peration in the field to you, Craig,"
promised the president. "But you must play safe."

"I'll take full responsibility," affirmed Craig, whose pride had been
touched.

"Then we shall continue to value you as our right bower in the north,"
said Marlow. "The man on the ground understands the details. We don't
try to follow them here in the home office."

Craig walked out with Dawes.

"That talk has put the thing up to you square-edged, Craig."

Craig had been heartened and fortified by the president's compliments.
"Leave it to me!"

CHAPTER THREE

Latisan had eaten his breakfast in the grill of a big hotel with a vague
idea that such an environment would tune him up to meet the magnates of
the Comas company.

In his present and humbler state of mind, hungry again, he went into a
cafeteria.

Waiting at the counter for his meat stew and tea--familiar woods
provender which appealed to his homesickness--he became aware of a young
woman at his elbow; she was having difficulty in managing her tray and
her belongings. There was an autumn drizzle outside and Ward had stalked
along unprotected, with a woodman's stoicism in regard to wetness. The
young woman had her umbrella, a small bag, and a parcel, and she was
clinging to all of them, impressed by the "Not Responsible" signs which
sprinkled the walls of the place. When her tray tipped at an alarming
slant, as she elbowed her way from the crowded counter, Ward caught at
its edge and saved a spill.

The girl smiled gratefully.

"If you don't mind," he apologized; his own tray was ready. He took that
in his free hand. He gently pulled her tray from her unsteady grasp.
"I'll carry it to a table."

The table section was as crowded as the counter space. He did not offer
to sit opposite her at the one vacant table he found; he lingered,
however, casting about himself for another seat.

"May I not exchange my hospitality for your courtesy?" inquired the
girl. She nodded toward the unoccupied chair and he sat down and thanked
her.

She was an extremely self-possessed young woman, who surveyed him
frankly with level gaze from her gray eyes.

"You performed very nicely, getting through that crush as you did
without spilling anything," she commended.

"I've had plenty of practice."

She opened her eyes on him by way of a question. "Not as a waiter," he
proceeded. "But with those trays in my hand it was like being on the
drive, ramming my way through the gan