on, until spires and towers and gray walls were massed in confusion, hung
a veil of smoke, like a black cloud, spreading away farther than eye could
see. This was Chicago.

Bannon climbed to the ground and took a last look about the work before
going to the office. The annex was growing slowly but surely; and
Peterson, coatless and hatless as usual, with sleeves rolled up, was at
work with the men, swinging a hammer here, impatiently shouldering a
bundle of planks there. And Bannon saw more clearly what he had known
before, that Peterson was a good man when kept within his limitations.
Certainly the annex could not have been better started.

When Bannon entered the office, Miss Vogel handed him a sheet of paper. He
came in through the gate and stood at the desk beside her to have the
light of the lamp. It was a balance sheet, giving the results of her
examination of the books.

"All right, eh?" he said. A glance had been enough to show him that
hereafter there would be no confusion in the books; the cashier of a
metropolitan bank could not have issued a more businesslike statement. He
tossed it on the desk, saying, "You might file it."

Then he took time to look about the office. It was as clean as blackened,
splintered planks could be made; even the ceiling had been attacked and
every trace of cobweb removed.

"Well," he said, "this is business. And we'll keep it this way, too."

She had faced about on the stool and was looking at him with a twinkle in
her eye.

"Yes," she said, evidently trying not to laugh; "we'll try to."

He was not looking at her as she spoke, but when, a moment later, the
laugh broke away from her, he turned. She was looking at his feet. He
glanced down and saw a row of black footprints leading from the door to
where he stood, one of them squarely in the centre of the new mat. He
gazed ruefully, then he reached into his pocket and drew out a quarter,
dropping it in the box.

"Well--" he said, wiping his feet; but the whistle just then gave a long
blast, and he did not finish the sentence.

After supper Bannon and Peterson sat in the room they occupied together.
In the walk home and during supper there had been the same sullen manner
about the younger man that Bannon had observed at noon. Half a day was a
long time for Peterson to keep to himself something that bothered him, and
before the close of dinner he had begun working the talk around. Now,
after a long silence, that Bannon fill