon did not have to wait long. Soon there was a sound of feet outside +the door, and after a little hesitation, six laborers entered, five of +them awkwardly and timidly, wondering what was to come. Peterson +followed, with Max, and closed the door. The members of the committee +stood in a straggling row at the railing, looking at each other and at +the floor and ceiling--anywhere but at the boss, who was sitting on the +table, sternly taking them in. James stepped to one side. + +"Is this all the committee?" Bannon presently said. + +The men hesitated, and Murphy, who was in the centre, answered, "Yes, +sir." + +"You are the governing members of your lodge?" + +There was an air of cool authority about Bannon that disturbed the men. +They had been led to believe that his power reached only the work on the +elevator, and that an attempt on his part to interfere in any way with +their organization would be an act of high-handed tyranny, "to be +resisted to the death" (Grady's words). But these men standing before +their boss, in his own office, were not the same men that thrilled with +righteous wrath under Grady's eloquence in the meetings over Barry's +saloon. So they looked at the floor and ceiling again, until Murphy at +last answered:-- + +"Yes, sir." + +Bannon waited again, knowing that every added moment of silence gave him +the firmer control. + +"I have nothing to say about the government of your organization," he +said, speaking slowly and coldly. "I have brought you here to ask you +this question, Have you voted to strike?" + +The silence was deep. Peterson, leaning against the closed door, held +his breath; Max, sitting on the railing with his elbow thrown over the +desk, leaned slightly forward. The eyes of the laborers wandered +restlessly about the room. They were disturbed, taken off their guard; +they needed Grady. But the thought of Grady was followed by the +consciousness of the silent figure of the new man, James, standing +behind them. Murphy's first impulse was to lie. Perhaps, if James had +not been there, he would have lied. As it was, he glanced up two or +three times, and his lips as many times framed themselves about words +that did not come. Finally he said, mumbling the words:-- + +"No, we ain't voted for no strike." + +"There has been no such decision made by your organization?" + +"No, I guess not." + +Bannon turned to Peterson. + +"Mr. Peterson, will you please find Mr. Grady and bring him here." + +Max and Peterson hurried out together. Bannon drew up the chair, and +turned his back on the committee, going on with his figuring. Not a word +was said; the men hardly moved; and the minutes went slowly by. Then +there was a stir outside, and the sound of low voices. The door flew +open, admitting Grady, who stalked to the railing, choking with anger. +Max, who immediately followed, was grinning, his eyes resting on a round +spot of dust on Grady's shoulder, and on his torn collar and disarranged +tie. Peterson came in last, and carefully closed the door--his eyes were +blazing, and one sleeve was rolled up over his bare forearm. Neither of +them spoke. If anything in the nature of an assault had seemed necessary +in dragging the delegate to the office, there had been no witnesses. And +he had entered the room of his own accord. + +Grady was at a disadvantage, and he knew it. Breathing hard, his face +red, his little eyes darting about the room, he took it all in--the +members of the committee; the boss, figuring at the table, with an air +of exasperating coolness about his lean back; and last of all, James, +standing in the shadow. It was the sight of the new man that checked the +storm of words that was pressing on Grady's tongue. But he finally +gathered himself and stepped forward, pushing aside one of the +committee. + +Then Bannon turned. He faced about in his chair and began to talk +straight at the committee, ignoring the delegate. Grady began to talk at +the same time, but though his voice was the louder, no one seemed to +hear him. The men were looking at Bannon. Grady hesitated, started +again, and then, bound by his own rage and his sense of defeat, let his +words die away, and stood casting about for an opening. + +"--This man Grady threatened a good while ago that I would have a strike +on my hands. He finally came to me and offered to protect me if I would +pay him five thousand dollars." + +"That's a lie!" shouted the delegate. "He come to me----" + +Bannon had hardly paused. He drew a typewritten copy of Grady's letter +from his pocket, and read it aloud, then handed it over to Murphy. +"That's the way he came at me. I want you to read it." + +The man took it awkwardly, glanced at it, and passed it on. + +"To-night he's ordered a strike. He calls himself your representative, +but he has acted on his own responsibility. Now, I am going to talk +plain to you. I came here to build this elevator, and I'm going to do +it. I propose to treat you men fair and square. If you think you ain't +treated right, you send an honest man to this office, and I'll talk with +him. But I'm through with Grady. I won't have him here at all. If you +send him around again, I'll throw him off the job." + +The men were a little startled. They looked at one another, and the man +on Murphy's left whispered something. Bannon sat still, watching them. + +Then Grady came to himself. He wheeled around to face the committee, and +threw out one arm in a wide gesture. + +"I demand to know what this means! I demand to know if there is a law in +this land! Is an honest man, the representative of the hand of labor, to +be attacked by hired ruffians? Is he to be slandered by the tyrant who +drives you at the point of the pistol? And you not men enough to defend +your rights--the rights held by every American--the rights granted by +the Constitution! But it ain't for myself I would talk. It ain't my own +injuries that I suffer for. Your liberty hangs in the balance. This man +has dared to interfere in the integrity of your lodge. Have you no +words----" + +Bannon arose, caught Grady's arm, and whirled him around. + +"Grady," he said, "shut up." + +The delegate tried to jerk away, but he could not shake off that grip. +He looked toward the committeemen, but they were silent. He looked +everywhere but up into the eyes that were blazing down at him. And +finally Bannon felt the muscles within his grip relax. + +"I'll tell you what I want you to do," said Bannon to the committeemen. +"I want you to elect a new delegate. Don't talk about interference--I +don't care how you elect him, or who he is, if he comes to me squarely." + +Grady was wriggling again. + +"This means a strike!" he shouted. "This means the biggest strike the +West has ever seen! You won't get men for love or money----" + +Bannon gave the arm a wrench, and broke in:-- + +"I'm sick of this. I laid this matter before President Carver. I have +his word that if you hang on to this man after he's been proved a +blackmailer, your lodge can be dropped from the Federation. If you try +to strike, you won't hurt anybody but yourselves. That's all. You can +go." + +"Wait----" Grady began, but they filed out without looking at him. +James, as he followed them, nodded, and said, "Good night, Mr. Bannon." + +Then for the last time Bannon led Grady away. Peterson started forward, +but the boss shook his head, and went out, marching the delegate between +the lumber piles to the point where the path crossed the Belt Line +tracks. + +"Now, Mr. Grady," he said, "this is where our ground stops. The other +sides are the road there, and the river, and the last piles of cribbing +at the other end. I'm telling you so you will know where you don't +belong. Now, get out!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +The effect of the victory was felt everywhere. Not only were Max and +Pete and Hilda jubilant over it, but the under-foremen, the timekeepers, +even the laborers attacked their work with a fresher energy. It was like +the first whiff of salt air to an army marching to the sea. Since the +day when the cribbing came down from Ledyard, the work had gone forward +with almost incredible rapidity; there had been no faltering during the +weeks when Grady's threatened catastrophe was imminent, but now that the +big shadow of the little delegate was dispelled, it was easier to see +that the huge warehouse was almost finished. There was still much to do, +and the handful of days that remained seemed absurdly inadequate; but it +needed only a glance at what Charlie Bannon's tireless, driving energy +had already accomplished to make the rest look easy. "We're sure of it +now. She'll be full to the roof before the year is out." As Max went +over the job with his time-book next morning, he said it to every man he +met, and they all believed him. Peterson, the same man and not the same +man either, who had once vowed that there wouldn't be any night work on +Calumet K, who had bent a pair of most unwilling shoulders to the work +Bannon had put upon them, who had once spent long, sulky afternoons in +the barren little room of his new boarding-house; Peterson held himself +down in bed exactly three hours the morning after that famous victory. +Before eleven o'clock he was sledging down a tottering timber at the +summit of the marine tower, a hundred and forty feet sheer above the +wharf. Just before noon he came into the office and found Hilda there +alone. + +He had stopped outside the door to put on his coat, but had not buttoned +it; his shirt, wet as though he had been in the lake, clung to him and +revealed the outline of every muscle in his great trunk. He flung his +hat on the draughting-table, and his yellow hair seemed crisper and +curlier than ever before. + +"Well, it looks as though we was all right," he said. + +Hilda nodded emphatically. "You think we'll get through in time, don't +you, Mr. Peterson?" + +"Think!" he exclaimed. "I don't have to stop to think. Here comes Max; +just ask him." + +Max slammed the door behind him, brought down the timekeeper's book on +Hilda's desk with a slap that made her jump, and vaulted to a seat on +the railing. "Well, I guess it's a case of hurrah for us, ain't it, +Pete?" + +"Your sister asked me if I thought we'd get done on time. I was just +saying it's a sure thing." + +"I don't know," said Max, laughing. "I guess an earthquake could stop +us. But why ain't you abed, Pete?" + +"What do I want to be abed for? I ain't going to sleep any more this +year--unless we get through a day or two ahead of time. I don't like to +miss any of it. Charlie Bannon may have hustled before, but I guess this +breaks his record. Where is he now, Max?" + +"Down in the cellar putting in the running gear for the 'cross-the-house +conveyors. He has his nerve with him. He's putting in three drives +entirely different from the way they are in the plans. He told me just +now that there wasn't a man in the office who could design a drive that +wouldn't tie itself up in square knots in the first ten minutes. I +wonder what old MacBride'll say when he sees that he's changed the +plans." + +"If MacBride has good sense, he'll pass anything that Charlie puts up," +said Pete. + +He was going to say more, but just then Bannon strode into the office +and over to the draughting table. He tossed Pete's hat to one side and +began studying a detail of the machinery plans. + +"Max." He spoke without looking up. "I wish you'd find a water boy and +send him up to the hotel to get a couple of sandwiches and a bottle of +coffee." + +"Well, that's a nice way to celebrate, I must say," Pete commented. + +"Celebrate what?" + +"Why, last night; throwing Grady down. You ought to take a day off on +the strength of that." + +"What's Grady got to do with it? He ain't in the specifications." + +"No," said Pete, slowly; "but where would we have been if he'd got the +men off?" + +"Where would we have been if the house had burned up?" Bannon retorted, +turning away from the table. "That's got nothing to do with it. I +haven't felt less like taking a day off since I came on the job. We may +get through on time and we may not. If we get tangled up in the plans +like