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 luck," she beamed, and thrust out a cordial encouraging hand to him.

Henry watched her departure with tingling sensations of joy and pride. "I'll show her," he chuckled. "I'll show her!" But to Scanlon, "I didn't get the deed," he confessed with a glum smile, holding up empty hands.

"The hell!" ejaculated Scanlon, and by his expression revealed both what a calamity it would be for the Boland Cedar Company not to get the island and what a calamity it would be for Harrington to have failed in his first commission from J. B. "Darn stubborn lot, these Siwashes," he frowned, when Henry had completed his explanation. "What are you going to do now?"

"Let the Indian sleep on it. Then in the morning I'm going to Quackenbaugh for authority to pay more."

"That's the thing," said Scanlon, "we don't want to have just to kick him off. Finesse first is the Old Man's motto."

"And always, of course," appreciated Henry. "In this instance there's no way you could force him off. The man's got a U. S. patent." If at this moment the Chief Fixer looked upon his newest aide as a babe in his innocence, he veiled the fact; in part perhaps because such innocence made him more serviceable.

Next morning Harrington reported to Quackenbaugh, a most impatient person, ascetic in appearance, and more autocratic in manner than Old Two Blades himself.

"Offer him ten—offer him twenty thousand," directed Quackenbaugh with emphasis, "and close with him