heard you drawed a gun on that fellow,
Reilly. What was he doing to make you mad?"

"Nothing much."

"Well, I'm glad you fired him. He's made trouble right along. How'd it
happen you had a gun with you? Do you always carry one?"

"Haven't been without one on a job since I've worked for the old man."

"Well," said Pete, straightening up, "I've never so much as owned one,
and I never want to. I don't like 'em. If my fists ain't good enough to
take care of me against any fellow that comes along, why, he's welcome
to lick me, that's all."

Hilda glanced at him, and for a moment her eyes rested on his figure.
There was not a line of it but showed grace and strength and a
magnificent confidence. Then, as if for the contrast, she looked at
Bannon. He had been watching her all the while, and he seemed to guess
her thought.

"That's all right," he said in answer to Peterson, "when it's just you
and him and a fellow to hold your coats. But it don't always begin that
way. I've been in places where things got pretty miscellaneous
sometimes, but I never had a man come up and say: 'Mr. Bannon, I'm going
to lick you. Any time when you're ready,' There's generally from three
to thirty, and they all try to get on your back."

Peterson laughed reminiscently. "I was an attendant in the insane ward
of the Massachusetts General Hospital for a while, and one time when I
wasn't looking for it, twenty-four of those lunatics all jumped on me at
once. They got me on the floor and 'most killed me." He paused, as
though there was nothing more to tell.

"Don't stop there," said Max.

"Why," he went on, "I crawled along the floor till I got to a chair, and
I just knocked 'em around with that till they was quiet."

Bannon looked at his watch; then he took Brown's letter from his pocket.
"It's from the office," he said. "We've got to have the bins full before
New Year's Day."

"Got to!" exclaimed Pete. "I don't see it that way. We can't do it."

"Can or can't, that don't interest MacBride a bit. He says it's got to
be done and it has."

"Why, he can't expect us to do it. He didn't say anything about January
first to me. _I_ didn't know it was a rush job. And then we played in
hard luck, too, before you came. That cribbing being tied up, for
instance. He certainly can't blame us if----"

"That's got nothing to do with it," Bannon cut in shortly. "He don't pay
us to make excuses; he pays us to do as we're told. When I have to begin
ex