this, very often, I don't know how we'll come out. But the surest +way to get left is to begin now telling ourselves that this is easy and +it's a cinch. That kind of talk makes me tired." + +Pete flushed, started an explanatory sentence, and another, and then, +very uncomfortable, went out. + +Bannon did not look up; he went on studying the blue print, measuring +here and there with his three-sided ruler and jotting down +incomprehensible operations in arithmetic on a scrap of paper. Max was +figuring tables in his time-book, Hilda poring over the cash account. +For half an hour no one spoke. Max crammed his cap down over his ears +and went out, and there were ten minutes more of silence. Then Bannon +began talking. He still busied his fingers with the blue print, and +Hilda, after discovering that he was talking to himself rather than to +her, went on with her work. But nevertheless she heard, in a fragmentary +way, what he was saying. + +"Take a day off--schoolboy trick--enough to make a man tired. Might as +well do it, though. We ain't going to get through. The office ought to +do a little work once in a while just to see what it's like. They think +a man can do anything. I'd like to know why I ain't entitled to a +night's sleep as well as MacBride. But he don't think so. After he'd +worked me twenty-four hours a day up to Duluth, and I lost thirty-two +pounds up there, he sends me down to a mess like this. With a lot of +drawings that look as though they were made by a college boy. Where does +he expect 'em to pile their car doors, I'd like to know." + +That was the vein of it, though the monologue ran on much longer. But at +last he swung impatiently around and addressed Hilda. "I'm ready to +throw up my hands. I think I'll go back to Minneapolis and tell MacBride +I've had enough. He can come down here and finish the house himself." + +"Do you think he would get it done in time?" Hilda's eyes were laughing +at him, but she kept them on her work. + +"Oh, yes," he said wearily. "He'd get the grain into her somehow. You +couldn't stump MacBride with anything. That's why he makes it so warm +for us." + +"Do you think," she asked very demurely, indeed, "that if Mr. MacBride +had been here he could have built it any faster than--than we have, so +far?" + +"I don't believe it," said Bannon, unwarily. Her smile told him that he +had been trapped. "I see," he added. "You mean that there ain't any +reason why we can't do it." + +He arose and tramped uneasily about the little shanty. "Oh, of course, +we'll get it done--just because we have to. There ain't anything else we +can do. But just the same I'm sick of the business. I want to quit." + +She said nothing, and after a moment he wheeled and, facing her, +demanded abruptly: "What's the matter with me, anyway?" She looked at +him frankly, a smile, almost mischievous, in her face. The hard, +harassed look between his eyes and about his drawn mouth melted away, +and he repeated the question: "What's the matter with me? You're the +doctor. I'll take whatever medicine you say." + +"You didn't take Mr. Peterson's suggestion very well--about taking a +holiday, I mean. I don't know whether I dare prescribe for you or not. I +don't think you need a day off. I think that, next to a good, long +vacation, the best thing for you is excitement." He laughed. "No, I mean +it. You're tired out, of course, but if you have enough to occupy your +mind, you don't know it. The trouble to-day is that everything is going +too smoothly. You weren't a bit afraid yesterday that the elevator +wouldn't be done on time. That was because you thought there was going +to be a strike. And if just now the elevator should catch on fire or +anything, you'd feel all right about it again." + +He still half suspected that she was making game of him, and he looked +at her steadily while he turned her words over in his mind. "Well," he +said, with a short laugh, "if the only medicine I need is excitement, +I'll be the healthiest man you ever saw in a little while. I guess I'll +find Pete. I must have made him feel pretty sore." + +"Pete," he said, coming upon him in the marine tower a little later, +"I've got over my stomach-ache. Is it all right?" + +"Sure," said Pete; "I didn't know you was feeling bad. I was thinking +about that belt gallery, Charlie. Ain't it time we was putting it up? +I'm getting sort of nervous about it." + +"There ain't three days' work in it, the way we're going," said Bannon, +thoughtfully, his eyes on the C. & S. C. right-of-way that lay between +him and the main house, "but I guess you're right. We'll get at it now. +There's no telling what sort of a surprise party those railroad fellows +may have for us. The plans call for three trestles between the tracks. +We'll get those up to-day." + +To Pete, building the gallery was a more serious business. He had not +Bannon's years of experience at bridge repairing; it had happened that +he had never been called upon to put up a belt gallery before, and this +idea of building a wooden box one hundred and fifty feet long and +holding it up, thirty feet in air, on three trestles, was formidable. +Bannon's nonchalant air of setting about it seemed almost an +affectation. + +Each trestle was to consist of a rank of four posts, planted in a line +at right angles to the direction of the gallery; they were to be held +together at the top by a corbel. No one gave rush orders any more on +Calumet K, for the reason that no one ever thought of doing anything +else. If Bannon sent for a man, he came on the run. So in an incredibly +short time the fences were down and a swarm of men with spades, post +augers, picks, and shovels had invaded the C. & S. C. right-of-way. Up +and down the track a hundred yards each way from the line of the gallery +Bannon had stationed men to give warning of the approach of trains. +"Now," said Bannon, "we'll get this part of the job done before any one +has time to kick. And they won't be very likely to try to pull 'em up by +the roots once we get 'em planted." + +But the section boss had received instructions that caused him to be +wide-awake, day or night, to what was going on in the neighborhood of +Calumet K. Half an hour after the work was begun, the picket line up the +track signalled that something was coming. There was no sound of bell or +whistle, but presently Bannon saw a hand car spinning down the track as +fast as six big, sweating men could pump the levers. The section boss +had little to say; simply that they were to get out of there and put up +that fence again, and the quicker the better. Bannon tried to tell him +that the railroad had consented to their putting in the gallery, that +they were well within their rights, that he, the section boss, had +better be careful not to exceed his instructions. But the section boss +had spoken his whole mind already. He was not of the sort that talk just +for the pleasure of hearing their own voices, and he had categorical +instructions that made parley unnecessary. He would not even tell from +whom he had the orders. So the posts were lugged out of the way and the +fence was put up and the men scattered out to their former work again, +grinning a little over Bannon's discomfiture. + +Bannon's next move was to write to Minneapolis for information and +instructions, but MacBride, who seemed to have all the information there +was, happened to be in Duluth, and Brown's instructions were +consequently foggy. So, after waiting a few days for something more +definite, Bannon disappeared one afternoon and was gone more than an +hour. When he strode into the office again, keen and springy as though +his work had just begun, Hilda looked up and smiled a little. Pete was +tilted back in the chair staring glumly out of the window. He did not +turn until Bannon slapped him jovially on the shoulders and told him to +cheer up. + +"Those railroad chaps are laying for us, sure enough," he said. "I've +been talking to MacBride himself--over at the telephone exchange; he +ain't in town--and he said that Porter--he's the vice-president of the +C. & S. C.--Porter told him, when he was in Chicago, that they wouldn't +object at all to our building the gallery over their tracks. But that's +all we've got to go by. Not a word on paper. Oh, they mean to give us a +picnic, and no mistake!" + +With that, Bannon called up the general offices of the C. & S. C. and +asked for Mr. Porter. There was some little delay in getting the +connection, and then three or four minutes of fencing while a young man +at the other end of the line tried to satisfy himself that Bannon had +the right to ask for Mr. Porter, let alone to talk with him, and Bannon, +steadily ignoring his questions, continued blandly requesting him to +call Mr. Porter to the telephone. Hilda was listening with interest, for +Bannon's manner was different from anything she had ever seen in him +before. It lacked nothing of his customary assurance, but its breeziness +gave place to the most studied restraint; he might have been a railroad +president himself. He hung up the receiver, however, without +accomplishing anything, for the young man finally told him that Mr. +Porter had gone out for the afternoon. + +So next morning Bannon tried again. He learned that Porter was in, and +all seemed to be going well until he mentioned MacBride & Company, after +which Mr. Porter became very elusive. Three or four attempts to pin him +down, or at least to learn his whereabouts, proved unsuccessful, and at +last Bannon, with wrath in his heart, started down town. + +It was nearly night before he came back, and as before, he found Pete +sitting gloomily in the office waiting his return. "Well," exclaimed the +night boss, looking at him eagerly; "I thought you was never coming +back. We've most had a fit here, wondering how you'd come out. I don't +have to ask you, though. I can see by your looks that we're all right." + +Bannon laughed, and glanced over at Hilda, who was watching him closely. +"Is that your guess, too, Miss Vogel?" + +"I don't think so," she said. "I think you've had a pretty hard time." + +"They're both good guesses," he said, pulling a paper out of his pocket, +and handing it to Hilda. "Read that." It was a formal permit for +building the gallery, signed by Porter himself, and bearing the O. K. of +the general manager. + +"Nice, isn't it?" Bannon commented. "Now read the postscript, Miss +Vogel." It was in Porter's handwriting, and Hilda read it slowly. +"MacBride & Company are not, however, allowed to erect trestles or +temporary scaffolding in the C. & S. C. right-of-way, nor to remove any +property of the Company, such as fences, nor to do anything which may, +in the opinion of the local authorities, hinder the movement of trains." + +Pete's face went blank. "A lot of good this darned permit does us then. +That just means we can't build it." + +Bannon nodded. "That's what it's supposed to mean," he said. "That's +just the point." + +"You see, it's like this," he went on. "That man Porter would make the +finest material for ring-oiling, dust proof, non-inflammable bearings +that I ever saw. He's just about the hardest, smoothest, shiniest, +coolest little piece of metal that ever came my way. Well, he wants to +delay us on this job. I took that in the moment I saw him. Well, I told +him how we went ahead, just banking on his verbal consent, and how his +railroad had jumped on us; and I said I was sure it was just a +misunderstanding, but I wanted it cleared up because we was in a hurry. +He grinned a little over that, and I went on talking. Said we'd bother +'em as little as possible; of course we had to put up the trestles in +their property, because we couldn't hold the thing up with a balloon. + +"He asked me, innocent as you please, if a steel bridge couldn't be made +in a single span, and I said, yes, but it would take too long. We only +had a few days. 