at her alarm-clock could hardly
awaken her. It took all her speed to get her to her post. She dared
not keep Sutton waiting, and fear of the time-clock had become a habit
with her. As she caught the gleaming rivets and thrust them into their
sconces, she wondered if all this toil were merely a waste of effort
to give the sarcastic gods another laugh at human folly.

She wanted to find Davidge and took at last the desperate expedient of
pretended sickness. The passer-boy Snotty was found to replace her,
and she hurried to Davidge's office.

Miss Gabus stared at her and laughed. "Tired of your rivetin' a'ready?
Come to get your old job back?"

Mamise shook her head and asked for Davidge. He was out--no, not out
of town, but out in the yard or the shop or up in the mold-loft or
somewheres, she reckoned.

Mamise set out to find him, and on the theory that among places to
look for anything or anybody the last should be first she climbed the
long, long stairs to the mold-loft.

He was not among the acolytes kneeling at the templates; nor was he in
the cathedral of the shop. She sought him among the ships, and came
upon him at last talking to Jake Nuddle, of all people!

Nuddle saw Mamise first and winked, implying that he also was making a
fool of Davidge. Davidge looked sheepish, as he always did when he was
caught in a benevolent act.

"I was just talking to your brother-in-law, Miss Webling," he said,
"trying to drive a few rivets into that loose skull. I don't want to
fire him, on your account, but I don't see why I should pay an I. W.
W. or a Bolshevist to poison my men."

Davidge had been alarmed by the indifference of his sentinels. He
thought it imbecile to employ men like Nuddle to corrupt the men
within, while the guards admitted any wanderer from without. He was
making a last attempt to convert Nuddle to industry for Mamise's sake,
trying to pluck this dingy brand from the burning.

"I was just showing Nuddle a little bookkeeping in patriotism," he
said. "The Liberty Loan people are coming here, and I want the yard to
do itself proud. Some of the men and women are going without
necessities to help the government, while Nuddle and some others are
working for the Kaiser. This is the record of Nuddle and his crew:

"'Wages, six to ten dollars a day guaranteed by the government.
Investment in Liberty Bonds, nothing; purchases of War Savings Stamps,
nothing; contributions to Red Cross, Y. M. C. A., K. of C.,