ay."

"Ahem!" Morton cleared his throat to disguise the laugh that would come.
"Yes. I've known a good many strikes that were won in that same way."

Carrington, who had been ruminating with a puzzled face, now voiced his
difficulty.

"To save my life," he exclaimed to Morton, "I don't see how Hamilton can
pay the old wages, and deliver boxes at eleven cents. I couldn't do it!"

"Why, you see, that's just it," Cicily declared blithely, still
following her inspiration with blind faith. "We're not going to deliver
boxes at eleven cents."

At this amazing statement, the two men first regarded their hostess in
sheer astonishment, then stared at each other as if in search of a clue
to the mystery in her words. The entrance of a maid with the tea-tray
afforded a brief diversion, as Cicily rose and seated herself at the
table, where she busied herself in preparing the three cups. When this
was accomplished, and the guests had received each his portion,
Carrington at once reverted to the announcement that had so bewildered
him.

"You say, you're not going to deliver boxes for eleven cents?" he said,
tentatively.

"No," Cicily replied earnestly, without the slightest hesitation; "we're
going to sell to the independents at fifteen. We've gone in with them,
now." She felt a grim secret delight as she observed the unmistakable
confusion with which her news was received by the two men before her.

"You say you've gone in with the independents?" Carrington repeated,
helplessly. His mouth hung open in indication of the turmoil in his
wits as he waited for her reply.

"Yes, that's it!" Cicily reiterated, with an inflection of surpassing
gladness over the event. "Oh, it does make me so happy, because now, you
see, we can all be genuinely friendly together. We're not competitors
any more."

But now, at last, Morton's temper overcame his caution. He turned to
Carrington with a frown that made his satellite quake; but the
fierceness of it was not for that miserable victim of his machinations:
it was undoubtedly for Hamilton, who, according to the wife's
revelations, dared pit himself against the trust by violating his
contracts with it.

"We'll see Meyers about this," Morton declared, savagely. "So, he'd go
in with the independents, would he? Well, let him try it on--that's
all!"

Cicily stared from one to the other of the two men, with her golden eyes
wide and frightened.

"Oh," she stammered nervously, "did I--have I sa