A newsboy had been on the grounds with a special edition of a cheap afternoon paper. Hilda had taken one, and when Bannon entered the office he found her reading, leaning forward on the desk, her chin on her hands, the paper spread out over the ledger. "Hello," he said, throwing off his dripping oilskin, and coming into the enclosure; "I'm pretty near ready to sit down and think about the Christmas tree that we ain't going to have." She looked up, and he saw that she was a little excited; her eyes always told him. During this last week she had been carrying the whole responsibility of the work on her shoulders. "Have you seen this?" she asked. "Haven't read a paper this week." He leaned over the desk beside her and read the article. In Duluth harbor, and at St. Mary's straits, a channel through the ice had been blasted out with dynamite, and the last laden steamer was now ploughing down Lake Michigan. Already one steamer was lying at the wharf by the marine tower, waiting for the machinery to start, and others lay behind her, farther down the river. Long strings of box cars filled the Belt Line sidings, ready to roll into the elevator at the word. Bannon seated himself on the railing, and caught his toes between the supports. "I'll tell you one thing," he said, "those fellows have got to get up pretty early in the morning if they're going to beat old Page." She looked at him, and then slowly folded the paper and turned toward the window. It was nearly dark outside. The rain, driving down from the northeast, tapped steadily on the glass. The arc lamp, on the pole near the tool house, was a blurred circle of light. She was thinking that they would have to get up pretty early to beat Charlie Bannon. They were silent for a time--silences were not so hard as they had been, a few weeks before--both looking out at the storm, and both thinking that this was Christmas night. On the afternoon before he had asked her to take a holiday, and she had shaken her head. "I couldn't--I'd be here before noon," was what she had said; and she had laughed a little at her own confession, and hurried away with Max. She turned and said, "Is it done--the belt gallery?" He nodded. "All done." "Well--" she smiled; and he nodded again. "The C. & S. C. man--the fellow that was around the other day and measured to see if it was high enough--he's out there looking up with his mouth open. He hasn't got much to say." "You didn't have to touch the tracks at all?" "Not once. Ran her out and bolted her together, and there she was. I'm about ready for my month off. We'll have the wheat coming in tomorrow, and then it's just walking down hill." "Tomorrow?" she asked. "Can you do it?"