noon
This was McQuade 's revenge . He could wait patiently all this while ! `` I 'll do what I can , Mr. Bennington ; I 'll do what I can . '' Bennington ate no lunch that noon . Instead , he wandered about the great smoky shops , sweeping his glance over the blast-furnaces , the gutters into which the molten ore was poured , the giant trip-hammers , the ponderous rolling-machines , the gas-furnaces for tempering fine steel . The men moved aside . Only here and there a man , grown old in the shops , touched his grimy cap .