e square of carpet up to
the house that I'm going to get for the bottom, and we can run pieces of
half-inch rope from the rings up to a hook, and sling it right on the
hoist."

"It's not going on the hoist," said Bannon. "I wouldn't stop the timbers
for Mr. MacBride himself. When you go back, you'll see a timber on the
top of the well. I'd like you to sling a block under it and run an
inch-and-a-quarter rope through. We'll haul it up from below."

"What power?"

"Man power."

"All right, Mr. Bannon. I'll see to it. There's Hilda now."

He called to her to wait while he got his coat, and then the two
disappeared across the tracks. Hilda had bowed to Bannon, but without
the smile and the nod that he liked. He looked after her as if he would
follow; but he changed his mind, and waited a few minutes.

The "elevator" was ready soon after the afternoon's work had commenced.
Bannon found time between two and three o'clock to inspect the tackle.
He picked up an end of rope and lashed the cross timber down securely.
Then he went down the ladders and found Max, who had brought the carpet
for the box and was looking over his work. The rope led up to the top of
the well through a pulley and then back to the working floor and through
another pulley, so that the box could be hoisted from below.

"It's all ready," said Max. "It'll run up as smooth as you want."

"You'd better go for your sister, then," Bannon replied.

Max hesitated.

"You meant for me to bring her?"

"Yes, I guess you might as well."

Bannon stood looking after Max as he walked along the railroad track out
into the open air. Then he glanced up between the smooth walls of
cribbing that seemed to draw closer and closer together until they
ended, far overhead, in a rectangle of blue sky. The beam across the top
was a black line against the light. The rope, hanging from it, swayed
lazily. He walked around the box, examining the rings and the four
corner ropes, and testing them.

Hilda was laughing when she came with Max along the track. Bannon could
not see her at first for the intervening rows of timbers that supported
the bins. Then she came into view through an opening between two "bents"
of timber, beyond a heap of rubbish that had been thrown at one side of
the track. She was trying to walk on the rail, one arm thrown out to
balance, the other resting across Max's shoulders. Her jacket was
buttoned snugly up to the chin, and there was a fresh color i