"Isn't it a good ways?"
"Eighteen to thirty miles, according to who you ask. As soon as things got to going we went after the General Manager and gave him a bad half hour; so I shouldn't be surprised to see the rest of the bill coming in by rail any time now."
Bannon got up and slowly buttoned his coat. He was looking about the office, at the mud-tracked floor and the coated windows, and at the hanging shreds of spider web in the corners and between the rafters overhead.
"It ain't a very cheerful house to live in all day, is it?" he said. "I don't know but what we'd better clean house a little. There's not much danger of putting a shine on things that'll hurt your eyes. We ought to be able to get hold of some one that could come in once in a while and stir up the dust. Do you know of any one?"
"There is a woman that comes to our boarding-house. I think they know about her at the hotel."
He went to the telephone and called up the hotel.
"She'll be here this afternoon," he said as he hung up the receiver. "Will she bring her own scrubbing things, or are we supposed to have them for her? This is some out of my line."
Miss Vogel was smiling.
"She'll have her own things, I guess. When she comes, would you like me to start her to work?"
"If you'd just as soon. And tell her to make a good job of it. I've got to go out now, but I'll be around off and on during the day."