DAN
The shrill whistle that at noon had obtruded its discord into Nance Molloy"s thoughts had a very different effect on Dan Lewis, washing his hands under the hydrant in the factory yard. _He_ had not forgotten that it was Sat.u.r.day. Neither had Growler, who stood watching him with an oblique look in his old eye that said as plain as words that he knew what momentous business was brewing at five o"clock.
It was not only Sat.u.r.day for Dan, but the most important Sat.u.r.day that ever figured on the calendar. In his heroic efforts to conform to Mrs.
Purdy"s standard of perfection he had studied the advice to young men in the "Sunday Echo." There he learned that no gentleman would think of mentioning love to a young lady until he was in a position to marry her.
To-day"s pay envelope would hold the exact amount to bring his bank account up to the three imposing figures that he had decided on as the minimum sum to be put away.
As he was drying his hands on his handkerchief and whistling softly under his breath, he was summoned to the office.
For the past year he had been a self-const.i.tuted buffer between Mr.
Clarke and the men in the furnace-room, and he wondered anxiously what new complication had arisen.
"He"s got an awful grouch on," warned the stenographer as Dan pa.s.sed through the outer office.
Mr. Clarke was sitting at his desk, tapping his foot impatiently.
"Well, Lewis," he said, "you"ve taken your time! Sit down. I want to talk to you."
Dan dropped into the chair opposite and waited.
"Is it true that you have been doing most of the new foreman"s work for the past month?"
"Well, I"ve helped him some. You see, being here so long, I know the ropes a bit better than he does."
"That"s not the point. I ought to have known sooner that he could not handle the job. I fired him this morning, and we"ve got to make some temporary arrangement until a new man is installed."
Dan"s face grew grave.
"We can manage everything but the finishing room. Some of the girls have been threatening to quit."
"What"s the grievance now?"
"Same thing--ventilation. Two more girls fainted there this morning. The air is something terrible."
"What do they think I am running?" demanded Mr. Clarke, angrily, "a health resort?"
"No, sir," said Dan, "a death trap."
Mr. Clarke set his jaw and glared at Dan, but he said nothing. The doctor"s recent verdict on the death of a certain one-eyed girl, named Mag Gist, may have had something to do with his silence.
"How many girls are in that room now?" he asked after a long pause.
Dan gave the number, together with several other disturbing facts concerning the sanitary arrangements.
"Well, what"s to be done?" demanded Mr. Clarke, fiercely. "We can"t get out the work with fewer girls, and there is no way of enlarging that room."
"Yes, sir, there is," said Dan. "Would you mind me showing you a way?"
"Since you are so full of advice, go ahead."
With crude, but sure, pencil strokes, Dan got his ideas on paper. He had done it so often for his own satisfaction that he could have made them with his eyes shut. Ever since those early days when he had seen that room through Nance Molloy"s eyes, he had persisted in his efforts to better it.
Mr. Clarke, with his fingers thrust through his scanty hair, watched him scornfully.
"Absolutely impractical," he declared. "The only feasible plan would be to take out the north part.i.tion and build an extension like this."
"That couldn"t be done," said Dan, "on account of the projection."
Whereupon, such is the power of opposition, Mr. Clarke set himself to prove that it could. For over an hour they wrangled, going into the questions of cost, of time, of heating, of ventilation, scarcely looking up from the plans until a figure in a checked suit flung open the door, letting in a draught of air that scattered the papers on the desk.
"h.e.l.lo, Dad," said the new-comer, with a friendly nod to Dan, "I"m sorry to disturb you, but I only have a minute."
"Which I should accept gratefully, I suppose, as my share of your busy day?" Mr. Clarke tried to look severe, but his eyes softened.
"Well, I just got up," said Mac, with an ingratiating smile, as he smoothed back his shining hair before the mirror in the hat-rack.
"Running all night, and sleeping half the day!" grumbled Mr. Clarke. "By the way, what time did you get in last night?"
Mac made a wry face.
"_Et tu, Brute?_" he cried gaily. "Mother"s polished me off on that score. I have not come here to discuss the waywardness of your prodigal son. Mr. Clarke, I have come to talk high finance. I desire to negotiate a loan."
"As usual," growled his father. "I venture to say that Dan Lewis here, who earns about half what you waste a year, has something put away."
"But Dan"s the original grinder. He always had an eye for business. Used to win my nickel every Sunday when we shot c.r.a.ps in the alley back of the cathedral. Say, Dan, I see you"ve still got that handsome thoroughbred cur of yours! By George, that dog could use his tail for a jumping rope!"
Dan smiled; he couldn"t afford to be sensitive about Growler"s beauty.
"Is that all, Mr. Clarke?" he asked of his employer.
"Yes. I"ll see what can be done with these plans. In the meanwhile you try to keep the girls satisfied until the new foreman comes. By the way I expect you"d better stay on here to-night."
Dan paused with his hand on the door-k.n.o.b. "Yes, sir," he said in evident embarra.s.sment, "but if you don"t mind--I "d like to get off for a couple of hours this afternoon."
"Who"s the girl, Dan?" asked Mac, but Dan did not stop to answer.
As he hurried down the hall, a boy appeared from around the corner and beckoned to him with a mysterious grin.
"Somebody"s waiting for you down in the yard."
"Who is he?"
""T ain"t a he. It"s the prettiest girl you ever seen!"
Dan, whose thoughts for weeks had been completely filled with one feminine image, sprang to the window. But the tall, stylish person enveloped in a white veil, who was waiting below, in no remote way suggested Nance Molloy.
A call from a lady was a new experience, and a lively curiosity seized him as he descended the steps, turning down his shirt sleeves as he went.