aid it to
every man he met, and they all believed him. Peterson, the same man and
not the same man either, who had once vowed that there wouldn't be any
night work on Calumet K, who had bent a pair of most unwilling shoulders
to the work Bannon had put upon them, who had once spent long, sulky
afternoons in the barren little room of his new boarding-house; Peterson
held himself down in bed exactly three hours the morning after that famous
victory. Before eleven o'clock he was sledging down a tottering timber at
the summit of the marine tower, a hundred and forty feet sheer above the
wharf. Just before noon he came into the office and found Hilda there
alone.

He had stopped outside the door to put on his coat, but had not buttoned
it; his shirt, wet as though he had been in the lake, clung to him and
revealed the outline of every muscle in his great trunk. He flung his hat
on the draughting-table, and his yellow hair seemed crisper and curlier
than ever before.

"Well, it looks as though we was all right," he said.

Hilda nodded emphatically. "You think we'll get through in time, don't
you, Mr. Peterson?"

"Think!" he exclaimed. "I don't have to stop to think. Here comes Max;
just ask him."

Max slammed the door behind him, brought down the timekeeper's book on
Hilda's desk with a slap that made her jump, and vaulted to a seat on the
railing. "Well, I guess it's a case of hurrah for us, ain't it, Pete?"

"Your sister asked me if I thought we'd get done on time. I was just
saying it's a sure thing."

"I don't know," said Max, laughing. "I guess an earthquake could stop us.
But why ain't you abed, Pete?"

"What do I want to be abed for? I ain't going to sleep any more this
year--unless we get through a day or two ahead of time. I don't like to
miss any of it. Charlie Bannon may have hustled before, but I guess this
breaks his record. Where is he now, Max?"

"Down in the cellar putting in the running gear for the 'cross-the-house
conveyors. He has his nerve with him. He's putting in three drives
entirely different from the way they are in the plans. He told me just now
that there wasn't a man in the office who could design a drive that
wouldn't tie itself up in square knots in the first ten minutes. I wonder
what old MacBride'll say when he sees that he's changed the plans."

"If MacBride has good sense, he'll pass anything that Charlie puts up,"
said Pete.

He was going to say more, but just then Bannon stro