began inquiring of various foremen if they had seen anything of
Charlie Bannon. By nine he was avowedly worried lest something had gone
wrong with him, and a little after ten Max set out for the boarding
house.

Encountering the landlady in the hall, he made the mistake of asking her
if she had seen anything of Mr. Bannon that morning. She had some
elementary notions of strategy, derived, doubtless, from experience, and
before beginning her reply, she blocked the narrow stairway with her
broad person. Then, beginning with a discussion of Mr. Bannon's
excellent moral character and his most imprudent habits, and
illustrating by anecdotes of various other boarders she had had at one
time and another, she led up to the statement that she had seen nothing
of him since the night before, and that she had twice knocked at his
door without getting any reply.

Max, who had laughed a little at Pete's alarm, was now pretty well
frightened himself, but at that instant they heard the thud of bare feet
on the floor just above them. "That's him now," said the landlady,
thoughtlessly turning sideways, and Max bolted past her and up the
stairs.

He knocked at the door and called out to know if he could come in. The
growl he heard in reply meant invitation as much as it meant anything,
so he went in. Bannon, already in his shirt and trousers, stood with his
back to the door, his face in the washbowl. As he scoured he sputtered.
Max could make little out of it, for Bannon's face was under water half
the time, but he caught such phrases as "Pete's darned foolishness,"
"College boy trick," "Lie abed all the morning," and "Better get an
alarm clock"--which thing and the need for it Bannon greatly
despised--and he reached the conclusion that the matter was nothing more
serious than that Bannon had overslept.

But the boss took it seriously enough. Indeed, he seemed deeply
humiliated, and he marched back to the elevator beside Max without
saying a word until just as they were crossing the Belt Line tracks,
when the explanation of the phenomenon came to him.

"I know where I get it from," he exclaimed, as if in some measure
relieved by the discovery. "I must take after my uncle. He was the
greatest fellow to sleep you ever saw."

So far as pace was concerned that day was like the others; while the men
were human it could be no faster; with Bannon on the job it could not
flag; but there was this difference, that to-day the stupidest sweep