ed shadow on the wharf and the water
below.

At a little after eight o'clock, Peterson, who had been looking at the
stairway, now nearly completed, came out on the distributing floor. He was
in good spirits, for everything was going well, and Bannon had frankly
credited him, of late, with the improvement in the work of the night
shifts. He stood looking up through the upper floors of the cupola, and he
did not see Max until the timekeeper stood beside him.

"Hello, Max," he said. "We'll have the roof on here in another ten days."

Max followed Peterson's glance upward.

"I guess that's right. It begins to look as if things was coming 'round
all right. I just come up from the office. Mr. Bannon's there. He'll be up
before long, he says. I was a-wondering if maybe I hadn't ought to go back
and tell him about Grady. He's around, you know."

"Who? Grady?"

"Yes. Him and another fellow was standing down by one of the cribbin'
piles. I was around there on the way up."

"What was they doing?"

"Nothing. Just looking on."

Peterson turned to shout at some laborers, then he pushed back his hat and
scratched his head.

"I don't know but what you'd ought to 'a' told Charlie right off. That man
Grady don't mean us no good."

"I know it, but I wasn't just sure."

"Well, I'll tell you--"

Before Peterson could finish, Max broke in:--

"That's him."

"Where?"

"That fellow over there, walking along slow. He's the one that was with
Grady."

"I'd like to know what he thinks he's doing here." Peterson started
forward, adding, "I guess I know what to say to him."

"Hold on, Pete," said Max, catching his arm. "Maybe we'd better speak to
Mr. Bannon. I'll go down and tell him, and you keep an eye on this
fellow."

Peterson reluctantly assented, and Max walked slowly away, now and then
pausing to look around at the men. But when he had nearly reached the
stairway, where he could slip behind the scaffolding about the only scale
hopper that had reached a man's height above the floor, he moved more
rapidly. He met Bannon on the stairway, and told him what he had seen.
Bannon leaned against the wall of the stairway bin, and looked thoughtful.

"So he's come, has he?" was his only comment. "You might speak to Pete,
Max, and bring him here. I'll wait."

Max and Peterson found him looking over the work of the carpenters.

"I may not be around much tonight," he said, with a wink, "but I'd like to
see both of you tomorrow