luck--"

"And our eyes were open," intervened John Grier. "You push the brush and
use the chisel, don't you?" asked Tarboe in spite of himself with slight
scorn in his tone.

"I push the chisel and use the brush," answered Carnac, smilingly
correcting him.

"That's a good thing. Is it yours?" asked Tarboe, nodding and pointing
to the statue of the riverman. Carnac nodded. "Yes, I did that one day.
I'd like to do you, if you'd let me."

The young giant waved a brawny hand and laughed. He looked down at his
knee-boots, with their muddied soles, and then at the statue again on the
table. "I don't mind you're doing me. Turn about is fair play.

"I've done you out of your job." Then he added to the old man: "It's good
news I've got. I've made the contract with the French firm at our
price."

"At our price!" remarked the other with a grim smile. "For the lot?"

"Yes, for the lot, and I've made the contracts with the ships to carry
it."

"At our price?" again asked the old man. Tarboe nodded. "Just a little
better."

"I wouldn't have believed those two things could have been done in the