The man was smiling as he moved toward the door. "Oh, Tom, just a moment." Still smiling, the man turned back. "I want you to meet my sister. Helen, may I present Mr. Conway? Tom is one of our Mill family, you know, mighty important member, too--regular shark at figuring all sorts of complicated calculations that I couldn't work out in a month of Sundays." He laughed with boyish happiness and pride in Tom's superior accomplishments. It was a simple little incident, but there was something in it somewhere that moved Helen Ward strangely. A spirit that was new to her seemed to fill the room. She felt it as one may feel the bigness of the mountains or sense the vast reaches of the ocean. These two men, employer and employee, were in no way conscious of their relationship as she understood it. Tom did not appear to realize that he was working _for_ John--he seemed rather to feel that he was working _with_ John. When the man was gone, she asked again, timidly, "Are you sure, brother, that I am not in the way?" "Forget it!" he cried. "Tell me what I can do for you." "I want to see the Mill," she answered. John did not apparently quite understand her request. "You want to see the Mill?" he repeated. She nodded eagerly. "I want to see it all--not just the office but where the men work--everything." She laughed at his bewildered expression as the sincerity of her wish dawned upon him. "But what in the world"--he began--"why this sudden interest in the Mill, Helen?" Half teasing, half laughing, she answered, "You didn't really think, did you, John, that I would forget everything you said to me at the old house?" "No," he said, doubtfully. "At least, I suppose I didn't. But, honestly, I didn't think that I had made much of an impression." She made a little gesture of helpless resignation. "Here I am just the same and so much interested already that I can't tear myself away. Come on, let's start--that is, if you really have the time to take me." Time to take her! John Ward would have lost the largest contract he had ever dreamed of securing rather than miss taking Helen through the Mill. * * * * * With an old linen duster, which had hung in the office closet since Adam Ward's day, to cover her from chin to shoes, and a cap that John himself often wore about the plant, to replace her hat, they set out. Helen's first impression, as she stood just inside the door to the big main room of the plant, was fear. To her gentle eyes the scene was one of terrifying confusion and unspeakable dangers.