'Well,' he says, 'Mr. Bannon, I'll give you a permit.' +And that's what he gave me. I bet he's grinning yet. I wonder if he'll +grin so much about three days from now." + +"Do you mean that you can build it anyway?" Hilda demanded breathlessly. + +He nodded, and, turning to Pete, plunged into a swift, technical +explanation of how the trick was to be done. "Won't you please tell me, +too?" Hilda asked appealingly. + +"Sure," he said. He sat down beside her at the desk and began drawing on +a piece of paper. Pete came and looked over his shoulder. Bannon began +his explanation. + +[Illustration: "HERE'S THE SPOUTING HOUSE"] + +"Here's the spouting house, and here's the elevator. Now, suppose they +were only fifteen feet apart. Then if we had two ten-foot sticks and put +'em up at an angle and fastened the floor to a bolt that came down +between 'em, the whole weight of the thing would be passed along to the +foundation that the ends of the timbers rest on. But you see, it's got +to be one hundred and fifty feet long, and to build it that way would +take two one hundred-foot timbers, and we haven't got 'em that long. + +[Illustration: HE WAS DRAWING LINES ACROSS THE TIMBER] + +"But we've got plenty of sticks that are twenty feet long, and plenty of +bolts, and this is the way we arrange 'em. We put up our first stick +(_x_) at an angle just as before. Then we let a bolt (_o_) down through +the upper end of it and through the floor of the gallery. Now the next +timber (_y_) we put up at just the same angle as the first, with the +foot of it bearing down on the lower end of the bolt. + +"That second stick pushes two ways. A straight down push and a sideways +push. The bolt resists the down push and transmits it to the first +stick, and that pushes against the sill that I marked _a_. Now, the +sideways push is against the butt of the first timber of the floor, and +that's passed on, same way, to the sill. + +"Well, that's the whole trick. You begin at both ends at once and just +keep right on going. When the thing's done it looks this way. You see +where the two sections meet in the middle, it's just the same as the +little fifteen-foot gallery that we made a picture of up here." + +[Illustration: "WELL, THAT'S THE WHOLE TRICK"] + +"I understand that all right," said Pete, "but I don't see yet how +you're going to do it without some kind of scaffolding." + +"Easy. I ain't going to use a balloon, but I've got something that's +better. It'll be out here this afternoon. Come and help me get things +ready." + +There was not much to do, for the timber was already cut to the right +sizes, but Bannon was not content till everything was piled so that when +work did begin on the gallery it could go without a hitch. He was +already several days behind, and when one is figuring it as fine as +Bannon was doing in those last days, even one day is a serious matter. +He could do nothing more at the belt gallery until his substitute for a +scaffold should arrive; it did not come that afternoon or evening, and +next morning when he came on the job it still had not been heard from. +There was enough to occupy every moment of his time and every shred of +his thought without bothering about the gallery, and he did not worry +about it as he would have worried if he had had nothing to do but wait +for it. + +But when, well along in the afternoon, a water boy found him up on the +weighing floor and told him there was something for him at the office, +he made astonishing time getting down. "Here's your package," said Max, +as Bannon burst into the little shanty. It was a little, round, +pasteboard box. If Bannon had had the office to himself, he would, in +his disappointment, have cursed the thing till it took fire. As it was, +he stood speechless a moment and then turned to go out again. + +"Aren't you going to open it, now you're here?" asked Max. + +Bannon, after hesitating, acted on the suggestion, and when he saw what +it was, he laughed. No, Brown had not forgotten the hat! Max gazed at it +in unfeigned awe; it was shiny as a mirror, black as a hearse, tall, in +his eyes--for this was his first near view of one--as the seat of a +dining-room chair. "Put it on," he said to Bannon. "Let's see how it +looks on you." + +"Not much. Wouldn't I look silly in a thing like that, though? I'd +rather wear an ordinary length of stovepipe. That'd be durable, anyway. +I wonder what Brown sent it for. I thought he knew a joke when he saw +one." + +Just then one of the under-foremen came in. "Oh, Mr. Bannon," he said, +"I've been looking for you. There's a tug in the river with a big, steel +cable aboard that they said was for us. I told 'em I thought it was a +mistake----" + +It was all one movement, Bannon's jamming that hat--the silk hat--down +on his head, and diving through the door. He shouted orders as he ran, +and a number of men, Pete among them, got to the wharf as soon as he +did. + +"Now, boys, this is all the false work we can have. We're going to hang +it up across the tracks and hang our gallery up on it till it's strong +enough to hold itself. We've got just forty-eight hours to do the whole +trick. Catch hold now--lively." + +[Illustration: IT WAS A SIMPLE SCHEME] + +It was a simple scheme of Bannon's. The floor of the gallery was to be +built in two sections, one in the main house, one in the spouting house. +As fast as the timbers were bolted together the halves of the floor were +shoved out over the tracks, each free end being supported by a rope +which ran up over a pulley. The pulley was held by an iron ring fast to +the cable, but perfectly free to slide along it, and thus accompany the +end of the floor as it was moved outward. Bannon explained it to Pete in +a few quick words while the men were hustling the big cable off the tug. + +"Of course," he was concluding, "the thing'll wabble a good deal, +specially if it's as windy as this, and it won't be easy to work on, but +it won't fall if we make everything fast." + +Pete had listened pretty closely at first, but now Bannon noticed that +his attention seemed to be wandering to a point a few inches above +Bannon's head. He was about to ask what was the matter when he found +out. It was windier on that particular wharf than anywhere else in the +Calumet flats, and the hat he had on was not built for that sort of +weather. It was perfectly rigid, and not at all accommodated to the +shape of Bannon's head. So, very naturally, it blew off, rolled around +among their feet for a moment, and then dropped into the river between +the wharf and the tug. + +Bannon was up on the spouting house, helping make fast the cable end +when a workman brought the hat back to him. Somebody on the tug had +fished it out with a trolling line. But the hat was well past +resuscitation. It had been thoroughly drowned, and it seemed to know it. + +"Take that to the office," said Bannon. "Have Vogel wrap it up just as +it is and ship it to Mr. Brown. I'll dictate a letter to go with it by +and by." + +For all Bannon's foresight, there threatened to be a hitch in the work +on the gallery. The day shift was on again, and twenty-four of Bannon's +forty-eight hours were spent, when he happened to say to a man:-- + +"Never mind that now, but be sure you fix it to-morrow." + +"To-morrow?" the man repeated. "We ain't going to work to-morrow, are +we?" + +Bannon noticed that every man within hearing stopped work, waiting for +the answer. "Sure," he said. "Why not?" + +There was some dissatisfied grumbling among them which he was quite at a +loss to understand until he caught the word "Christmas." + +"Christmas!" he exclaimed, in perfectly honest astonishment. "Is +to-morrow Christmas?" He ran his hand through his stubby hair. "Boys," +he said, "I'm sorry to have to ask it of you. But can't we put it off a +week? Look here. We need this day. Now, if you'll say Christmas is a +week from to-morrow, I'll give every man on the job a Christmas dinner +that you'll never forget; all you can eat and as much again, and you +bring your friends, if we work to-morrow and we have her full of wheat a +week from to-day. Does that go?" + +It went, with a ripping cheer to boot; a cheer that was repeated here +and there all over the place as Bannon's offer was passed along. + +So for another twenty-four hours they strained and tugged and tusselled +up in the big swing, for it was nothing else, above the railroad tracks. +There was a northeast gale raging down off the lake, with squalls of +rain and sleet mixed up in it, and it took the crazy, swaying box in its +teeth and shook it and tossed it up in the air in its eagerness to strip +it off the cable. But somewhere there was an unconquerable tenacity that +held fast, and in the teeth of the wind the long box grew rigid, as the +trusses were pounded into place by men so spent with fatigue that one +might say it was sheer good will that drove the hammers. + +At four o'clock Christmas afternoon the last bolt was drawn taut. The +gallery was done. Bannon had been on the work since midnight--sixteen +consecutive hours. He had eaten nothing except two sandwiches that he +had stowed in his pockets. His only pause had been about nine o'clock +that morning when he had put his head in the office door to wish Hilda a +Merry Christmas. + +When the evening shift came on--that was just after four--one of the +under-foremen tried to get him to talking, but Bannon was too tired to +talk. "Get your tracks and rollers in," he said. "Take down the cable." + +"Don't you want to stay and see if she'll hold when the cable comes +down?" called the foreman after him as he started away. + +"She'll hold," said Bannon. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +Before December was half gone--and while the mild autumn weather +serenely held, in spite of weather predictions and of storm signs about +the sun and days of blue haze and motionless trees--the +newspaper-reading public knew all the outside facts about the fight in +wheat, and they knew it to be the biggest fight since the days of "Old +Hutch" and the two-dollar-a-bushel record. Indeed, there were men who +predicted that the two-dollar mark would be reached before Christmas, +for the Clique of speculators who held the floor were buying, buying, +buying--millions upon millions of dollars were slipping through their +ready hands, and still there was no hesitation, no weakening. Until the +small fry had dropped out the deal had been confused; it was too big, +there were too many interests involved, to make possible a clear +understanding, but now it was settling down into a grim fight between +the biggest men on the Board. The Clique were buying wheat--Page & +Company were selling it to them: if it should come out, on the +thirty-first of December, that Page & Company had sold more than they +could deliver, the Clique would be winners; but if it should have been +delivered, to the last bushel, the corner would be broken, and the +Clique would drop from sight as so many reckless men had dropped before. +The readers of every great newspaper in the country were watching Page & +Company. The general opinion was that they could not do it, that such an +enormous quantity of grain could not be delivered and registered in +time, even if it were to be had. + +But the public overlooked, indeed it had no means of knowing, one +important fact. The members of the Clique were new men in the public +eye. They represented apparently unlimited capital, but they were young, +eager, overstrung; flushed with the prospect of success, they were +talking for publication. They believed they knew of every bushel in the +country that was to be had, and they allowed themselves to say that they +had already bought more than this. If this were true, Page was beaten. +But it was not true. The young men of the Clique had forgotten that Page +had trained agents in every part of the world; that he had alliances +with great railroad and steamer lines, that he had a weather bureau and +a system of crop reports that outdid those of the United States +Government, that he could command more money than two such Cliques, and, +most important of all, that he did _not_ talk for publication. The young +speculators were matching their wits against a great machine. Page had +the wheat, he was making the effort of his career to deliver it, and he +had no idea of losing. + +Already millions of bushels had been rushed into Chicago. It