“Young man,” he said, “blooms I made would hardly need blistering to be called steel.” “I'm Philip Grere,” the newcomer stated, “of Grere Brothers, and they're the Penn Rolling Mills. We want good blooms soon as possible and it seems there's almost none loose. If you can talk iron, immediate iron, let's get it on paper; if not, I have a long way to drive.” When he had gone Conrad Wishon sat staring, with mingled astonishment and admiration, at Hulings. “But,” he protested, “you don't know nothing about it!” “You do!” Alexander Hulings told him; he saw himself as a mind, of which Wishon formed the trained and powerful body. “Perhaps Jim will come back,” the elder man continued. “That is a possibility,” Alexander admitted. “But I am going to put every dollar I own into the chance of finishing those twenty-five tons.” The smith persisted: “But you don't know me; perhaps I'm a rascal and can't tell a puddling furnace from a chafery.” Hulings regarded him shrewdly. “Conrad,” he demanded, “can Tubal Cain do it?” “By Goff,” Wishon exclaimed, “she can!” After an hour of close calculation Conrad Wishon rose with surprising agility. “I've got enough to do besides sitting here. Tubal Cain ought to have twenty men, anyhow; perhaps I can get eight. There's Mathias Slough, a good hammerman. He broke an elbow at Charming, and Wooddrop won't have him back; but he can work still. Hance, a good nigger, is at my place, and there is another—Surrie. Haines Zer-bey, too, worked at refining, but you'll need to watch his rum. Perhaps Old Man Boeshore will lend a hand, and he's got a strapping grandson—Emanuel. Jeremiah Stell doesn't know much, but he'd let you cut a finger off for a dollar.” He shook his head gravely. “That is a middling poor collection.” Alexander Hulings felt capable of operating Tubal Cain successfully with a shift of blind paralytics. A conviction of power, of vast capability, possessed him. Suddenly he seemed to have become a part of the world that moved, of its creative energy; he was like a piece of machinery newly connected with the forceful driving whole. Conrad Wishon had promised to return the next day with the men he had enumerated, and Alexander opened the small scattered buildings about the forge. There were, he found, sufficient living provisions for eight or ten men out of a moldering quantity of primitive bed furnishings, rusted tin, and cracked glass. But it was fortunate that the days were steadily growing warmer.