available cash. Then again they are making an addition to the plant at a great cost when in reality they haven't enough work to keep the old plant in active operation. The contractors are being paid with ninety-day paper, but where the money is to come from to take it up is a problem which would tie the original inventor of algebra up in a knot. And there is also another reason, which is probably the greatest of all. Three-quarters of the company's business is the manufacture of milling cutters, and the cutters will not stand up under test. Surely that is evidence enough."
Barney Creighton sprang to his feet, and his hand crashed down on the desk with a thunderous bang.
"Yes, it is evidence enough!" he cried wildly, his eyes flashing fire. "It's evidence of a dozen things. I've been blind all my life. I almost let the girl of my heart marry a man who would ruin her life, simply because in her blind ignorance, she thought she loved him. But she shan't marry him, Dan, old man, not if I have to pick her up bodily and take her to the North Pole. If Roger Patterson wants fight, he'll get it. Some people were put on earth just to be carpets for other people to walk on!"
"What do you mean?" gasped Dan Burnett.
"Mean!" raved Barney Creighton like a throbbing furnace. "I mean that I'm sick of being a doormat for other people to trample on. All my life I've been smeared with easy-going softness. Now I'm going to take a mental bath. Every friend I own, except you, old man, has used me for years as their 'Fourth National.' I don't know why, unless I was simply
