the
sheet. Slowly he picked up the paper, tore it across and tossed it into
the waste basket.

"Wickes, you are an old fool--and," he added in a voice that grew husky,
"I am another and worse."

"But, sir--" began Wickes, in hurried tones.

"Oh, cut it all out, Wickes," said Maitland impatiently. "You know I
won't stand for that. But what can we do? He saved my boy's life--"

"Yes, sir, and he was with my Stephen at the last, and--" The old man's
voice suddenly broke.

"I remember, Wickes, I remember. And that's another reason--We must find
another way out."

"I have been thinking, sir," said the bookkeeper timidly, "if you had a
younger man in my place--"

"You would go out, eh? I believe on my soul you would. You--you--old
fool. But," said Maitland, reaching his hand across the desk, "I don't
go back on old friends that way."

The two men stood facing each other for a few minutes, with hands
clasped, Maitland's face stern and set, Wickes' working in a pitiful
effort to stay the tears that ran down his cheeks, to choke back the
sobs that shook his old body as if in the grip of some unseen powerful
hand.

"We must find a way," said Maitland, when he felt sure of his voice.
"Some way, but not that way. Sit down. We must go through this
together."

CHAPTER VII

THE FOREMAN

Grant Maitland's business instincts and training were such as to forbid
any trifling with loose management in any department of his plant. He
was, moreover, too just a man to allow any of his workmen to suffer
for failures not their own. His first step was to get at the facts. His
preliminary move was characteristic of him. He sent for McNish.

"McNish," he said, "your figures I have examined. They tell me nothing
I did not know, but they are cleverly set down. The matter of wages I
shall deal with as I have always dealt with it in my business. The other
matter--" Mr. Maitland paused, then proceeded with grave deliberation,
"I must deal with in my own way. It will take a little time. I shall not
delay unnecessarily, but I shall accept dictation from no man as to my
methods."

McNish stood silently searching his face with steady eyes.

"You are a new man here, and I find you are a good workman," continued
Mr. Maitland. "I don't know you nor your aims and purposes in this
Grievance Committee business of yours. If you want a steady job with a
chance to get on, you will get both; if you want trouble, you can get
that too, but n