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