was here +that the fight took on its spectacular features, for the grain must be +weighed and inspected before it could be accepted by the Board of Trade, +and this could be done only in "regular" warehouses. The struggle had +been to get control of these warehouses. It was here that the Clique had +done their shrewdest work, and they had supposed that Page was finally +outwitted, until they discovered that he had coolly set about building a +million-bushel annex to his new house, Calumet K. And so it was that the +newspapers learned that on the chance of completing Calumet K before the +thirty-first of December hung the whole question of winning and losing; +that if Bannon should fail, Page would be short two million bushels. And +then came reporters and newspaper illustrators, who hung about the +office and badgered Hilda, or perched on timber piles and sketched until +Bannon or Peterson or Max could get at them and drive them out. Young +men with snap-shot cameras way-laid Bannon on his way to luncheon, and +published, with his picture, elaborate stories of his skill in averting +a strike--stories that were not at all true. + +Far out in Minnesota and Montana and South Dakota farmers were driving +their wheat-laden wagons to the hundreds of local receiving houses that +dotted the railroad lines. Box cars were waiting for the red grain, to +roll it away to Minneapolis and Duluth--day and night the long trains +were puffing eastward. Everywhere the order was, "Rush!" Railroad +presidents and managers knew that Page was in a hurry, and they knew +what Page's hurries meant, not only to the thousands of men who depended +on him for their daily bread, but to the many great industries of the +Northwest, whose credit and integrity were inextricably interwoven with +his. Division superintendents knew that Page was in a hurry, and they +snapped out orders and discharged half-competent men and sent quick +words along the hot wires that were translated by despatchers and +operators and yard masters into profane, driving commands. Conductors +knew it, brakemen and switchmen knew it; they made flying switches in +defiance of companies' orders, they ran where they used to walk, they +slung their lunch pails on their arms and ate when and where they could, +gazing over their cold tea at some portrait of Page, or of a member of +the Clique, or of Bannon, in the morning's paper. + +Elevator men at Minneapolis knew that Page was in a hurry, and they +worked day and night at shovel and scale. Steamboat masters up at Duluth +knew it, and mates and deck hands and stevedores and dockwallopers--more +than one steamer scraped her paint in the haste to get under the long +spouts that waited to pour out grain by the hundred thousand bushels. +Trains came down from Minneapolis, boats came down from Duluth, +warehouse after warehouse at Chicago was filled; and over-strained +nerves neared the breaking point as the short December days flew by. +Some said the Clique would win, some said Page would win; in the wheat +pit men were fighting like tigers; every one who knew the facts was +watching Charlie Bannon. + +The storm came on the eighteenth of the month. It was predicted two days +ahead, and ship masters were warned at all the lake ports. It was a +Northwest blizzard, driven down from the Canadian Rockies at sixty miles +an hour, leaving two feet of snow behind it over a belt hundreds of +miles wide. But Page's steamers were not stopping for blizzards; they +headed out of Duluth regardless of what was to come. And there were a +bad few days, with tales of wreck on lake and railroad, days of wind and +snow and bitter cold, and of risks run that supplied round-house and +tug-office yarn spinners with stories that were not yet worn out. Down +on the job the snow brought the work to a pause, but Bannon, within a +half-hour, was out of bed and on the ground, and there was no question +of changing shifts until, after twenty-four hours, the storm had passed, +and elevator, annex and marine tower were cleared of snow. Men worked +until they could not stagger, then snatched a few hours' sleep where +they could. Word was passed that those who wished might observe the +regular hours, but not a dozen men took the opportunity. For now they +were in the public eye, and they felt as soldiers feel, when, after long +months of drill and discipline, they are led to the charge. + +Then came two days of biting weather--when ears were nipped and fingers +stiffened, and carpenters who earned three dollars a day envied the +laborers, whose work kept their blood moving--and after this a thaw, +with sleet and rain. James, the new delegate, came to Bannon and pointed +out that men who are continually drenched to the skin are not the best +workmen. The boss met the delegate fairly; he ordered an oilskin coat +for every man on the job, and in another day they swarmed over the +building, looking, at a distance, like glistening yellow beetles. + +But if Chicago was thawing, Duluth was not. The harbor at the western +end of Lake Superior was ice-bound, and it finally reached a point that +the tugs could not break open the channel. This was on the twenty-third +and twenty-fourth. The wires were hot, but Page's agents succeeded in +covering the facts until Christmas Day. It was just at dusk, after +leaving the men to take down the cable, that Bannon went to the office. + +A newsboy had been on the grounds with a special edition of a cheap +afternoon paper. Hilda had taken one, and when Bannon entered the office +he found her reading, leaning forward on the desk, her chin on her +hands, the paper spread out over the ledger. + +"Hello," he said, throwing off his dripping oilskin, and coming into the +enclosure; "I'm pretty near ready to sit down and think about the +Christmas tree that we ain't going to have." + +She looked up, and he saw that she was a little excited; her eyes always +told him. During this last week she had been carrying the whole +responsibility of the work on her shoulders. + +"Have you seen this?" she asked. + +"Haven't read a paper this week." He leaned over the desk beside her and +read the article. In Duluth harbor, and at St. Mary's straits, a channel +through the ice had been blasted out with dynamite, and the last laden +steamer was now ploughing down Lake Michigan. Already one steamer was +lying at the wharf by the marine tower, waiting for the machinery to +start, and others lay behind her, farther down the river. Long strings +of box cars filled the Belt Line sidings, ready to roll into the +elevator at the word. + +Bannon seated himself on the railing, and caught his toes between the +supports. + +"I'll tell you one thing," he said, "those fellows have got to get up +pretty early in the morning if they're going to beat old Page." + +She looked at him, and then slowly folded the paper and turned toward +the window. It was nearly dark outside. The rain, driving down from the +northeast, tapped steadily on the glass. The arc lamp, on the pole near +the tool house, was a blurred circle of light. She was thinking that +they would have to get up pretty early to beat Charlie Bannon. + +They were silent for a time--silences were not so hard as they had been, +a few weeks before--both looking out at the storm, and both thinking +that this was Christmas night. On the afternoon before he had asked her +to take a holiday, and she had shaken her head. "I couldn't--I'd be here +before noon," was what she had said; and she had laughed a little at her +own confession, and hurried away with Max. + +She turned and said, "Is it done--the belt gallery?" + +He nodded. "All done." + +"Well----" she smiled; and he nodded again. + +"The C. & S. C. man--the fellow that was around the other day and +measured to see if it was high enough--he's out there looking up with +his mouth open. He hasn't got much to say." + +"You didn't have to touch the tracks at all?" + +"Not once. Ran her out and bolted her together, and there she was. I'm +about ready for my month off. We'll have the wheat coming in to-morrow, +and then it's just walking down hill." + +"To-morrow?" she asked. "Can you do it?" + +"Got to. Five or six days aren't any too much. If it was an old house +and the machinery was working well, I'd undertake to do it in two or +three, but if we get through without ripping up the gallery, or pounding +the leg through the bottom of a steamer, it'll be the kind of luck I +don't have." He paused and looked at the window, where the rain was +streaking the glass. "I've been thinking about my vacation. I've about +decided to go to the St. Lawrence. Maybe there are places I'd like +better, but when a fellow hasn't had a month off in five years, he +doesn't feel like experiments." + +It was the personal tone again, coming into their talk in spite of the +excitement of the day and the many things that might have been said. +Hilda looked down at the ledger, and fingered the pages. Bannon smiled. + +"If I were you," he said, "I'd shut that up and fire it under the table. +This light isn't good enough to work by, anyway." + +She slowly closed the book, saying:-- + +"I never worked before on Christmas." + +"It's a mistake. I don't believe in it, but somehow it's when my hardest +work always comes. One Christmas, when I was on the Grand Trunk, there +was a big wreck at a junction about sixty miles down the road." + +She saw the memory coming into his eyes, and she leaned back against the +desk, playing with her pen, and now and then looking up. + +"I was chief wrecker, and I had an old Scotch engineer that you couldn't +move with a jack. We'd rubbed up together three or four times before I'd +had him a month, and I was getting tired of it. We'd got about halfway +to the junction that night, and I felt the brakes go on hard, and before +I could get through the train and over the tender, we'd stopped dead. +The Scotchman was down by the drivers fussing around with a lantern. I +hollered out:-- + +"'What's the matter there?' + +"'She's a bit 'ot,' said he. + +"You'd have thought he was running a huckleberry train from the time he +took. I ordered him into the cab, and he just waved his hand and said:-- + +"'Wait a bit, wait a bit. She'll be cool directly.'" + +Bannon chuckled at the recollection. + +"What did you do?" Hilda asked. + +"Jumped for the lever, and hollered for him to get aboard." + +"Did he come?" + +"No, he couldn't think that fast. He just stood still, looking at me, +while I threw her open, and you could see his lantern for a mile +back--he never moved. He had a good six-mile walk back to the last +station." + +There was a long silence. Bannon got up and walked slowly up and down +the enclosure with his hands deep in his pockets. + +"I wish this would let up," he said, after a time, pausing in his walk, +and looking again at the window. "It's a wonder we're getting things +done at all." + +Hilda's eye, roaming over the folded newspaper, fell on the weather +forecast. + +"Fair to-morrow," she said, "and colder." + +"That doesn't stand for much. They said the same thing yesterday. It's a +worse gamble than wheat." + +Bannon took to walking again; and Hilda stepped down and stood by the +window, spelling out the word "Calumet" with her finger on the misty +glass. At each turn, Bannon paused and looked at her. Finally he stood +still, not realizing that he was staring until she looked around, +flushed, and dropped her eyes. Then he felt awkward, and he began +turning over the blue prints on the table. + +"I'll tell you what I'll have to do," he said. "I rather think now I'll +start on the third for Montreal. I'm telling you a secret, you know. I'm +not going to let Brown or MacBride know where I'll be. And if I can pick +up some good pictures of the river, I'll send them to you. I'll get one +of the Montmorency Falls, if I can. They're great in winter." + +"Why--why, thank you," she said. "I'd like to have them." + +"I ain't much at writing letters," he went on, "but I'll send you the +pictures, and you write and tell me how things are going." + +She laughed softly, and followed the zigzag course of the raindrop with +her finger. + +"I wouldn't have very much