nothing!--Where's my hat? I'm going home--
Have I--?"

"No, he's alive; but I came just in time."

At this moment Bolles turned over and slowly struggled to a sitting
posture. His hands went feebly toward his throat.

"He's all right," said Warrington. "We'd better light out. Now what
the devil--"

"He struck me. He was drunk. I've been in a fighting mood all day.
Call that carriage."

When Mrs. Jack saw him she screamed.

"John!"

"The asphalt was wet, girl, and I took a bad fall." But John lied with
ill grace.

Chapter XIV

The Bennington mills, or shops, were situated just inside the city
limits. Beyond was a beautiful undulating country of pastures and
wheat-fields, dotted frequently with fine country homes. The mills
were somewhat isolated from the general manufacturing settlement, but
had spurs of track that for practical purposes were much nearer the
main line of freight traffic than any of those manufacturing concerns
which posed as its rivals. It was a great quadrangle of brick, partly
surrounded by a prison-like wall. Within this wall was a court,
usually piled high with coke and coal and useless molds. The building
was, by turns, called foundry, mills and shops. The men who toiled
there called it the shops. Day and night, night and day, there was
clangor and rumbling and roaring and flashes of intense light. In the
daytime great volumes of smoke poured from the towering chimneys, and
at night flames shot up to the very walls of heaven, burnishing the
clouds.

The elder Bennington was one of those men who, with a firm standing on
the present, lay admirable plans for the future. He had been in no
great hurry to get rich. He went leisurely about it, tantalizing
fortune, it might be said. His first venture had shown foresight. At
the beginning of the Civil War he had secured an option on many
thousand tons of coal. Without taking an actual penny from his
pockets, he had netted a comfortable fortune. Again, his foresight
recognized that the day would come when the whole continent would gird
itself in steel. With his ready money he bought ground and built a
small mill. This prospered. He borrowed from the banks, and went on
building. Ten years passed. The property was unencumbered; he had paid
both interest and principal. He did not believe in stock-holders. He
sold no stock. Every nail, bolt and screw was his; every brick, stone
and beam. There were no directors to meddle with his plans, no