omise of advancement.

"You can have anything you are fit for, Tony, in any of the mills. I
feel that I owe you, that we both owe you more than we can pay by any
position we can offer," was Grant Maitland's word.

"Mr. Maitland, neither you nor Jack owes me anything. Jack has paid, and
more than once, all he owed me. But," with a rueful smile, "don't expect
too much from me in this job. I can't see myself making it go."

"Give it a big try. Do your best. I ask no more," said Mr. Maitland.

"My best? That's a hard thing. Give me a bayonet and set some Huns
before me, and I'll do my best. This is different somehow."

"Different, yet the same. The same qualities make for success. You have
the brains and with your gift for machinery--Well, try it. You and Jack
here will make this go between you, as you made the other go."

The door closed on the young man.

"Will he make good, Jack?" said the father, anxiously.

"Will any of us make good?"

"You will, Jack, I know. You can stick."

"Yes, I can stick, I suppose, but, after all--well, we'll have a go
at it, anyway. But, like Tony, I feel like saying, 'Don't expect too
much.'"

"Only your best, Jack, that's all. Take three months, six months, a
year, and get hold of the office end of the business. You have brains
enough. I want a General Manager right now, Wickes is hardly up to it.
He knows the books and he knows the works but he knows nothing else. He
doesn't know men nor markets. He is an office man pure and simple, and
he's old, too old. The fact is, Jack, I have to be my own Manager inside
and outside. My foremen are good, loyal, reliable fellows, but they only
know their orders. I want someone to stand beside me. The plant has been
doubled in capacity during the war. We did a lot of war work--aeroplane
parts. We got the spruce in the raw and worked it up, good work, too, if
I do say it myself. No better was done."

"I know something about that, Dad. I had a day with Badgley in Toronto.
I know something about it, and I know where the money went, too, Dad."

"The money? Of course, I couldn't take the money--how could I with my
boys at the war, and other men's boys?"

"Rather not. My God, Dad, if I thought--! But what's the use talking?
They know in London all about the Ambulance Equipment and the Machine
Gun Battery, and the Hospital. Do you know why Caramus took a job in
the Permanent Force in England? It was either that or blowing out his
brains. He could