class; so, as Dyce said to Dyce's dying brother, "Thank God you was blowed up an' say no more about it, Hank." There was, curiously enough, little animosity against the Collector of the Porte among the quarrymen. When June brought the great shark back to the Porte, they welcomed him with sticks of dynamite, but nevertheless a weird sense of proprietorship, of exclusive right in the biggest shark on the coast, aroused in the quarrymen a sentiment almost akin to pride. Between the shark and the men existed an uncanny comradeship, curiously in evidence when the Company's imported shark-destroyers appeared at the Porte. "G'wan now," observed Farrely," an' divil a shark ye'll get in the wather, me bucks! Is it sharks ye'll harpoon? Sure th' Company's full o' thim." The shark-catchers, harpoons, bombs, and hooks, retired after a month's useless worrying, and the men jeered them as they embarked on the gravel train. "Dhrop a dynamite shtick on the nob av his nibs!" shouted Farrely after them-meaning the president of the Company. The next day, little Cæsar l'Hommedieu, indulging in his semi-annual bath, was appreciated and accepted by the Collector of the Porte, and his name was added to the unpensioned roll in the office of the Company's superintendent, Francis Lee. slid the safe into the water-fifty-eight feet sheer at low tide." Lee, pale about the lips, said quietly: "Rig a derrick on the dump-dock, and tell Kinny to get his diving kit ready by three o'clock. Finn and Dyce exchanged glances. "Kinny, he went to Bangor last night to see about them new drills," said Finn, defiantly. "Who sent him?" asked Lee, angrily. "Oh, you did, eh?" "I thought you wanted them drills," repeated Finn. glanced at a pair of heavy Coll's revolvers lying there, cocked and loaded. Helen Pine, sitting alone in her room, copied the roll, made out the duplicate, erased little Cæsar's name from the pay-roll, computed the total back pay due him, and made out an order on the Company for $10.39. Then she rose, stepped quietly into Lee's office, which adjoined her own room, and silently handed him the order. Lee was busy, and motioned her to be seated. Dyce and Finn, hats in hand, looked obliquely at her as she seated herself and leaned on the window-ledge, face turned towards the sea. She heard Lee say: "Go on, Finn;" and Finn began again in his smooth, plausible voice: "I opened the safe on a flat-car, an' God knows who uncoupled the flat. Then Dyce signalled go ahead, but Henderson he sez Dyce signalled to back her up, an' the first I see was that flat hangin' over the dumpdock. Then she tipped up like a seesaw, an' Lee's eyes turned from Finn to Dyce. There was, in the sullen faces before him, something that he had never before seen, something worse than sinister. He recognized it instantly. The next moment he said pleasantly: "Well, then, tell Lefty Sawyer to take his diving kit and be ready by three. If you need a new ladder at the dump-dock, send one there by noon. That is all, men.' When Finn and Dyce had gone, Lee sprang to his feet and began to pace the office. Once he stopped to light his pipe; once he jerked open the top drawer of his table and glanced at a pair of heavy Colt's revolvers ished; he looked at her without seeing the lying there, cocked and loaded. He sat oval face, the dark questioning eyes, the down at his desk after a while and spoke, young rounded figure involuntarily bending perhaps half unconsciously, to Helen, as toward him. though he had been speaking to her since Finn and Dyce left: 66 They're a hard crowd, a tough lot, and They tipped that safe off the dock on purpose, he said; "they sent Kinney to Bangor on a fool's errand. Now Sawyer's a hard crow i, a tough lot." I knew it would come to a crisis sooner or later. Last year they drove the other superintendent to resign, and I was warned to look out for myself. Now they see that they can't use me, and they mean to get rid of me. How dared the messenger unlock the safe before I was notified!" She turned from the window as he fin got to go down and see what can be done. I know what he'll say. He'll report the safe broken and one or two cash-boxes missing, and he'll bring up the rest and wait for a chance to divide with his gang." He started to his feet and began to pace the floor again, talking all the while : "It's come to a crisis now and I'm not going under-if anyone should ask you! I'll face them down; I'll break that gang as they break stone! If I only knew how to use a diving kit-and if I dared-with Dyce at the life-line Half an hour later Lee, seated at his desk, raised his pale face from his hands and, for the first time, became conscious that Helen sat watching him beside the window. "Can I do anything for you?" he asked with an effort. She held the order out to him; he took it, examined it, and, picking up a pen, signed his name. Forward it to the Company," he said; "Cæsar's family will collect it quicker than the shark collected Cæ sar. He did not mean to shock the girl with cynicism; indeed it was only such artificial indifference that enabled him to endure the misery of the Porte-of-Waves-misery that came under his eyes from sea and landinterminable, hopeless, human woe. What could he do for the lacerated creatures at the quarry? He had only his salary. What could he do for families made destitute? The mica crushed and cut and blinded; the Collector of the Porte exacted bloody toll in spite of him. He could not drive the dust-choked, half-maddened quarrymen from their one solace and balm, the cool, healing ocean; he could not drive the Collector from the Porte-of-Waves. "I didn't mean to speak unfeelingly," he said; "I feel such things very deeply." To his surprise and displeasure she replied: "I did not know you felt anything." He thought to himself: "I took her from the quarry and this is what I get." She divined his thought, and turned a little