to say," she said, speaking with a little +hesitation, and without looking around. "Max and I never do much." + +"Oh, you can tell how your work goes, and what you do nights." + +"We don't do much of anything. Max studies some at night--a man he used +to work for gave him a book of civil engineering." + +"What do you do?" + +"I read some, and then I like to learn things about--oh, about business, +and how things are done." + +Bannon could not take his eyes from her--he was looking at her hair, and +at the curved outline of one cheek, all that he could see of her face. +They both stood still, listening to the patter of the rain, and to the +steady drip from the other end of the office, where there was a leak in +the roof. Once she cleared her throat, as if to speak, but no words +came. + +There was a stamping outside, and she slipped back to the ledger, as the +door flew open. Bannon turned to the blue prints. + +Max entered, pausing to knock his cap against the door, and wring it +out. + +"You ought to have stayed out, Mr. Bannon," he said. "It's the greatest +thing you ever saw--doesn't sag an inch. And say--I wish you could hear +the boys talk--they'd lie down and let you walk on 'em, if you wanted +to." + +Max's eyes were bright, and his face red with exercise and excitement. +He came to the gate and stood wiping his feet and looking from one to +the other for several moments before he felt the awkwardness that had +come over him. His long rubber coat was thrown back, and little streams +of water ran down his back and formed a pool on the floor behind him. + +"You'd better come out," he said. "It's the prettiest thing I ever +saw--a clean straight span from the main house to the tower." + +Bannon stood watching him quizzically; then he turned to Hilda. She, +too, had been looking at Max, but she turned at the same moment, and +their eyes met. + +"Do you want to go?" he said. + +She nodded eagerly. "I'd like to ever so much." + +Then Bannon thought of the rain, but she saw his thought as he glanced +toward the window, and spoke quickly. + +"I don't mind--really. Max will let me take his coat." + +"Sure," said Max, and he grinned. She slipped into it, and it enveloped +her, hanging in folds and falling on the floor. + +"I'll have to hold it up," she said. "Do we have much climbing?" + +"No," said Max, "it ain't high. And the stairs are done, you know." + +Hilda lifted the coat a little way with both hands, and put out one +small toe. Bannon looked at it, and shook his head. "You'll get your +feet wet," he said. + +She looked up and met Bannon's eyes again, with an expression that +puzzled Max. + +"I don't care. It's almost time to go home, anyway." + +So they went out, and closed the door; and Max, who had been told to +"stay behind and keep house," looked after them, and then at the door, +and an odd expression of slow understanding came into his face. It was +not in what they had said, but there was plainly a new feeling between +them. For the first time in his life, Max felt that another knew Hilda +better than he did. The way Bannon had looked at her, and she at him; +the mutual understanding that left everything unsaid; the something--Max +did not know what it was, but he saw it and felt it, and it disturbed +him. + +He sat on the table, and swung his feet, while one expression chased +another over his face. When he finally got himself together, he went to +the door, and opening it, looked out at the black, dim shape of the +elevator that stood big and square, only a little way before him, +shutting out whatever he might else have seen of rushing sky or +dim-lighted river, or of the railroads and the steamboats and the +factories and rolling mills beyond. It was as if this elevator were his +fate, looming before him and shutting out the forward view. In whatever +thoughts he had had of the future, in whatever plans, and they were few, +which he had revolved in his head, there had always been a place for +Hilda. He did not see just what he was to do, just what he was to +become, without her. He stood there for a long time, leaning against the +door-jamb with his hands in his pockets, and the sharper gusts of rain +whirled around the end of the little building and beat on him. And +then--well, it was Charlie Bannon; and Max knew that he was glad it was +no one else. + +The narrow windows in the belt gallery had no glass, and the rain came +driving through them into the shadows, each drop catching the white +shine of the electric lights outside. The floor was trampled with mud +and littered with scraps of lumber, tool boxes, empty nail kegs, and +shavings. The long, gloomy gallery was empty when Bannon and Hilda +stepped into it, excepting a group of men at the farther end, installing +the rollers for the belt conveyor--they could be seen indistinctly +against a light in the river house. + +The wind came roaring around the building, and the gallery trembled and +shook. Hilda caught her breath and stopped short. + +"It's all right," said Bannon. "She's bound to move some." + +"I know--" she laughed--"I wasn't expecting it--it startled me a +little." + +"Watch where you step." He took her arm and guided her slowly between +the heaps of rubbish. + +At one of the windows she paused, and stood full in the rain, looking +out at the C. & S. C. tracks, with their twinkling red and green lights, +all blurred and seeming far off in the storm. + +"Isn't this pretty wet?" he said, standing beside her. + +"I don't care." She shook the folds of the rubber coat, and glanced down +at it. "I like it." + +They looked out for a long time. Two millwrights came through the +gallery, and glanced at them, but they did not turn. She stepped forward +and let the rain beat on her face--he stood behind, looking at her. A +light showed far down the track, and they heard a faint whistle. "A +train," he said; and she nodded. The headlight grew, and the car lights +appeared behind it, and then the black outline of the engine. There was +a rush and a roar, and it passed under them. + +"Doesn't it make you want to jump down?" she said softly, when the roar +had dwindled away. + +He nodded with a half-smile. + +"Say," he said, a little later, "I don't know about your writing--I +don't believe we'd better--" he got the words out more rapidly--"I'll +tell you what you do--you come along with me and we won't have to +write." + +"Come--where?" + +"Up to the St. Lawrence. We can start on the third just the same." + +She did not answer, and he stopped. Then, after a moment, she slowly +turned, and looked at him. + +"Why--" she said--"I don't think I----" + +"I've just been thinking about it. I guess I can't do anything else--I +mean I don't want to go anywhere alone. I guess that's pretty plain, +isn't it--what I mean?" + +She leaned back against the wall and looked at him; it was as if she +could not take her eyes from his face. + +"Perhaps I oughtn't to expect you to say anything now," he went on. "I +just thought if you felt anything like I did, you'd know pretty well, by +this time, whether it was yes or no." + +She was still looking at him. He had said it all, and now he waited, his +fists knotted tightly, and a peculiar expression on his face, almost as +if he were smiling, but it came from a part of his nature that had never +before got to the surface. Finally she said:-- + +"I think we'd better go back." + +He did not seem to understand, and she turned away and started off +alone. In a moment he was at her side. He guided her back as they had +come, and neither spoke until they had reached the stairway. Then he +said, in a low tone that the carpenters could not hear:-- + +"You don't mean that--that you can't do it?" + +She shook her head and hurried to the office. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +Bannon stood looking after her until she disappeared in the shadow of an +arc lamp, and after that he continued a long time staring into the blot +of darkness where the office was. At last the window became faintly +luminous, as some one lighted the wall lamp; then, as if it were a +signal he had been waiting for, Bannon turned away. + +An hour before, when he had seen the last bolt of the belt gallery drawn +taut, he had become aware that he was quite exhausted. The fact was so +obvious that he had not tried to evade it, but had admitted to himself, +in so many words, that he was at the end of his rope. But when he turned +from gazing at the dimly lighted window, it was not toward his +boarding-house, where he knew he ought to be, but back into the +elevator, that his feet led him. For once, his presence accomplished +nothing. He went about without thinking where; he passed men without +seeing who they were or what they were doing. When he walked through the +belt gallery, he saw the foreman of the big gang of men at work there +was handling them clumsily, so that they interfered with each other, but +it did not occur to him to give the orders that would set things right. +Then, as if his wire-drawn muscles had not done work enough, he climbed +laboriously to the very top of the marine tower. + +He was leaning against a window-casing; not looking out, for he saw +nothing, but with his face turned to the fleet of barges lying in the +river; when some one spoke to him. + +"I guess you're thinking about that Christmas dinner, ain't you, Mr. +Bannon?" + +"What's that?" he demanded, wheeling about. Then rallying his scattered +faculties, he recognized one of the carpenters. "Oh, yes," he said, +laughing tardily. "Yes, the postponed Christmas dinner. You think I'm in +for it, do you? You know it's no go unless this house is full of wheat +clear to the roof." + +"I know it," said the man. "But I guess we're going to stick you for it. +Don't you think we are?" + +"I guess that's right." + +"I come up here," said the carpenter, well pleased at the chance for a +talk with the boss, "to have a look at this--marine leg, do you call it? +I haven't been to work on it, and I never saw one before. I wanted to +find out how it works." + +"Just like any other leg over in the main house. Head pulley up here; +another one down in the boot; endless belt running over 'em with steel +cups rivetted on it to scoop up the grain. Only difference is that +instead of being stationary and set up in a tank, this one's hung up. We +let the whole business right down into the boat. Pull it up and down +with that steam winch." + +The man shook his head. "What if it got away from you?" + +"That's happened," said Bannon. "I've seen a leg most as big as this +smash through two decks. Thought it was going right on through the +bottom of the boat. But that wasn't a leg that MacBride had hung up. +This one won't fall." + +Bannon answered one or two more questions rather at random, then +suddenly came back to earth. "What are you doing here, anyway?" he +demanded. "Seems to me this is a pretty easy way to earn thirty cents an +hour." + +"I--I was just going to see if there wasn't something I could do," the +man answered, a good deal embarrassed. Then before Bannon could do more +than echo, "Something to do?" added: "I don't get my time check till +midnight. I ain't on this shift. I just come around to see how things +was going. We're going to see you through, Mr. Bannon." + +Bannon never had a finer tribute than that, not even what young Page +said when the race was over; and it could not have come at a moment when +he needed it more. He did not think much in set terms about what it +meant, but when the man had gone and he had turned back to the window, +he took a long breath of the night air and he saw what lay beneath his +eyes. He saw the line of ships in the river; down nearer the lake +another of Page's elevators was drinking up the red wheat out of the +hold of a snub-nosed barge; across the river, in the dark, they were +backing another string of wheat-laden cars over the Belt Line switches. +As he looked out and listened, his imagination took fire again, as it +had taken fire that day in the waiting-room at Blake City, when he had +learned that the little, one-track G. & M. was trying to hinder the +torrent of the Northern wheat. + +Well, the wheat