n
came through, stumbling and staggering under a long ten-by-twelve
timber, which they were carrying on their shoulders. Bannon looked
sharply; the first, a big, deep-chested man, bare-headed and in his
shirt sleeves, was Peterson.

Bannon started forward, when Max, who had been hurrying over to him,
touched his arm.

"What's all this, Max?"

"I'm glad you've come. It's Grady, the walking delegate--that's him over
there where those men are standing, the little fellow with his hat on
one side--he's been here for ten minutes."

"Speak quick. What's the trouble?"

"First he wanted to know how much we were paying the men for night work,
and I told him. Thought I might as well be civil to him. Then he said
we'd got to take Briggs back, and I told him Briggs wasn't a union man,
and he hadn't anything to say about it. He and Briggs seemed to know
each other. Finally he came out here on the job and said we were working
the men too hard--said we'd have to put ten men on the heavy sticks and
eight on the others. I was going to do it, but Peterson came up and said
he wouldn't do it, and Grady called the men off, just where they were.
He wouldn't let 'em lift a finger. You see there's timber all over the
tracks. Then Pete got mad, and said him and Donnelly could bring a
twenty-foot stick over alone, and it was all rot about putting on more
men. Here they come--just look at Pete's arms! He could lift a house."

Some of the men were laughing, others growling, but all had their eyes
fixed on Peterson and Donnelly as they came across the tracks, slowly
picking their way, and shifting the weight a little, at every few
seconds, on their shoulders. Bannon was glancing swiftly about, taking
in the situation. He would not imperil his discipline by reproving
Peterson before the men, so he stood for a moment, thinking, until the
task should be accomplished.

"It's Briggs that did the whole business," Max was saying. "He brought
the delegate around--he was blowing about it among the men when I found
him."

"Is he on the job now?" Bannon asked.

"No, and I don't think he'll be around again very soon. There were some
loafers with him, and they took him away."

Peterson and Donnelly had disappeared through the fence, and a few of
the crowd were following, to see them get the timber clear around the
building to the pile.

"Have you sent out flagmen, Max?" Bannon asked.

"No, I didn't."

"Get at it quick--send a man each way with