pale. She could have answered: "And you sent me to the quarry for the memory of a kiss." But she did not speak. Watching her curiously, he noticed the gray woolen gown, the spotless collar and cuffs, the light on her hair like light on watered silk. Her young face was turned toward the window. For the first time it occurred to him that she might be lonely. He wondered where she came from, why she had sought Porte-of-Waves among all places on earth, what tragedy could have driven her from kin and kind to the haunts of men. She seemed so utterly alone, so hopelessly dependent, so young, that his conscience smote him, and he resolved to be a little companionable toward her, as far as his position of Superintendent permitted. True he could not do much; and whatever he might do would perhaps be misinterpreted by her, certainly by the quarrymen. "A safe fell off the dock to-day," he said, pleasantly, forgetting she had been present at the announcement of disaster by Finn and Dyce. "Would you like to see the diver go down?" She turned toward him and smiled. "It might interest you," he went on, surprised at the beauty of her eyes; "we're going to try to hoist the safe out of fiftyodd feet of water-unless it is smashed on the rocks. Come down when I go at three o'clock." As he spoke his face grew grave and he glanced at the open drawer by his elbow, where two blue revolver barrels lay shining in the morning light. At noon she went into her little room, locked the door, and sat down on the bed. She cried steadily till two o'clock; from two until three she spent the time in obliterating all traces of tears; at three he knocked at her door and she opened it, fresh, dainty, smiling, and joined him, tying the strings of a pink sunbonnet under her oval him divest himself of the diving suit with chin. reasonable celerity. III. The afternoon sun beat down on the dumpdock, where the derrick swung like a stumpy gallows against the sky. A dozen hardfaced, silent quarrymen sat around in groups on the string-piece; Farrely raked out the fire in the rusty little engine; Finn and Dyce whispered together glowering at Lefty Sawyer, who stood dripping in his diving suit while Lee unscrewed the helmet and disentangled the lines. Behind Lee, Helen Pine sat on a pile of condemned sleepers, nervously twisting and untwisting the strings of her sunbonnet. When Sawyer was able to hear and to be heard, Lee listened, tight-lipped and 66 What you goin' to do?" asked Finn, coming up. 66 Is it your place to ask questions?" said Lee, sharply. Obey orders or you'll regret it!" 66 He's goin' down himself," whispered Dyce to Sawyer. The diver cast a savage glance at Lee and hesitated. "Take off that suit," repeated Lee. Finn, scowling with anger, attempted to speak, but Lee turned on him and bade him to be silent. Slowly Sawyer divested himself of the clumsy diving suit; one after the other he pushed the leaden-soled shoes from him. Lee watched him with mixed emotions. He had gone too far to go back now-he understood that. Flinching at such a moment meant chaos in the quarry, and he knew that the last shred of his authority and control would go if he hesitated. Yet, with all his heart and soul, he shrank from going down into the sea. What might not such men do? Dyce held the life line. A moment or two of suffocation!-would such men hesitate? Accidents are so easy to prove, and signals may be easily misunderstood. He laid a brace of heavy revolvers on the dock and smiled. a thousand tons seemed to fall from his feet, and the dusky ocean I can see." He pointed to the pile of steel boxes, still glistening with salt water, and already streaked and blotched with orangecolored rust. 66 "There are ten boxes," said Lee, coldly; 'go down again." Unwillingly, sullenly, Lefty Sawyer suffered himself to be invested with the heavy helmet; the lines and tubes were adjusted, Dyce superintended the descent, and Finn seized the signal cord. After a minute it twitched; Lee grew white with anger; Dyce turned away to conceal a grin. When again Sawyer stood on the dock and reported that the two cash-boxes were hopelessly engulfed in the mud, Lee sternly bade Dyce joined the group; Farrely whitened a she cried, breathlessly. "Dyce! pull him bit under his brick-red sunburn and pretended to fuss at his engine. Helen Pine, heart beating furiously, watched them. She did not know what they were going to do what they were doing now with the air tubes. She did not understand such things, but she saw a line suddenly twitch in Dyce's fingers, and she saw murder in Finn's eyes. Before she knew what she was doing she found herself clutching both of Lee's revolvers. Finn saw her and stood petrified; Dyce gaped at the leveled muzzles. Nobody moved. After a little while the line in Dyce's hand twitched vio lently; Finn started and swore; Sawyer said distinctly, "Cut that line!" The next instant she fired at him point blank, and he dropped to the bleached boards with a howl of dismay. The crack of the revolver echoed and echoed among the rocks; a silence that startled followed. Presently, behind his engine, Farrely began to laugh; two quarrymen near him got up and shambled hastily away. "Draw him up!" gasped the girl, with a desperate glance at the water. Finn, the foreman, cursed and flung down his lines, and walked away cursing. "Take the lines, Noonan,' up!" When the great blank-eyed helmet appeared, she watched it as though hypnotized. When, dragging his leaden feet, Lee stumbled to the dock and flung one of the two missing cash-boxes at Dyce's feet, she grew dizzy and her little hands ached with their grip on the heavy weapons. Sawyer, stupid, clutching his shattered forearm, never removed his eyes from her face; Dyce unscrewed the helmet, shaking with fright. 66 'There, you lying blackguard!" gasped Lee, pointing to the recovered cash-box, "take them all to my office, where I'll settle |