had come down. It had beaten a blizzard, it had churned +and wedged and crushed its way through floating ice and in the trough of +mauling seas; belated passenger trains had waited on lonely sidings +while it thundered by, and big rotary ploughs had bitten a way for it +across the drifted prairies. Now it was here, and Charlie Bannon was +keeping it waiting. + +He stood there, looking, only a moment; then before the carpenter's +footsteps were well out of hearing, he followed him down the stairway to +the belt gallery. Before he had passed half its length you could have +seen the difference. In the next two hours every man on the elevator saw +him, learned a quicker way to splice a rope or align a shaft, and heard, +before the boss went away, some word of commendation that set his hands +to working the faster, and made the work seem easy. The work had gone on +without interruption for weeks, and never slowly, but there were times +when it went with a lilt and a laugh; when laborers heaved at a hoisting +tackle with a Yo-ho, like privateersmen who have just sighted a sail; +when, with all they could do, results came too slowly, and the hours +flew too fast. And so it was that Christmas night; Charlie Bannon was +back on the job. + +About ten o'clock he encountered Pete, bearing off to the shanty a quart +bottle of cold coffee and a dozen big, thick sandwiches. "Come on, +Charlie," he called. "Max is coming, too; but I guess we've got enough +to spare you a little." + +So the three of them sat down to supper around the draughting-table, and +between bites Bannon talked, a little about everything, but principally, +and with much corroborative detail--for the story seemed to strain even +Pete's easy credulity--of how, up at Yawger, he had been run on the +independent ticket for Superintendent of the Sunday School, and had been +barely defeated by two votes. + +When the sandwiches were put away, and all but three drinks of the +coffee, Bannon held the bottle high in the air. "Here's to the house!" +he said. "We'll have wheat in her to-morrow night!" + +They drank the toast standing; then, as if ashamed of such a sentimental +demonstration, they filed sheepishly out of the office. They walked +fifty paces in silence. Then Pete checked suddenly and turned to Bannon. + +"Hold on, Charlie, where are you going?" + +"Going to look over those 'cross-the-house conveyor drives down cellar." + +"No, you ain't either. You're going to bed." + +Bannon only laughed and started on toward the elevator. + +"How long is it since you had any sleep?" Pete demanded. + +"I don't know. Guess I must have slept part of the time while we was +putting up that gallery. I don't remember much about it." + +"Don't be in such a hurry," said Pete, and as he said it he reached out +his left hand and caught him by the shoulder. It was more by way of +gesture than otherwise, but Bannon had to step back a pace to keep his +feet. "I mean business," Pete went on, though laughing a little. "When +we begin to turn over the machinery you won't want to go away, so this +is your last chance to get any sleep. I can't make things jump like you +can, but I can keep 'em going to-night somehow." + +"Hadn't you better wrap me up in cotton flannel and feed me warm milk +with a spoon? Let go of me and quit your fooling. You delay the game." + +"I ain't fooling. I'm boss here at night, and I fire you till morning. +That goes if I have to carry you all the way to your boarding house and +tie you down to the bed." Pete meant it. As if, again, for illustration, +he picked Bannon up in his arms. The boss was ready for the move this +time, and he resisted with all his strength, but he would have had as +much chance against the hug of a grizzly bear; he was crumpled up. Pete +started off with him across the flat. + +"All right," said Bannon. "I'll go." + +At seven o'clock next morning Pete began expecting his return. At eight +he began inquiring of various foremen if they had seen anything of +Charlie Bannon. By nine he was avowedly worried lest something had gone +wrong with him, and a little after ten Max set out for the boarding +house. + +Encountering the landlady in the hall, he made the mistake of asking her +if she had seen anything of Mr. Bannon that morning. She had some +elementary notions of strategy, derived, doubtless, from experience, and +before beginning her reply, she blocked the narrow stairway with her +broad person. Then, beginning with a discussion of Mr. Bannon's +excellent moral character and his most imprudent habits, and +illustrating by anecdotes of various other boarders she had had at one +time and another, she led up to the statement that she had seen nothing +of him since the night before, and that she had twice knocked at his +door without getting any reply. + +Max, who had laughed a little at Pete's alarm, was now pretty well +frightened himself, but at that instant they heard the thud of bare feet +on the floor just above them. "That's him now," said the landlady, +thoughtlessly turning sideways, and Max bolted past her and up the +stairs. + +He knocked at the door and called out to know if he could come in. The +growl he heard in reply meant invitation as much as it meant anything, +so he went in. Bannon, already in his shirt and trousers, stood with his +back to the door, his face in the washbowl. As he scoured he sputtered. +Max could make little out of it, for Bannon's face was under water half +the time, but he caught such phrases as "Pete's darned foolishness," +"College boy trick," "Lie abed all the morning," and "Better get an +alarm clock"--which thing and the need for it Bannon greatly +despised--and he reached the conclusion that the matter was nothing more +serious than that Bannon had overslept. + +But the boss took it seriously enough. Indeed, he seemed deeply +humiliated, and he marched back to the elevator beside Max without +saying a word until just as they were crossing the Belt Line tracks, +when the explanation of the phenomenon came to him. + +"I know where I get it from," he exclaimed, as if in some measure +relieved by the discovery. "I must take after my uncle. He was the +greatest fellow to sleep you ever saw." + +So far as pace was concerned that day was like the others; while the men +were human it could be no faster; with Bannon on the job it could not +flag; but there was this difference, that to-day the stupidest sweepers +knew that they had almost reached the end, and there was a rally like +that which a runner makes at the beginning of the last hundred yards. + +Late in the afternoon they had a broad hint of how near the end was. The +sweepers dropped their brooms and began carrying fire buckets full of +water. They placed one or more near every bearing all over the elevator. +The men who were quickest to understand explained to the slower ones +what the precaution meant, and every man had his eye on the nearest +pulley to see when it would begin to turn. + +But Bannon was not going to begin till he was ready. He had inspected +the whole job four times since noon, but just after six he went all over +it again, more carefully than before. At the end he stepped out of the +door at the bottom of the stairway bin, and pulled it shut after him. It +was not yet painted, and its blank surface suggested something. He drew +out his blue pencil and wrote on the upper panel:-- + + O.K. + + C. H. BANNON. + +Then he walked over to the power house. It was a one-story brick +building, with whose construction Bannon had had no concern, as Page & +Company had placed the contract for it elsewhere. Every night for the +past week lights had been streaming from its windows, and day and night +men had waited, ready at any time for the word to go ahead. A dozen of +them were lounging about the brick-paved space in front of the battery +of boilers when Bannon opened the door, and they sprang to their feet as +they read his errand in his face. + +"Steam up," he said. "We'll be ready as soon as you are." + +There was the accumulated tension of a week of inactivity behind these +men, and the effect of Bannon's words was galvanic. Already low fires +were burning under the boilers, and now the coal was piled on, the +draughts roared, the smoke, thick enough to cut, came billowing out of +the tall chimney. Every man in the room, even the wretchedest of the +dripping stokers, had his eyes on the steam gauges, but for all that the +water boiled, and the indicator needles crept slowly round the dials, +and at last the engineer walked over and pulled the whistle cord. + +Hitherto they had marked the divisions of time on the job by the shrill +note of the little whistle on the hoisting engine boiler, and there was +not a man but started at the screaming crescendo of the big siren on top +of the power house. Men in the streets, in the straggling boarding +houses over across the flats, on the wharves along the river, men who +had been forbidden to come to the elevator till they were needed lest +they should be in the way, had been waiting days for that signal, and +they came streaming into the elevator almost before the blast had died +away. + +Page's superintendent was standing beside Bannon and Pete by the foot of +the main drive. "Well," he said, "we're ready. Are you?" + +Bannon nodded and turned to a laborer who stood near. "Go tell the +engineer to go ahead." The man, proud as though he had just been +promoted, went out on the run. + +"Now," said Bannon, "here's where we go slow. All the machinery in the +house has got to be thrown in, one thing at a time, line shafts first +and then elevators and the rest of it. Pete, you see it done up top. +I'll look out for it down here. See that there's a man to look at each +bearing at least once in three minutes, and let me know if it gets +warm." + +It took a long time to do it, but it had to be done, for Bannon was +inflexible, but at last everything in elevator, annex, and spouting +house that could turn was turning, and it was reported to Bannon. "Now," +he said, "she's got to run light for fifteen minutes. No----" he went on +in answer to the superintendent's protest; "you're lucky I didn't say +two hours. It's the biggest chance I ever took as it is." + +So while they stared at the second hands of their watches the minutes +crept away--Pete wound his watch up tight in the vain hope of making it +go a little faster--and at last Bannon turned with a nod to the +superintendent. + +"All right," he said. "You're the boss now." + +And then in a moment the straining hawsers were hauling cars up into the +house. The seals were broken, the doors rolled back, and the wheat came +pouring out. The shovellers clambered into the cars and the steam power +shovels helped the torrent along. It fell through the gratings, into +steel tanks, and then the tireless metal cups carried it up, up, up, +'way to the top of the building. And then it came tumbling down again; +down into garners, and down again into the great weighing hoppers, and +recognized and registered and marketable at last, part of the load that +was to bury the Clique that had braved it out of sight of all but their +creditors, it went streaming down the spouts into the bins. + +The first of the barges in the river was moved down beside the spouting +house, her main hatch just opposite the tower. And now Pete, in charge +there, gave the word, and the marine leg, gravely, deliberately +descended. There is a magnificent audacity about that sort of +performance. The leg was ninety feet long, steel-booted, framed of great +timbers, heavy enough to have wrecked the barge like a birch bark canoe +if it had got away. It went down bodily into the hold and the steel boot +was buried in wheat. Then Pete threw another lever, and in a moment +another endless series of cups was carrying the wheat aloft. It went +over the cross-head and down a spout, then stretched out in a golden +ribbon along the glistening white belt that ran the length of the +gallery. Then, like the wheat from the cars, it was caught up again in +the cups, and shot down through spouts, and carried along on belts to +the remotest bins in the annex. + +For the first few hours of it the