t White Sulphur."

"This is the most outrageous, high-handed,--" began Landover,
explosively, but stopped short as Percival levelled his unlovely
forefinger at him.

"Cut it out, Mr. Landover,--cut it out," he snapped, inelegantly. "Now,
listen to me. For two days you and these boon companions of yours have
been loafing on the job. While the rest of us have been working like
dogs, you and your friends,--you needn't look insulted, because by the
looks of things they are your friends,--you've been sitting up here
talking to the ladies, smoking cigars, and telling every one how
successfully you conduct a bank in New York. Now, Mr. Landover, you're
not an old man. If you were, I'd be the first to suggest the easiest
sort of work for you. You are under fifty and you're a strong, healthy
man. You ride every morning in Central Park, you play golf in winter and
summer, and you're one of the men who made Muldoon famous.

"You are able to work as the rest of us are working. Your hands are in
a much better condition than mine. If we were in New York, I would take
off my hat to you and admit that you are one of the greatest bankers in
the world, and that you know your business. But we're not in New York.
We're down here on a lonely island. You know how to build and conduct
banks, I know how to build and conduct camps. We have no use for
scientific bankers here, but we have considerable use for experienced
camp builders. I have been put in charge of this work. I'm going to see
it through. Up in the hills I got a full day's work out of my men,--and
there were worse men among them than you will ever be. There were
gunmen, knife slingers, cutthroats and bullies,--but they had to work,
just the same. Just a minute, if you please. I'm not through. I think I
appreciate your position, Mr. Landover.

"You regard me as a four-flusher, a tramp,--maybe a thief or worse. I
am but little more than half your age and I am a person of absolutely no
importance. That's neither here nor there. I have been selected to run
this job because Captain Trigger, with Mr. Mott and virtually every
other man on this ship, believes that I know how to handle it. But even
that's neither here nor there. What I'm coming to is this. As long as
I am in charge of this job, every man, woman and child has got to do
something. Just at present there isn't much that the women and children
can do, but there is work for every man who can stand on his feet. You
needn't glar