han they really are. They like to
tell what great things they've done. But when it comes to----"

"I've seen that kind, too. On both sides of the water. Over there no one
depended on them. They were shunted from pillar to post until they hit a
place where they couldn't even hear the guns. When the war was over
they came back. They were whole. And they talked."

He paused for a moment and looked down at the deck. Then he went on in a
low voice: "The kind I'm figuring on are not whole. And they don't
talk."

Dickie Lang said no more. When a man spoke with such depth of feeling,
what was the use of trying to talk him out of it. Of course he was
wrong. But he'd just have to find it out for himself. In silence they
neared the entrance to the bay and threaded their way among the
fishing-boats as they drew up to the Lang wharf. Gregory roused himself
at the sight of the Lang dock and turned to the girl.

"You took me out this morning," he said, "to show me you knew your
business. Now it's up to me to show you I know mine. I'm going right to
work. I expect a hard fight, but I'll tell you right now this idea of
mine is going to win out."

Dickie smiled as they drew alongside the dock.

"Go to it," she said. "I won't say you're wrong. But you'll certainly
have to show me."

CHAPTER VIII

A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

"What do you expect me to do with a bunch of cripples like that?"

Jack McCoy burst into the office of the Legonia Fish Cannery and hurled
the question angrily at his young employer.

Gregory looked hard at McCoy's flushed face and snapping gray eyes. Then
he said quietly: "I expect you to train them."

"My God!" McCoy came a step closer. Then he burst out: "Don't you know
it's hard enough to run a cannery with real men without----"

Gregory was on his feet in an instant.

"Don't say it," he gritted. "Unless you want to hook up with me right
now."

McCoy sought to explain.

"I'm not saying anything against them," he said. "But you don't
understand. I wonder if you have any idea what it means to break in a
bunch like that."

"Yes. That is why I hired you. I believed you could do it. If you can't,
I'll find some one else who will."

Gregory leaned against the desk.

"Listen, McCoy," he said. "You and I have to get down to cases right
now. There's no use flying off the handle. If you have anything to say,
I'll hear it. Anything except a word against those men out there.
They've had eno