g. He went about without thinking where; he passed men without
seeing who they were or what they were doing. When he walked through the
belt gallery, he saw the foreman of the big gang of men at work there
was handling them clumsily, so that they interfered with each other, but
it did not occur to him to give the orders that would set things right.
Then, as if his wire-drawn muscles had not done work enough, he climbed
laboriously to the very top of the marine tower.

He was leaning against a window-casing; not looking out, for he saw
nothing, but with his face turned to the fleet of barges lying in the
river; when some one spoke to him.

"I guess you're thinking about that Christmas dinner, ain't you, Mr.
Bannon?"

"What's that?" he demanded, wheeling about. Then rallying his scattered
faculties, he recognized one of the carpenters. "Oh, yes," he said,
laughing tardily. "Yes, the postponed Christmas dinner. You think I'm in
for it, do you? You know it's no go unless this house is full of wheat
clear to the roof."

"I know it," said the man. "But I guess we're going to stick you for it.
Don't you think we are?"

"I guess that's right."

"I come up here," said the carpenter, well pleased at the chance for a
talk with the boss, "to have a look at this--marine leg, do you call it?
I haven't been to work on it, and I never saw one before. I wanted to
find out how it works."

"Just like any other leg over in the main house. Head pulley up here;
another one down in the boot; endless belt running over 'em with steel
cups rivetted on it to scoop up the grain. Only difference is that
instead of being stationary and set up in a tank, this one's hung up. We
let the whole business right down into the boat. Pull it up and down
with that steam winch."

The man shook his head. "What if it got away from you?"

"That's happened," said Bannon. "I've seen a leg most as big as this
smash through two decks. Thought it was going right on through the
bottom of the boat. But that wasn't a leg that MacBride had hung up.
This one won't fall."

Bannon answered one or two more questions rather at random, then
suddenly came back to earth. "What are you doing here, anyway?" he
demanded. "Seems to me this is a pretty easy way to earn thirty cents an
hour."

"I--I was just going to see if there wasn't something I could do," the
man answered, a good deal embarrassed. Then before Bannon could do more
than echo, "Something to do?" added: "