ose 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 a