rves along the river, men who
had been forbidden to come to the elevator till they were needed lest
they should be in the way, had been waiting days for that signal, and
they came streaming into the elevator almost before the blast had died
away.

Page's superintendent was standing beside Bannon and Pete by the foot of
the main drive. "Well," he said, "we're ready. Are you?"

Bannon nodded and turned to a laborer who stood near. "Go tell the
engineer to go ahead." The man, proud as though he had just been
promoted, went out on the run.

"Now," said Bannon, "here's where we go slow. All the machinery in the
house has got to be thrown in, one thing at a time, line shafts first
and then elevators and the rest of it. Pete, you see it done up top.
I'll look out for it down here. See that there's a man to look at each
bearing at least once in three minutes, and let me know if it gets
warm."

It took a long time to do it, but it had to be done, for Bannon was
inflexible, but at last everything in elevator, annex, and spouting
house that could turn was turning, and it was reported to Bannon. "Now,"
he said, "she's got to run light for fifteen minutes. No----" he went on
in answer to the superintendent's protest; "you're lucky I didn't say
two hours. It's the biggest chance I ever took as it is."

So while they stared at the second hands of their watches the minutes
crept away--Pete wound his watch up tight in the vain hope of making it
go a little faster--and at last Bannon turned with a nod to the
superintendent.

"All right," he said. "You're the boss now."

And then in a moment the straining hawsers were hauling cars up into the
house. The seals were broken, the doors rolled back, and the wheat came
pouring out. The shovellers clambered into the cars and the steam power
shovels helped the torrent along. It fell through the gratings, into
steel tanks, and then the tireless metal cups carried it up, up, up,
'way to the top of the building. And then it came tumbling down again;
down into garners, and down again into the great weighing hoppers, and
recognized and registered and marketable at last, part of the load that
was to bury the Clique that had braved it out of sight of all but their
creditors, it went streaming down the spouts into the bins.

The first of the barges in the river was moved down beside the spouting
house, her main hatch just opposite the tower. And now Pete, in charge
there, gave the word, and the