the accounts with you and prove it."

Whiffler himself, insolent, cowardly, and a humbug, if not a swindler, was
enough, Wade thought, to account for any failure. But he did not mention
this conviction.




CHAPTER III.

HOW TO BEHEAD A HYDRA!


At ten next morning, Whiffler handed over the safe-key to Wade, and
departed to ruin some other property, if he could get one to ruin. Wade
walked with him to the gate.

"I'm glad to be out of a sinking ship," said the ex-boss. "The Works will
go down, sure as shooting. And I think myself well out of the clutches of
these men. They're a bullying, swearing, drinking set of infernal
ruffians. Foremen are just as bad as hands. I never felt safe of my life
with 'em."

"A bad lot, are they?" mused Wade, as he returned to the office. "I must
give them a little sharp talk by way of Inaugural."

He had the bell tapped and the men called together in the main building.

Much work was still going on in an inefficient, unsystematic way.