quietly.

"I'll have no back talk from you, you sulky dough-face," roared Lathrop.
"Get to hell out of here. Go to the office and get your time."

Robinson knew better than to protest. He even hesitated to go to the
superintendent, but finally decided to do so.

"It's a shame, Robinson," admitted the superintendent, "but Joe is an
awfully good man when he is right, as you know, and as long as we keep him
in our service we have to stand behind him in order to maintain
discipline." And so Robinson walked out with half a week's pay in his
pocket.

THE BEGINNING OF LOSSES

Let us estimate roughly what Joe Lathrop's "one li'l' drink" and his
suspicious jealousy cost the piano company.

Of course, his first cost was the loss of time in the finishing room
while Robinson's place stood empty. It is fair to suppose that the company
was making some profit on Robinson. It, therefore, lost the profit of
those two days. Besides this, the machinery and the equipment Robinson
operated stood still for two days eating up, in the meantime, interest on
investment, rental of floor space, depreciation, light, heat, and all
other overhead charges that it ought to have been making products to pay.
In addition to all the overhead charges, the machinery ought also to have
been making a profit for the piano company.

But there were other losses. Robinson's absence disorganized the shop
routine. There were delays, conflicts, piano parts piled up in one end of
the room while other departments clamored for finished frames at the other
end of the room. Then, at least one-half a day of Joe Lathrop's valuable
time went to waste while he was out trying to find some one to fill
Robinson's place. His first attempt was made at the gate of the factory,
where the sea of the unemployed threw up its flotsam and jetsam. But
finishing piano frames is rather a fine job and none of the willing and
eager applicants there could fill the bill. Joe then made the round of two
or three employment agencies who had helped him out in previous similar
emergencies. This time, however, they seemed to be without resource, so
far as he was concerned. Being in considerable perspiration and
desperation by this time, he was probably gladder than he ought to have
been to receive a summons to appear at the court of Terrence Mulvaney.
Terrence, who sat in judgment in the back room of his own beverage
emporium, the place where Lathrop secured his "li'l' drinks," had heard,