Out of the Primitive

w. It was so dry with frost that scarcely a flake clung to their coats when they pushed in through the storm doors. The elev

sh raincoat. "Talk about Mozambique! Guess you know now you're in Hammurica,

r?" asked Lord James, eying t

Must be down this

the end of the side hall they came to a door marked "No. 1715." On the froste

H, C. E. CONS

plain table-desk where a young clerk

Blake. "Mr.

s busy," replied the clerk, startin

said Blake. "We'll just

ow him in. When they entered, a lank, gray-haired man sat facing them at a table-desk as plain as the clerk's. It was cov

asked Blake in a casua

ng St

orker, glancing up wi

sight of Blake's face he shoved back his chair and came hurrying around the end of the desk, his thin dry fa

d!" he croaked. "What

got rid of

th feet, and I want a job-P-D-Q. First, though, I want you to sha

e mimicry of Mrs. Gantry. "Aw, beg pawdon, m'lud. Er-the-aw-Right

lordship. He turned to Griffith with unaffected cordialit

other," ad

r!" said Lord James, g

om chaff you. My name'

brid

ible!" gasped Blake.

ite true-as to His Grace, y'know. But I assure you that even in England I am legally only

ge," assured Griffith, in turn.

uled out a box of good cigars. Blake helped himself and passed the box to Lord

anded over a match-box. "Wh

"I'm a hero, the real live article

d Griffith, pausing with a lighted

e. "He tries to belittle it, Mr. Griffith, but it's

said Griffith, jerking his pipe

d Blake, bending fo

elf. That has stumped half a dozen of the best men. Promoters are giving me a

d Blake in

know that, Tommy. But this proposition-Only available dam site is across a st

e me a shy at that, Grif. It can't be worked out-that's a c

to let you try, if you're set on it." He nodded to Lord James. "You know how much use it is buck

lake. "You know it's jus

Shouldn't wonder if you held on to th

ing," said Bla

good ones quit. I'm about ready to quit, myself. But I'll b

your

hat. I can put it all over you in mathematics-in everything that's in the books. So can a hundred or more

ed Blake, with bit

otested L

f lying about it?

iffith. "I'm talking about what you are now

" added Blake, more

t, Tommy. You're not yet on t

t, Jimmy? Never take the guess of an engineer. They

ou've got something w

on his unlighted cigar. He jerked it from his mouth and flung it savagely into th

he mumbled. "Guess I'm in fo

y: "Don't you believe it, Tommy. Don't talk about my guessing. You're steady as a

my old rule: Not a drop of anything when I'm on a job. Only one thi

ment's pause. Then he replied in a tone more than ever dry and emotionless

bent forward and gripped h

thing in the world, Tommy. Always believed it. I've proved it this year. Work! Beats whiskey any day for mak

. He nodded to Lord Jam

mm

ld," complaine

o present you to the upper crust?-

the pie is und

not the sort to take in the town with a m

riffith. "You don't

depot to give our

ght he understood. "I see. He knows Mr. Scarbridge, eh? It's like him, dro

idge. But of course that's all hot air. He didn't even take part in the competit

the last time-after the competition,-he

cried Blake. "He

part in the competition failed on t

rote you I'd do. I worked out a new truss modification. I'd have sw

keen sympathy beneath his dry croak. "Hell! That bridge w

on a brake-beam, after my wors

Ashton, this lily-white lallapaloozer of a kid-glove C. E., came slipping in

igging into that propos

t Engineer. His bridge plans are a wonder, but he's proved himself N. G. on construc

. "You, working agai

sharp as tacks, but if you've got his

us down on the

as turned over to the Coville Construction Company." He turned quickly to Lord James. "Say, what's that about his bein

use a Jimmy instead,

James. "We're going to open

h embarrassment, and swung across, to stare

om his cigar with his little

cking around quite a bi

rica. American engineer

ked to man

ars on a low-grade proposition in Colorado-made i

ns. Thought I'd play Sherlock Holmes. Learned that my man had booked passage for India. Traced him to Calcutta. Lost two months; found he'd doubled back and gone to th

iffith, opening his

ad been posted as lost, somewhere

eard all about it from H. V. himself, when he took me out to Arizona to look over this Zariba Dam proposi

imitive, so to speak,-

yclone flung them a

Didn't you

ul aboard drowned except those three-Tom

amily jewels out of his

e. "He got them, later o

d? H

nother c

once wrote me about one of the Central American ports. You. don't ever catch me south of

oth he and Miss Leslie,-skin clothes, poisoned a

he kind of brains that get there. If he can't buck thro

s Leslie would have perished in that savage land of wild beasts and fever. Yet there is something more than you could have heard from her father,

"There's mighty little I don't expect of

e. "Ever think of him as weari

blank. "Tommy?-i

down to Ruthby. Kept him there a month. You'd have been joll

ver

ater-fathe

ommy was stringing me about

twenty-first Earl of Avondale; but he's a crack-up jolly old chap, I assure you.

father is a real duke

only Mr. Scarbridge-legally, y' know. Hope you'll

aid Griffith, gazing across at Blake's broad back. Lord

it. Rooms are always open. If I'm busy, I've got a pretty good technical library-if you're inte

He nodded cordially, and turned to call sla

om the wall. "What's t

on time to attire me-those studied effects-last arti

onsive smile from his frie

g to see her to-

ing hotly. "I have it! We'll extend the agreement until noon to-

ew you'd play fair-It's only my grouch. I remembe

it, and smiled. "Er-quite true; but poss

e Miss Dolores. I sized her up for a mighty fine girl. Not at all

n. Sorry!" replied hi

, Mr. Gr