"I can excuse a man who has been drinking," interposed Ryder sharply; "and I cannot strike a cripple. But I advise you to have a care how you address me." Brack threw himself forward at him; but two of his friends held back the unsteady old fire-eater. "By gad, suh, I'd call you out for that if you were not such a dog, suh!" "I am not dog enough to run at every fool's call," responded Ryder. And then he ignored the sputtering Brack, turning to the remainder of the party: "Gentlemen, I shall see that you make no raid on these supplies I have secured. They are my private property and I shall do with them as I see fit." "My goodness, man! you don't intend to freeze us out completely, do you?" gasped Jimson, whose wife was an invalid. "I shall distribute them as I choose and under such terms as I see fit," Ryder repeated calmly. "The steward is to have direct control of them. Within the next hour, and before the electric lights are put out, the matter will all be arranged. "None of you at first wished to take any financial responsibility for the good of the general herd. I took that responsibility. Why should I not reap my proper reward?" and he smiled at them grimly. Then he shut the door of the office in their faces and consulted with the steward again. "How many of the help will stay?" he asked. "Perhaps half, sir. Some of the guests' private servants--the maids and valets--have gone already with the others on that train. There are drafts being made on George and me for some of the maids and waiters----" "Cut that off. Refuse everybody," advised Ryder. "These people will have to get along without such personal service for the present. They should know that without explanation. You need every man and woman you've got on your roster, don't you?" "Why, sir, I don't see how we shall get along at all with so few in the morning." "So I thought. Now, follow out my instructions to the letter in the matter of the placing of the oil lamps. Send the porters around through the corridors to screw up the brackets for the bracket lamps. There are more than four dozen of those. We'll decide about the stoves later. It is not getting very cold out of doors, and nobody will suffer much before bedtime." He left the steward's room and went back to the office, ignoring the men who stood about and looked at him as though he were a dog in a strange town. As he walked down the long corridor and came in sight of the stairway he observed Ruth standing at the foot of the flight. Half the men in the foyer had turned to look at her, and Ryder saw her color and shrink toward the curtained entrance of the dining-room. Ryder did not wonder that the other guests stared at her. This did not fan any foolish jealousy into flame. It was because she was so very, very beautiful that she attracted attention. If she had been attractive in the traveling dress she had worn at dinner, this gray and pink costume enhanced her beauty marvelously.