e to know."

That was the vein of it, though the monologue ran on much longer. But at
last he swung impatiently around and addressed Hilda. "I'm ready to throw
up my hands. I think I'll go back to Minneapolis and tell MacBride I've
had enough. He can come down here and finish the house himself."

"Do you think he would get it done in time?" Hilda's eyes were laughing at
him, but she kept them on her work.

"Oh, yes," he said wearily. "He'd get the grain into her somehow. You
couldn't stump MacBride with anything. That's why he makes it so warm for
us."

"Do you think," she asked very demurely, indeed, "that if Mr. MacBride had
been here he could have built it any faster than--than we have, so far?"

"I don't believe it," said Bannon, unwarily. Her smile told him that he
had been trapped. "I see," he added. "You mean that there ain't any reason
why we can't do it."

He arose and tramped uneasily about the little shanty. "Oh, of course,
we'll get it done--just because we have to. There ain't anything else we
can do. But just the same I'm sick of the business. I want to quit."

She said nothing, and after a moment he wheeled and, facing her, demanded
abruptly: "What's the matter with me, anyway?" She looked at him frankly,
a smile, almost mischievous, in her face. The hard, harassed look between
his eyes and about his drawn mouth melted away, and he repeated the
question: "What's the matter with me? You're the doctor. I'll take
whatever medicine you say."

"You didn't take Mr. Peterson's suggestion very well--about taking a
holiday, I mean. I don't know whether I dare prescribe for you or not. I
don't think you need a day off. I think that, next to a good, long
vacation, the best thing for you is excitement." He laughed. "No, I mean
it. You're tired out, of course, but if you have enough to occupy your
mind, you don't know it. The trouble today is that everything is going too
smoothly. You weren't a bit afraid yesterday that the elevator wouldn't be
done on time. That was because you thought there was going to be a strike.
And if just now the elevator should catch on fire or anything, you'd feel
all right about it again."

He still half suspected that she was making game of him, and he looked at
her steadily while he turned her words over in his mind. "Well," he said,
with a short laugh, "if the only medicine I need is excitement, I'll be
the healthiest man you ever saw in a little while. I guess I'll find Pete.