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Show 74 "I suppose you're going to tell me you got it working here," the man said, looking him up and down. "What?" said Lorin. "Your cough. You got it working here, I suppose." "No. It's just a cold. Actually I think it may be bronchitis." "I don't guess the dust out here is doing it any good, though," the man said. "Metal filings and all." "Probably not. I have the key to the stockroom if you need to get in." "You might want to let the buggers up front know about it," the man said. "Get them worried about a lawsuit they might do something. They probably don't even know you're out here half the time." "I'm just here for the summer," Lorin said. "Don't smoke, do you?" the man asked. "No. Excuse me, but you aren't with the front office or anything, are you?" "I just meant you could probably make a stronger case if they couldn't prove it wasn't the dust out here that was doing it." Something about the man made Lorin nervous. His hair crawled in wild white curls all over his head, and his chin trembled. For all his timidity when he knew he had been seen, he appeared in the poor light to be glaring at Lorin now. It occurred to Lorin that he might be the president of the company, checking morale among his employees. He had never seen the president, but the man was said to be an elderly eccentric who meddled in every department of his company, terrifying the woman who filed requisitions and contracts, driving the draftsmen upstairs wild, carrying off records from his accountant's office and losing them, and interfering with his two sons, both men in their sixties, who ran the company in secret. But the presi- |