men's nerves were hair springs, but as +time went on and the stream kept pouring in without pause, the tension +relaxed though the watch never slackened. Men patted the bearings +affectionately, and still the same report came to Bannon, "All cool." + +Late that night, as the superintendent was figuring his weighing +reports, he said to Bannon; "At this rate, we'll have several hours to +spare." + +"We haven't had our accident yet," said Bannon, shortly. + +It happened within an hour, at the marine leg, but it was not serious. +They heard a splintering sound, down in the dark, somewhere, and Pete, +shouting to them to throw out the clutch, climbed out and down on the +sleet-clad girders that framed the leg. An agile monkey might have been +glad to return alive from such a climb, but Pete came back presently +with a curious specimen of marine hardware that had in some way got into +the wheat, and thence into the boot and one of the cups. Part way up it +had got jammed and had ripped up the sheathing of the leg. They started +the leg again, but soon learned that it was leaking badly. + +"You'll have to haul up for repairs, I guess," the captain called up to +them. + +"Haven't time," said Pete, under his breath, and with a hammer and +nails, and a big piece of sacking, he went down the leg again, playing +his neck against a half-hour's delay as serenely as most men would walk +downstairs to dinner. "Start her up, boys," he called, when the job was +done, and, with the leg jolting under his hands as he climbed, he came +back into the tower. + +That was their only misfortune, and all it cost them was a matter of +minutes, so by noon of the thirtieth, an hour or two after MacBride and +young Page arrived from Minneapolis, it became clear that they would be +through in time. + +At eight o'clock next morning, as Bannon and MacBride were standing in +the superintendent's office, he came in and held out his hand. "She's +full, Mr. Bannon. I congratulate you." + +"Full, eh?" said MacBride. Then he dropped his hand on Bannon's +shoulder. "Well," he said, "do you want to go to sleep, or will you come +and talk business with me for a little while?" + +"Sleep!" Bannon echoed. "I've been oversleeping lately." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +The elevator was the place for the dinner, if only the mild weather that +had followed the Christmas storm should continue--on that Bannon, Pete, +and Max were agreed. New Year's Day would be a holiday, and there was +room on the distributing floor for every man who had worked an hour on +the job since the first spile had been driven home in the Calumet clay. +To be sure most of the laborers had been laid off before the installing +of the machinery, but Bannon knew that they would all be on hand, and he +meant to have seats for them. But on the night of the thirtieth the wind +swung around to the northeast, and it came whistling through the cracks +in the cupola walls with a sting in it that set the weighers to +shivering. And as the insurance companies would have inquired curiously +into any arrangement for heating that gloomy space on the tops of the +bins, the plan had to be given up. + +As soon as the last of the grain was in, on the thirty-first, Max took a +north-bound car and scoured South Chicago for a hall that was big +enough. Before the afternoon was gone he had found it, and had arranged +with a restaurant keeper to supply the dinner. Early the next morning +the three set to work, making long tables and benches by resting planks +on boxes, and covering the tables with pink and blue and white scalloped +shelf-paper. + +It was nearly ten o'clock when Max, after draping a twenty-four-foot +flag in a dozen different ways, let it slide down the ladder to the +floor and sat down on the upper round, looking out over the gridiron of +tables with a disgusted expression. Peterson, aided by a man from the +restaurant, was bringing in load after load of thick white plates, +stacking them waist high near the door. Max was on the point of calling +to him, but he recollected that Pete's eye, though quick with timbers, +would not help much in questions of art. Just then Bannon came through +the doorway with another flag rolled under his arm. + +"They're here already, a couple of dozen of 'em," he said, as he dropped +the flag at the foot of the ladder. "I've left James on the stairs to +keep 'em out until we're ready. Better have an eye on the fire escape, +too--they're feeling pretty lively." + +"Say," Max said abruptly, "I can't make this thing look anyhow. I guess +it's up to you." + +Bannon stepped back and looked up at the wall. + +"Why don't you just hang them from the ceiling and then catch them up +from pretty near the bottom--so they'll drape down on both sides of the +windows?" + +"I know," said Max, "but there's ways of making 'em look just right--if +Hilda was here, she'd know----" He paused and looked down at the red, +white, and blue heap on the floor. + +During the last week they had not spoken of Hilda, and Bannon did not +know whether she had told Max. He glanced at him, but got no sign, for +Max was gazing moodily downward. + +"Do you think," Bannon said, "do you think she'd care to come around?" + +He tried to speak easily, as he might have spoken of her at any time +before Christmas Day, but he could not check a second glance at Max. At +that moment Max looked up, and as their eyes met, with an awkward pause, +Bannon knew that he understood; and for a moment the impatience that he +had been fighting for a week threatened to get away with him. He had +seen nothing of Hilda, except for the daily "Good morning," and a word +now and then. The office had been besieged by reporters waiting for a +chance at him; under-foremen had been rushing in and out; Page's +representatives and the railroad and steamboat men had made it their +headquarters. It may be that he would not have spoken in any case, for +he had said all that he could say, and he knew that she would give him +an answer when she could. + +Max's eyes had dropped again. + +"You mean for her to help fix things up?" he asked. + +Bannon nodded; and then, as Max did not look up, he said, "Yes." + +"Why--why, yes, I guess she'd just as soon." He hesitated, then began +coming down the ladder, adding, "I'll go for her." + +Bannon looked over his shoulder--Pete was clattering about among the +dishes. + +"Max," he said, "hold on a minute." + +Max turned and came slowly back. + +Bannon had seated himself on the end of a table, and now he waited, +looking down at the two rows of plates, and slowly turning a caster that +stood at his elbow. What he finally said was not what Max was awaiting. + +"What are you going to do now, Max--when you're through on this job?" + +"Why--I don't know----" + +"Have you got anything ahead?" + +"Nothing sure. I was working for a firm of contractors up on the North +Side, and I've been thinking maybe they'd take me back." + +"You've had some experience in building before now, haven't you?" Bannon +was speaking deliberately, as if he were saying what he had thought out +before. + +"Yes, a good deal. It's what I've mostly done since I quit the lumber +business." + +"When Mr. MacBride was here," said Bannon, "he told me that we've got a +contract for a new house at Indianapolis. It's going to be concrete, +from the spiles up--there ain't anything like it in the country. I'm +going down next week to take charge of the job, and if you'd like to go +along as my assistant, I'll take you." + +Max did not know what to say. At first he grinned and blushed, thinking +only that Bannon had been pleased with his work; then he grew serious. + +"Well," said Bannon, "what do you say?" + +Max still hesitated. At last he replied:-- + +"Can I have till to-morrow to think about it? I--you see, Hilda and I, +we most always talk things over, and I don't exactly like to do anything +without----" + +"Sure," said Bannon; "think it over if you like. There's no hurry up to +the end of the week." He paused as if he meant to go on, but changed his +mind and stood up. Max, too, was waiting, as if there were more to be +said. + +"You two must think we've got all day to fix things." It was Pete +calling from the other end of the room. "There ain't no loafing allowed +here." + +Bannon smiled, and Max turned away. But after he had got a third of the +way down the aisle, he came back. + +"Say, Mr. Bannon," he said, "I want to tell you that I--Hilda, she +said--she's told me something about things--and I want to----" It had +been a lame conversation; now it broke down, and they stood through a +long silence without speaking. Finally Max pulled himself together, and +said in a low, nervous voice: "Say, it's all right. I guess you know +what I'm thinking about. And I ain't got a word to say." Then he hurried +out. + +When Max and Hilda came in, the restaurant man was setting up the paper +napkin tents on the raised table at the end of the hall, and Pete stood +by the door, looking upon his work with satisfaction. He did not see +them until they were fairly in the room. + +"Hello," he said; "I didn't know you was coming, Miss Vogel." He swept +his arm around. "Ain't it fine? Make you hungry to look at all them +plates?" + +Hilda followed his gesture with a smile. Her jacket was still buttoned +tightly, and her eyes were bright and her cheeks red from the brisk +outer air. Bannon and James were coming toward them, and she greeted +them with a nod. + +"There's going to be plenty of room," she said. + +"That's right," Pete replied. "There won't be no elbows getting in the +way at this dinner. Come up where you can see better." He led the way to +the platform, and they all followed. + +"This is the speakers' table," Pete went on, "where the boss and all +will be"--he winked toward Bannon--"and the guest of honor. You show her +how we sit, Max; you fixed that part of it." + +Max walked around the table, pointing out his own, Pete's, James', and +Bannon's seats, and those of the committee. The middle seat, next to +Bannon's he passed over. + +"Hold on," said Pete, "you forgot something." + +Max grinned and drew back the middle chair. + +"This is for the guest of honor," he said, and looked at Hilda. Pete was +looking at her, too, and James--all but Bannon. + +The color, that had been leaving her face, began to come back. + +"Do you mean me?" she asked + +"I guess that's pretty near," said Pete. + +She shook her head. "Oh, no--thank you very much--I can't stay." + +Pete and Max looked at each other. + +"The boys'll be sorry," said Pete. "It's kind of got out that maybe +you'd be here, and--I don't believe they'd let you off." + +Hilda was smiling, but her face was flushed. She shook her head. "Oh, +no," she replied; "I only came to help." + +Pete turned on Max, with a clumsy laugh that did not cover his +disappointment. + +"How about this, Max? You ain't been tending to business. Ain't that so, +James? Wasn't he going to see that she come and sat up with us where the +boys could see her?" He turned to Hilda. "You see, most of the boys know +you've had a good deal to do with things on the job, and they've kind of +took a shine to you----" Pete suddenly awoke to the fact that he had +never talked so boldly to a girl before. He hesitated, looked around at +Max and James for support and at Bannon, and then, finding no help, he +grinned, and the warm color surged over his face. The only one who saw +it all was Hilda, and in spite of her embarrassment the sight of big, +strong, bashful Pete was too much for her. A twinkle came into her eyes, +and a faint smile hovered about her mouth. Pete saw it, misunderstood +it, and, feeling relieved, went on, not knowing that by bringing that +twinkle to Hilda's eyes, he had saved the situation. + +"It's only that they've talked about it some, and yesterday a couple of +'em spoke to me, and I said I'd ask Max, and----" + +"Thank you, Mr. Peterson," Hilda replied. "Max should have told me." She +turned toward Max, her face sober now except for the eyes, which would +not come under control. Max had been dividing his glances between her +and Bannon, feeling the situation heavily, and