plaining to MacBride why it can't be done, I'll send my resignation
along in a separate envelope and go to peddling a cure for corns. What
we want to talk about is how we're going to do it."

Peterson flushed, but said nothing, and Bannon went on: "Now, here's
what we've got to do. We've got to frame the cupola and put on the roof
and sheathe the entire house with galvanized iron; we've got to finish
the spouting house and sheathe that; we've got to build the belt
gallery--and we'll have no end of a time doing it if the C. & S. C. is
still looking for trouble. Then there's all the machinery to erect and
the millwright work to do. And we've got to build the annex."

"I thought you was going to forget that," said Pete. "That's the worst
job of all."

"No, it ain't. It's the easiest. It'll build itself. It's just a case of
two and two makes four. All you've got to do is spike down two-inch
planks till it's done, and then clap on some sort of a roof. There's no
machinery, no details, just straight work. It's just a question of
having the lumber to do it with, and we've got it now. It's the little
work that can raise Ned with you. There is more than a million little
things that any man ought to do in half an hour, but if one of 'em goes
wrong, it may hold you up for all day. Now, I figure the business this
way."

He took a memorandum from his pocket and began reading. There was very
little guesswork about it; he had set down as nearly as possible the
amount of labor involved in each separate piece of construction, and the
number of men who could work on it at once. Allowing for the different
kinds of work that could be done simultaneously, he made out a total of
one hundred and twenty days.

"Well, that's all right, I guess," said Pete, "but you see that takes us
way along into next year sometime."

"About March first," said Max.

"You haven't divided by three yet," said Bannon. "We'll get three
eight-hour days into every twenty-four hours, and twenty-one of 'em into
every week."

"Why, that's better than we need to do," said Pete, after a moment.
"That gets us about two weeks ahead of time."

"Did you ever get through when you thought you would?" Bannon demanded.
"I never did. Don't you know that you always get hit by something you
ain't looking for? I'm figuring in our hard-luck margin, that's all.
There are some things I _am_ looking for, too. We'll have a strike here
before we get through."

"Oh, I guess not