you can, strike the biggest man who will
let you in his office. It's the small fry that make the trouble. I guess
that's true 'most everywhere. I know the general manager of a railroad is
always an easier chap to get on with than the division superintendent."

"Well," said Pete, after waiting a moment to see if Bannon had any
definite suggestion to make as to the best way to deal with Grady, "I'm
glad you don't think he'll try to tie us up tonight. Maybe we'll think of
something tomorrow. I've got to get back on the job."

"I'll go up with you," said Max, promptly. Then, in answer to Hilda's
gesture of protest, "You don't want to climb away up there tonight. I'll
be back in ten minutes," and he was gone before she could reply. "I guess
I can take care of you till he comes back," said Bannon. Hilda made no
answer. She seemed to think that silence would conceal her annoyance
better than anything she could say. So, after waiting a moment, Bannon
went on talking.

"I suppose that's the reason why I get ugly sometimes and call names;
because I ain't a big enough man not to. If I was getting twenty-five
thousand a year maybe I'd be as smooth as anybody. I'd like to be a
general manager for a while, just to see how it would work."

"I don't see how anybody could ever know enough to run a railroad." Hilda
was looking up at the C. & S. C. right of way, where red and white
semaphore lights were winking.

"I was offered that job once myself, though, and turned it down," said
Bannon. "I was superintendent of the electric light plant at Yawger.
Yawger's quite a place, on a branch of the G.T. There was another road ran
through the town, called the Bemis, Yawger and Pacific. It went from Bemis
to Stiles Corners, a place about six miles west of Yawger. It didn't get
any nearer the Pacific than that. Nobody in Yawger ever went to Bemis or
Stiles, and there wasn't anybody in Bemis and Stiles to come to Yawger, or
if they did come they never went back, so the road didn't do a great deal
of business. They assessed the stock every year to pay the officers'
salaries--and they had a full line of officers, too--but the rest of the
road had to scrub along the best it could.

"When they elected me alderman from the first ward up at Yawger, I found
out that the B.Y.&P. owed the city four hundred and thirty dollars, so I
tried to find out why they wasn't made to pay. It seemed that the city had
had a judgment against them for years, but they