wondering if he ought not +to come to her relief, but unable to dig up the right word. Pete spoke +up again:-- + +"Say, honest now, ain't you coming?" + +"I can't really. I'm sorry. I know you'll have a good time." + +Bannon had been standing aside, unwilling to speak for fear of making it +harder for her. But now she turned to him and said, with a lightness +that puzzled him:-- + +"Aren't we going to do some decorating, Mr. Bannon? I'm afraid it will +be dinner time before Mr. Peterson knows it." + +Pete flushed again at this, but she gave him a quick smile. + +"Yes," said Bannon, "there's only a little over half an hour." He +paused, and looked about the group, holding his watch in his hand and +fingering the stem. The lines about his mouth were settling. Hilda +glanced again at him, and from the determined look in his eyes, she knew +that his week of waiting was over; that he meant to speak to her before +she left the hall. It was all in the moment's silence that followed his +remark; then he went on, as easily as if he were talking to a gang on +the marine tower--but the time was long enough for Hilda to feel her +brief courage slipping away. She could not look at him now. + +"Take a look at that door, James," he was saying. "I guess you'll have +to tend to business if you want any dinner." + +They all turned and saw the grinning heads of some of the carpenters +peering into the room. There was the shuffling of many feet behind them +on the stairs, and the sound of cat calls and whistling. A shove was +passed on from somewhere back in the hallway, and one of the carpenters +came sprawling through the door. The others yelled good-naturedly. + +"I'll fix 'em," said James, with a laugh, starting toward them. + +"Give him a lift, Pete," said Bannon. "He'll need it. You two'd better +keep the stairs clear for a while, or they'll stampede us." + +So Pete followed, and for a few moments the uproar from the stairs +drowned all attempts at conversation. Only Max was left with them now. +He stood back by the wall, still looking helplessly from one to the +other. The restaurant men were bustling about the floor; and Hilda was +glad they were there, for she knew that Bannon meant to send Max away, +too. She was too nervous to stand still; and she walked around the +table, resetting the knives and forks and spoons. The paper napkins on +this table were the only ones in the room. She wondered at this, and +when the noise of the men had died away into a few jeering cries from +the street, and Max had gone to get the flags (for she had said that +they should be hung at this end of the room), and the waiters were +bustling about, it gave her a chance to break the silence. + +"Aren't the other"--she had to stop to clear her throat--"aren't the +other men going to have napkins?" + +"They wouldn't know what they were for." + +His easy tone gave her a momentary sense of relief. + +"They'd tie them on their hats, or make balls to throw around." He +paused, but added: "It wouldn't look bad, though, would it?--to stand +them up this way on all the tables." + +She made no reply. + +"What do you say?" He was looking at her. "Shall we do it?" + +She nodded, and then dropped her eyes, angry with herself that she could +not overcome her nervousness. There was another silence, and she broke +it. + +"It would look a good deal better," she said, "if you have time to do +it. Max and I will put up the flags." + +She had meant to say something that would give her a better control of +the situation, but it sounded very flat and disagreeable--and she had +not meant it to sound disagreeable. Indeed, as soon as the words were +out, and she felt his eyes on her, and she knew that she was blushing, +she was not sure that she had meant it at all. Perhaps that was why, +when Bannon asked, in a low voice, "Would you rather Max would help +you?" she turned away and answered in a cool tone that did not come from +any one of her rushing, struggling thoughts, "If you don't mind." + +She did not see the change that came over his face, the weary look that +meant that the strain of a week had suddenly broken, but she did not +need to see it, for she knew it was there. She heard him step down from +the platform, and then she watched him as he walked down the aisle to +meet Max, who was bringing up the flags. She wondered impatiently why +Bannon did not call to him. Then he raised his head, but before a word +had left his lips she was speaking, in a clear tone that Max could +plainly hear. She was surprised at herself. She had not meant to say a +word, but out it came; and she was conscious of a tightening of her +nerves and a defiant gladness that at last her real thoughts had found +an outlet. + +"Max," she said, "won't you go out and get enough napkins to put at all +the places? You'll have to hurry." + +Bannon was slow in turning; when he did there was a peculiar expression +on his face. + +"Hold on, there," called a waiter. "There ain't time to fold them." + +"Yes, there is," said Bannon, shortly. "The boys can wait." + +"But dinner's most ready now." + +"Then I guess dinner's got to wait, too." + +The waiter looked disgusted, and Max hurried out. Bannon gathered up the +flags and came to the platform. Hilda could not face him. For an instant +she had a wild impulse to follow Max. She finally turned her back on +Bannon and leaned her elbows on a chair, looking over the wall for a +good place to hang the flags. She was going to begin talking about it as +soon as he should reach the platform. The words were all ready, but now +he was opposite her, looking across the table with the red and white +bundle in his arms, and she had not said it. Her eyes were fixed on a +napkin, studying out the curious Japanese design. She could hear his +breathing and her own. She let her eyes rise as high as the flags, then +slowly, higher and higher, until they met his, fluttered, and dropped. +But the glance was enough. She could not have resisted the look in his +eyes. + +"Did you mean it?" he asked, almost breathlessly. "Did you mean the +whole thing?" + +She could not reply. She glanced around to see if the waiters could +hear. + +"Can't you tell me?" he was saying. "It's been a week." + +She gazed at the napkin until it grew misty and indistinct. Then she +slowly nodded. + +A waiter was almost within hearing. Bannon stood looking at her, +heedless of everything but that she was there before him, that her eyes +were trying to peep up at him through the locks of red gold hair that +had strayed over her forehead. + +"Please"--she whispered--"please put them up." + +And so they set to work. He got the ladder and she told him what to do. +Her directions were not always clear, but that mattered little, for he +could not have followed them. Somehow the flags went up, and if the +effect was little better than Max's attempt had been, no one spoke of +it. + +Pete and Max came in together soon with the napkins, and a little time +slipped by before Bannon could draw Max aside and grip his hand. Then +they went at the napkins, and as they sat around the table, Hilda and +Bannon, Pete and the waiters, folding them with rapid fingers, Bannon +found opportunity to talk to her in a low voice, during the times when +Pete was whistling, or was chaffing with the waiters. He told her, a few +words at a time, of the new work Mr. MacBride had assigned to him, and +in his enthusiasm he gave her a little idea of what it would mean to +him, this opportunity to build an elevator the like of which had never +been seen in the country before, and which would be watched by engineers +from New York to San Francisco. He told her, too, something about the +work, how it had been discovered that piles could be made of concrete +and driven into the ground with a pile driver, and that neither beams +nor girders--none of the timbers, in fact--were needed in this new +construction. He was nearly through with it, and still he did not notice +the uncertain expression in her eyes. It was not until she asked in a +faltering undertone, "When are you going to begin?" that it came to him. +And then he looked at her so long that Pete began to notice, and she had +to touch his foot with hers under the table to get him to turn away. He +had forgotten all about the vacation and the St. Lawrence trip. + +Hilda saw, in her side glances, the gloomy expression that had settled +upon his face; and she recovered her spirits first. + +"It's all right," she whispered; "I don't care." + +Max came up then, from a talk with James out on the stairway, and for a +few moments there was no chance to reply. But after Bannon had caught +Max's signals to step out of hearing of the others, and before he had +risen, there was a moment when Pete's attention was drawn by one of the +waiters, and he said:-- + +"Can you go with me--Monday?" + +She looked frightened, and the blood rose in her cheeks so that she had +to bend low over her pile of napkins. + +"Will you?" He was pushing back his chair. + +She did not look up, but her head nodded once with a little jerk. + +"And you'll stay for the dinner, won't you--now?" + +She nodded once more, and Bannon went to join Max. + +Max made two false starts before he could get his words out in the +proper order. + +"Say," he finally said; "I thought maybe you wouldn't care if I told +James. He thinks you're all right, you know. And he says, if you don't +care, he'd like to say a little something about it when he makes his +speech. Not much, you know--nothing you wouldn't like--he says it would +tickle the boys right down to their corns." + +Bannon looked around toward Hilda, and slowly shook his head. + +"Max," he replied, "if anybody says a word about it at this dinner I'll +break his head." + +That should have been enough, but when James' turn came to speak, after +nearly two hours of eating and singing and laughing and riotous good +cheer, he began in a way that brought Bannon's eyes quickly upon him. + +"Boys," he said, "we've worked hard together on this job, and one way +and another we've come to understand what sort of a man our boss is. +Ain't that right?" + +A roar went up from hundreds of throats, and Hilda, sitting next to +Bannon, blushed. + +"We've thought we understood him pretty well, but I've just found out +that we didn't know so much as we thought we did. He's been a pretty +square friend to all of us, and I'm going to tell you something that'll +give you a chance to show you're square friends of his, too." + +He paused, and then was about to go on, leaning forward with both hands +on the table, and looking straight down on the long rows of bearded +faces, when he heard a slight noise behind him. A sudden laugh broke +out, and before he could turn his head, a strong hand fell on each +shoulder and he went back into his chair with a bump. Then he looked up, +and saw Bannon standing over him. The boss was trying to speak, but he +had to wait a full minute before he could make himself heard. He glanced +around and saw the look of appeal in Hilda's eyes. + +"Look here, boys," he said, when the room had grown quiet; "we aren't +handing out any soft soap at this dinner. I won't let this man up till +he promises to quit talking about me." + +There was another burst of laughter, and James shouted something that +nobody understood. Bannon looked down at him, and said quietly, and with +a twinkle in his eye, but very firmly:-- + +"If you try that again, I'll throw you out of the window." + +James protested, and was allowed to get up. Bannon slipped into his seat +by Hilda. + +"It's all right," he said in a low tone. "They won't know it now until +we get out of here." His hand groped for hers under the table. + +James was irrepressible. He was shouting quickly now, in order to get +the words out before Bannon could reach him again. + +"How about this, boys? Shall we stand it?" + +"No!" was the reply in chorus. + +"All right, then. Three cheers for Mr. Bannon. Now--Hip, hip----" + +There was no stopping that response. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Calumet 'K', by +Samuel Merwin and Henry Kitchell Webster + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30431 *** |