Smith departed, to return a few minutes later, an apprehensive eye cast back at the trailing Hegner. "Now, Smith," said Jonathan, "what is your complaint?" "The boss he keeps damnin' me up an' down all the time," Smith explained. "An' this morning he slugs me--right here on the beak." He laid a gentle finger on the corpus delicti. "Hegner," inquired Jonathan, "why do you keep damning him up and down all the time? And why did you slug him on the beak?" "Because," Hegner grinned sheepishly, "his beak was the place most convenient." "This isn't a joking matter," Jonathan reminded him sharply. "So it ain't." Hegner turned a glance of contempt on Smith. "He's a bum an' a loafer, He won't learn an' he won't try to work. Why, Braun, who'd ought to be in bed instead of at a lathe, turns out half as much again as him. How can I jack the other men up if I let him lag behind? An' this morning I told him I'd had enough of his soldierin' an' what I thought he was good for. He hauled off with a steelson to crack me--but I beat him to it. That's all." Hegner blew tenderly on his knuckles. "Smith," said the judge, "what have you to say to that?" "'Tain't so. He's only huntin' an excuse to fire me an' give some one else my lathe." "So I am," Hegner put in grimly. "Some one who'll work an' who ain't an ex--" "Hegner, hold your tongue!" Jonathan turned to Smith. "I have to believe Hegner, because I've been watching you, Smith. I took you on here, as I told you at the time, not to do you a favor, but because I thought you were in earnest and would justify it. I was willing to be your friend. And you soldiered. You stole the time I paid you for, which is the same as stealing my money. And you stole something else--my trust--which is worth more to me than my money. But I suppose that is something you can't understand." "I un'erstan's when I ain't wanted," answered Smith, with an ugly laugh. "I'll git my time an' git out." Then Jonathan's trouble found voice in a sharp querulous outburst. "Yes, get your time. I'm tired keeping men who won't help themselves." Smith vanished, and his surly ugly face was only the reflection of the ugliness just then in his heart. "You, too, Hegner!" Jonathan turned blazing eyes on his foreman. "You've been drinking again, when you promised me--" "You ain't more disgusted than me." Big Hegner, ashamed, looked down at his feet. "But I couldn't help it. Honest, I couldn't. Everything's been goin' wrong here for a week." Jonathan's outburst ended as suddenly as it began. "I know," he said wearily. "I know." An hour later David, seeking Jonathan on a matter that was only a pretext, found him idle, elbows on the desk and head propped in his hands. Jonathan looked up listlessly. The matter disposed of, David ventured, uncertainly, because he had learned the last week to remember that he was an employee as well as a friend. "Mr. Radbourne, are you ill?" "No." "I'm afraid something's wrong."