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164 "They can't be shipping them anywhere," he said to himself. "Perhaps they are only transferring them to some storehouse attached to the factory."

The shippers were very slow in their work, and it was nearly five o'clock before the two trucks were loaded and ready to be sent off.

"I have half a mind to follow those trucks and learn where the batteries are taken," Franklin went on to himself, as the drivers, after consulting the head shipping clerk, mounted to their seats and took up the reins. "Mr. Brice wanted me to learn all I could, and I can't think of anything else to do to-day. It's almost quitting time."

With a snap of his whip, one of the truck drivers began to start up his horses. The load was a heavy one, and the shoes of the animals slipped time and again on the smooth stones, with which the factory yard was paved.

"Git up there, consarn you!" cried the truckman, savagely. "Git up, I say, or I'll take the hide clean off of you!"

And standing on his seat, he brought down the whip with all force on the back of first one horse and then the other.

The horses tried their best, but could not budge the truck, and seeing this, the truckman grew more savage than ever, and lashed the poor brutes right and left with his heavy whip.