As they talked Jenks, the youngest member of the engineering force, entered. He entered like a whirlwind. He threw his hat on the floor and drew out a drawer of a cabinet. He pulled out the plans for the Colossus, big blue prints, some of them yards in extent, and threw them on the floor. Then he dropped to his knees and began poring over them. "This is a hell of a time for you to begin getting around," exploded Muller. "What were you doing, cabareting all night?" "It sure is terrible--awful," said Jenks, half to himself. "Answer me," thundered Muller. "Oh yes," said Jenks, looking up. He saw the look of anguish on his boss's face and forgot his own excitement in sympathy. He jumped to his feet, placed his arm about the shoulders of the older man and led him to a chair. Linane only scowled at the young man. "I was delayed because I stopped by to see the wreck. My God, Mr. Muller, it is awful." Jenks drew his hand across his eye as if to erase the scene of the wrecked building. Then patting the older man affectionately on the back he said: "Buck up. I'm on the job, as usual. I'll find out about it. It could not have been our fault. Why man, that building was as strong as Gibraltar itself!" "You were the last to inspect it," accused Muller, with a break in his voice. "Nobody knows that better than I, and I can swear by all that's square and honest that it was no fault of the material or the construction. It must have been--" "Must have been what?" "I'll be damned if I know." "That's like him," said Linane, who, while really kindly intentioned, had always rather enjoyed prodding the young engineer. "Like me, like the devil," shouted Jenks, glaring at Linane. "I suppose you know all about it, you're so blamed wise." "No, I don't know," admitted Linane. "But I do know that you don't like me to tell you anything. Nevertheless, I am going to tell you that you had better get busy and find out what caused it, or--" "That's just what I'm doing," said Jenks, and he dived for his plans on the floor. Newspaper reporters, many of them, were fighting outside to get in. Muller looked at Linane when a stenographer had announced the reporters for the tenth time. "We had better let them in," he said, "it looks bad to crawl for cover." "What are you going to tell them?" asked Linane. "God only knows," said Muller. "Let me handle them," said Jenks, looking up confidently. * * * * * The newspapermen had rushed the office. They came in like a wild wave. Questions flew like feathers at a cock-fight. Muller held up his hand and there was something in his grief-stricken eyes that held the gentlemen of the press in silence. They had time to look around. They saw the handsome, dark-haired, brown-eyed Jenks poring over the plans. Dust from the carpet smudged his knees, and he had rubbed some of it over a sweating forehead, but he still looked the picture of self-confident efficiency.