Potter hung up the receiver and arose from his desk to walk out into the
shop. His office was not where it had been, in the administration wing,
but occupied a corner of the shop itself. He had kept his promise to the
men, and worked side by side with them, surrounded by shafting and belts,
by lathes and planers and shapers, and the scraping, clanking, grinding
roar of machines that turned out daily more and more work for the
government. He glanced about him and was proud. Everywhere were units of
motors, parts in all degrees of completion. At last production had
commenced on such a scale as he had dreamed of, and now only weeks must
elapse before he was turning over to the government a steady flow of
motors that would continue day in and day out so long as the war demanded
them. It was accomplishment.
From the day he had spoken to the men from the platform of a gray-painted
army truck the work had seemed to leap ahead. The men had put in as their
share something more than mere wage-earning labor. They had added to it
enthusiasm. The spirit with which they worked day after day was splendid,
and Potter made it no small part of his duty to see that it did not die
out.
There were still annoyances, delays, petty mishaps. The campaign of
sabotage had not ceased, but it had been checked, for Potter had now to
depend upon an army of watchful, eager eyes, the eyes of every honest
working-man, and not the few guardians set by the Signal Corps.... But
Potter was not satisfied nor at rest. His foreboding grew as his efforts
to lay hands upon the source of the trouble proved futile. He believed
something was in preparation, that some blasting catastrophe was being
planned and made ready ... which he seemed helpless to avert.
Like all his other days, this one passed too quickly. There were many
times when he would have wished to be a Joshua. The machinery went to
rest, the army of men filed out noisily, and Potter closed his door for
the night. He drove home through the coolly pleasant December air and
dressed. At seven o'clock he entered the lobby of the Tuller, where La
Mothe stepped forward to greet him.
"The gang's here," he said. "Let's make for the scene of the slaughter."
There were twelve of them, young men all, not one of whom but carried a
name which stood for wealth achieved or personal success. But it was a
dozen which could be duplicated more than once in highflying Detroit. They
moved in holiday spirit to the private dining-room to which La Mothe
directed them, and found their places around a long, flower-laden table.
The flowers heaped upon that linen had taken from La Mothe's pocketbook a
sum which would have kept a large family in comfort for a month.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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