Calumet K""

hands in the tin basin. The twilight was already settling; within the shanty, whose dirty, small-paned windows serve

Peterson. "I don't believe you'll get much to

But I wish you had a bigger bed

as the

ht 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 tomorrow?' '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

had their coats on, and w

Bannon, "we go t

es

from the northwest. The two men crossed the siding, and, picking their way between the freight

terson; "you was te

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

t ni

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 s

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

was going to steal the turbines, but he finally let me in, and I set him to s

rself?" ask

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

ard one of a long row

hey went up the stairs he as

ng tomorrow.' '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

give you a silk ha

dn't

he one chair, and was sitting tipped back against the washstand. Peterson sat on the bed. Bannon h

me to eat, P

ere's th

g to stay, was slow in coming to Peterson. After supper, when they had

y fuss up at

t ab

t to rush the jo

ch a lot of time. You se

of a sudden? They didn

t been crowding it

son f

it wasn't for the cribbing being held up like this, I'd 'a' had

nt for a moment

se it would take to ge

yar

'll rush it all right when they can get the cars. You see, it's only ten or eleven hours u

ne that crosses t

es

apart and drummed on

line?" he asked-"t

C. We don't have not

Peterson's face. His eyes were roving over the carpet,

said Bannon. "Do you

generally use cold water. The folks here a

ing in his grip f

like that, Pete," he sa

said Peterson, ta

it and drew it back and forth over the palm of hi

u have to

ther. You just get up and try it once. Those whiske

face, while Bannon put an edge on

est yet," said Peterson,

right

d "Pathfinder" from his grip and rapidly turned the pages.

you goin

ng up

g in the washbowl, Bannon t

asked Peterson, when Bannon had f

a little millwright work l

marine leg on the

N

a house

red thousan

half as big as t

the same people, tho

e going in p

re they get through with it. It's been going up pretty steadily since the end of September-it was seventy-four and three-eighths Saturd

ng to get in on, eh?" sa

t money in wheat. I've got no mon

ly. "A fellow doesn't want to run them kin

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

sked Peterson. "Can't they deliver it in the cars?

ecognize grain as delivered until it has been

he house have

December wheat in this house, they'll have to

" said Peterson, "if

d and sat up. The situation was not easy, but he had been sent

" he said; "we've got to have it

s about it," P

l. I take it there's something over two

Couldn't say exactly. Max

brows cam

bout this yourself, Pete. You're t

hing it along as well

on, su

ess, that's all. Now, if Vogel's right, this cribbing ought

son n

lost time. How've you been

put things together so

e'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 go

ok here,

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 s

u getting at? What do you want me t

w 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

on was

t company and see about having the whole ground wired for arc lamps,-so we can be ready to put on a night s

nt, then he arose and

ou, Pete," he said, a

re you

en o'clock train. I'm going up to Ledyard to

his grip, put on his overcoat,