differently; "we need all
the strike-breakers we can get."

Quin's face fell. "I don't know about that," he said slowly. "I haven't
made up my mind yet about this union business."

"I thought you were helping the union men in the yard just now."

"I was helping that little Irishman that was getting the life choked out
of him."

Mr. Bangs's mouth became a hard, straight line.

"Then I take it you sympathize with the strikers?"

"I don't know whether I do or not," Quin declared stoutly. "I don't know
anything about it. But one thing's certain--I'm not going to take another
fellow's job, when he's holding out for better conditions, until I know
whether those better conditions are due him or not."

Mr. Bangs's fish eyes regarded him with glittering disfavor.

"Perhaps you would prefer an office job?" he suggested with cold
insolence. "I need some one to brush out in the morning and to wash
windows when necessary."

The erstwhile hero of the Sixth Field Artillery felt his heart thumping
madly under his distinguished-conduct medal; but he had declared that he
would accept any kind of work, and he was determined not to have his
bluff called.

"All right, sir," he said gamely; "I'll start at that if it will lead to
something better."

"That rests entirely with you," said Mr. Bangs. "Report for work in the
morning."

Quin got out of the office with a hot head, cold hands, and a terrible
sinking of the heart. He had forged the first link in his chain--he was
an employee of the great Bartlett & Bangs Company; but the gap between
himself and Eleanor seemed suddenly to have widened to infinity.

CHAPTER 10

If the window-washing did not become an actuality, it was due to the
weather rather than to any clemency on the part of Mr. Bangs. He seemed
bent upon testing Quin's mettle, and required tasks of him that only a
man used to the discipline of the army would have performed.

Quin, on his part, carried out instructions with a thoroughness and
dispatch that upset the entire office force. He had been told to clean
things up, and he took an unholy joy in interpreting the order in
military terms. Never before had there been such a drastic overhauling of
the premises. He did not stop at cleaning up; he insisted upon things
being kept clean and orderly. In a short time he had instituted reforms
that broke the traditions of half a century.

"Who moved my desk out like this?" thunder