ys the widow, "is, that she had
a friend,--well, it isn't too much to say that they was as good as
engaged,--and he was foreman of the Foundry finishin'-shop. But somehow
Whiffler spoilt him, just as he spoils everything he touches; and last
winter, when Belle was away, William Tarbox--that's his name, and his head
is runnin' over with inventions--took to spreein' and liquor, and got
ashamed of himself, and let down from a foreman to a hand, and is all the
while lettin' down lower."

The widow's heart thus opened, Wade walked in as consoler. This also
opened the lodgings to him. He was presently installed in the large and
small front-rooms up-stairs, unpacking his traps, and making himself
permanently at home.

Superintendent Whiffler came over, by-and-by, to see his successor. He did
not like his looks. The new man should have looked mean or weak or
rascally, to suit the outgoer.

"How long do you expect to stay?" asks Whiffler, with a half-sneer,
watching Wade hanging a map and a print _vis-a-vis_.

"Until the men and I, or the Company and I, cannot pull together."

"I'll give you a week to quarrel with both, and another to see the whole
concern go to everlasting smash. And now, if you're ready, I'll go over
the accounts with you and prove it."

Whiffler himself, insolent, cowardly, and a humbug, if not a swindler, was
enough, Wade thought, to account for any failure. But he did not mention
this conviction.

CHAPTER III.

HOW TO BEHEAD A HYDRA!

At ten next morning, Whiffler handed over the safe-key to Wade, and
departed to ruin some other property, if he could get one to ruin. Wade
walked with him to the gate.

"I'm glad to be out of a sinking ship," said the ex-boss. "The Works will
go down, sure as shooting. And I think myself well out of the clutches of
these men. They're a bullying, swearing, drinking set of infernal
ruffians. Foremen are just as bad as hands. I never felt safe of my life
with 'em."

"A bad lot, are they?" mused Wade, as he returned to the office. "I must
give them a little sharp talk by way of Inaugural."

He had the bell tapped and the men called together in the main building.

Much work was still going on in an inefficient, unsystematic way.

While hot fires were roaring in the great furnaces, smoke rose from the
dusty beds where Titanic castings were cooling. Great cranes, manacled
with heavy chains, stood over the furnace-doors, ready to lift steaming
jorums of melt