e by running the mail out and in."

"Daylight," she murmured, in tender protest.

But with a sudden well-assumed ebullition of spirits he drew her toward
the dancing-floor, and as they swung around and around in a waltz she
pondered on the iron heart of the man who held her in his arms and
resisted all her wiles.

At six the next morning, scorching with whiskey, yet ever himself, he
stood at the bar putting every man's hand down. The way of it was that
two men faced each other across a corner, their right elbows resting on
the bar, their right hands gripped together, while each strove to press
the other's hand down. Man after man came against him, but no man put
his hand down, even Olaf Henderson and French Louis failing despite
their hugeness. When they contended it was a trick, a trained muscular
knack, he challenged them to another test.

"Look here, you-all" he cried. "I'm going to do two things: first,
weigh my sack; and second, bet it that after you-all have lifted clean
from the floor all the sacks of flour you-all are able, I'll put on two
more sacks and lift the whole caboodle clean."

"By Gar! Ah take dat!" French Louis rumbled above the cheers.

"Hold on!" Olaf Henderson cried. "I ban yust as good as you, Louis. I
yump half that bet."

Put on the scales, Daylight's sack was found to balance an even four
hundred dollars, and Louis and Olaf divided the bet between them.
Fifty-pound sacks of flour were brought in from MacDonald's cache.
Other men tested their strength first. They straddled on two chairs,
the flour sacks beneath them on the floor and held together by
rope-lashings. Many of the men were able, in this manner, to lift four
or five hundred pounds, while some succeeded with as high as six
hundred. Then the two giants took a hand, tying at seven hundred.
French Louis then added another sack, and swung seven hundred and fifty
clear. Olaf duplicated the performance, whereupon both failed to clear
eight hundred. Again and again they strove, their foreheads beaded
with sweat, their frames crackling with the effort. Both were able to
shift the weight and to bump it, but clear the floor with it they could
not.

"By Gar! Daylight, dis tam you mek one beeg meestake," French Louis
said, straightening up and stepping down from the chairs. "Only one
damn iron man can do dat. One hundred pun' more--my frien', not ten
poun' more." The sacks were unlashed, but when two sacks were added,
Kearns