“Oh, we’ll finish it if we’re let alone.  Every year, you know, we receive a batch of senators and congressmen who come down to ‘inspect’ and ‘report.’  Sometimes they spend as much as a week on the job, and frequently learn to distinguish which is the Gatun dam and which the Culebra cut, but not always.  Some of them don’t know yet.  Nevertheless, they return to Washington and tell us how to proceed.  Having discovered that the Panama climate is good and the wages high, they send down all their relatives.  It’s too bad Colonel Gorgas did away with the yellow fever.

“You see there is too much politics in it; we never know how long our jobs will last.  If some senator whose vote is needed on an administration matter wanted my position for his wife’s brother, he could get it.  Suppose the president of the Clock-Winders’ Union wanted to place his half-sister’s husband with the P. R. R. He’d call at the White House and make his request.  If he were refused, he’d threaten to call a strike of his union and stop every clock on the Isthmus.  He’d get the job all right.”

“Of course, that is an exaggeration.”

“Not at all.  It has been done—­is being done right along.  The half-sister’s husband comes down here and takes a job away from some fellow who may be entitled to promotion.”

“I suppose I’m an example.”

Runnels looked at him squarely before answering, “You are,” said he, “although I wasn’t thinking of you when I spoke.  It’s something we all feel, however.”

Anthony flushed as he answered:  “I don’t remember ever taking anything I wasn’t entitled to, and I didn’t think when I was shoved in here that I’d shove some other fellow out.”

“That’s about what will happen.  The good positions are filled by good men, for the most part, but Mrs. Cortlandt has asked it, and you’re elected.  You don’t mind my frankness, I hope?”

“Certainly not.  I just didn’t happen to look at it in this light.”  Kirk felt a vivid sense of discomfort as the keen eyes of his companion dwelt upon him.  “As a matter of fact, I dare say I don’t need a good job half as badly as some of these married fellows.  I suppose there is room at the bottom, and a fellow can work up?”

“If he has it in him.”

“I think I’ll start there.”

“Oh, come, now,” laughed the Master of Transportation, “that sort of thing isn’t done.  You have the chance, and you’d be foolish to let it slip.  I don’t blame you; I’d do the same under the circumstances.  It’s merely a condition we’ve all got to face.”

“Just the same, I don’t like the idea.  I’d feel uncomfortable if I met some capable fellow whom I’d robbed of his chance.  It’s hard work to be uncomfortable, and I don’t like hard work, you know.”

Runnels shook his head doubtfully as if questioning the genuineness of this attitude.

“I’m afraid you’re a poor business man,” he said.

“Rotten!” Kirk admitted.  “But I’ve an idea I can make good if I try.”