drillers, lawyers, engineers, superintendents, foremen, machinery.

Arnold came with papers to sign. “Five hundred a day,” he said, “and a percentage.” He named the percentage. Maxine and her mother repeated this after him, numbly.

Mrs. Pardee had been the book-keeper in the Pardee m�nage. She tried some mathematical gymnastics now and bumped her arithmetical nose.

“Five hundred a day. Including Sundays, Arnold?”

“Including Sundays.”

Her lips began to move. “Seven times five � thirty-five hundred a � fifty-two times thirty — — ”

She stopped, overcome. But she began again, wildly, as a thought came to her.