CHAPTER XII.
ON THE GREAT HIGHWAY.
As violently rent from his job as Maxim Waldron had been torn from his alliance with Catherine, Gabriel Armstrong met the sudden change in his affairs with far more equanimity than the financier could muster.

Once the young electrician's first anger had subsided--and he had pretty well mastered it before he had reached the Oakwood Heights station--he began philosophically to turn the situation in his mind, and to rough out his plans for the future.
"Things might be worse, all round," he reflected, as he strode along at a smart pace.

"During the seven months I've been working for these pirates, I've managed to pay off the debt I got into at the time of the big E. W.

strike, and I've got eighteen dollars or a little more in my pocket.

My clothes will do a while longer.