employes, but
he felt like adding to them. He meant to make the pay of O'Hara
greater than before, but changed his purpose at the last moment.

Had he added to the pay of his chief foreman it would have changed the
ratio between that and the wages of the others, unless theirs, too, was
increased. In that event, a reproof was likely to come from the
directors, and he would find it hard to retrace his steps.

Justice called for him to do just what he had done; it would be weak to
do more. "Hugh," said he, also rising to his feet, "I am not quite
through with you; I am now going to ask you to do _me_ a favor."

"I guess it's safe to promise in advance that I will do it--that is, of
course, if it be in my power to do it."

"It is in your power. Last night, when I was in the woods near your
cabin, I noticed a strange odor in the air; I could not imagine its
cause, but I know now what it was."

"What was it?" asked O'Hara, turning crimson.

"You and some of your friends have been illicitly making whiskey. You
have a distillery somewhere in the mountains, and, while working in the
mills during the day, you have taken turns in running the still at
night. I will not ask you to tell me how long you have been doing
this, but you know as well as I that it is a crime."

The two men were silent a moment and then Hugh, without any appearance
of agitation, said:

"You have spoken the truth; the still was not more than a hundred feet
from the cabin, and caused the smell you noticed."

"How could you three attend to it when you were in the cabin?"

"Some one was generally close by. The pipe that carried off the fumes
ran into the chimney of our cabin and mixed with the smoke. We took
turns in looking after it. Tom and I had been there earlier in the
evening, and Jack was to look in now and then against our coming back.
But," added Hugh, "you said you had a favor to ask of me."

"So I have; I ask you to destroy that still, root and branch, and never
take a hand in anything of the kind again."

"I cannot do that."

"Why not? You are engaged in breaking the laws of your country, for
which there is a severe penalty. Now that you will have steady work,
you cannot make the plea that would have been yours if the strike
continued. Why can't you do as I ask you to do?"

"Because it has already been done. After I got back to the cabin last
night, Tom and Jack and I went out and wound up the business. The worm
has bee