air rumpled, head almost touching the
ceiling, hammer in hand.

"There!" he was saying.

He had been sounding the plaster on the ceiling to find a certain
stringer. Nort, just below, was gazing up with a half smile on his lips
and that look of live amusement, yes, deviltry, which came too easily to
his eyes.

"Found her, have you, Cap'n?" he was inquiring.

"Here she is," responded the Captain triumphantly.

And then they saw Fergus and me--the Captain looking very sheepish and
Nort like a bad boy caught in the jam closet.

Just how Nort did it I never knew exactly, but those two precious
partners in mischief were engaged in quite the most extraordinary
innovation in the staid old office that had yet been conceived.

"Something to cool the Captain's head," was the way Nort described it.
It was hot weather, doubly hot in the office of the _Star_, surrounded
as it was by taller buildings, and the Captain especially suffered from
the heat. In some way Nort had led him guilefully into the scheme of
installing a fan on the ceiling of the office, and, what is more, had
made the Captain believe it was his own idea. The old Captain was in
reality as simple hearted as a child, and once he and Nort had agreed
upon the plan, it delighted him to carry it forward secretly and
"surprise Anthy," as he was always surprising her with some one or
another of his extravagances. Afterward, when he referred to the great
new scheme it was at first: "We had the idea," "We thought," "We worked
it out." But in no time at all, it had become, "I had the idea," "I
thought." And when visitors came in to see the wonderful new fan waving
its majestic wooden arms over the devoted heads of the staff of the
_Star_, you would have thought the old Captain did it all himself.

I laugh yet when I think of the first few moments of the operation of
Nort's invention. We had all been a good deal excited about it, Ed not
exactly with approval, although it was a good "ad" for the _Star_--but
the old Captain was quite beside himself.

"How are you getting along, Nort?" he began inquiring early in the
afternoon of the great day.

He had been particular at first to speak to Nort as "Carr," indicating
purely formal relationship, but in the enthusiasm of putting up the fan
he soon dropped into the familiar "Nort."

"Fine, Cap'n, we'll have her running now in no time."

"Good!"

"We'll cool your head yet, Cap'n."

"I'm waiting, Nort."

When Nort fina