Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. "So you think we should decline the order of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company ? " "Yes, Miss Honeywood, I do. The price offered is considerably below the market value, and if we accept it we shall, with our present means, be unable to execute the order of the Union Pacific, which is worth more to us." " When do you expect to have the new forge ready ? " "Certainly not for a month, and perhaps two. The contractor had a strike among hisnen yesterday. All the brick-layers quit work without a minute's notice, simply because he had discharged a foreman that they liked. But for that we should be in it in less than two weeks." "He can get other workmen, I suppose ?" " Yes, he has gone to Harrisburg, and has telegraphed to Philadelphia for others, but still the loss of time will be considerable. He will lose money too." "How is that?" "Don't you recollect, Miss Honeywood, that he is under a forfeit of two hundred dollars for every day after the 15th of September that the stack remains unfinished ? It is now the 5th. He will probably be behindhand fifteen days, perhaps more." " He shall not lose money on that account, if the delay is owing to the strike, and the strike was, as you tell me, due to his dismissal of a foreman. Assure him of that, Mr. Benham. What kind of a man is this foreman ?" "A worthless fellow, lazy and drunken. If he had been capable and faithful, we should be using the new forge to-day." "It seems strange to me that Mr. Byles should have employed such a man." " He made a mistake, as others wiser than he have done before him, and as others will do after him." "Yes, I suppose so," assented Alana, turning over some papers that lay on the table at which she was sitting, and looking carelessly at the indorsements. " I ... --This text refers to the Paperback edition.