pushed his hat back on his head and came up beside her.

"How's it coming out?" he asked. "Do we know how much we're good for?"

She looked up, smiling.

"I think so. I'm nearly through. It's a little mixed in some places, but I
think everything has been entered."

"Can you drop it long enough to take a letter or so?"

"Oh, yes." She reached for her notebook, saying, with a nod toward the
table: "The mail is here."

Bannon went rapidly through the heap of letters and bills.

"There's nothing much," he said. "You needn't wait for me to open it after
this. You'll want to read everything to keep posted. These bills for
cribbing go to your brother, you know." There was one chair within the
enclosure; he brought it forward and sat down, tipping back against the
railing. "Well, I guess we may as well go ahead and tell the firm that
we're still moving around and drawing our salaries. To MacBride & Company,
Minneapolis, Gentlemen: Cribbing is now going up on elevator and annex. A
little over two feet remains to be done on the elevator beneath the
distributing floor. The timber is ready for framing the cupola. Two
hundred thousand feet of the Ledyard cribbing reached here by steamer last
night, and the balance will be down in a few days. Very truly yours,
MacBride & Company. That will do for them. Now, we'll write to Mr. Brown--
no, you needn't bother, though; I'll do that one myself. You might run off
the other and I'll sign it." He got up and moved his chair to the table.