"Will you promise not to quit until they do?" Kinnison asked, quietly.
"Huh?" "What?" Tugwell's eyes—and Celeste's—were pools of astonishment. Celeste, being on the inside, understood first.
"Oh—to keep his nose clean—I see!" she exclaimed.
"Exactly. Those shell will not be accepted, nor any like them. On the surface, we got licked. I will get fired. You will find, however, that we won this particular battle. And if you boys stay here and hang together and keep on slugging you can win a lot more."
"Maybe, if we raise enough hell, we can make them fire us, too?" Drake suggested.
"I doubt it. But unless I'm wrong, you can just about write your own ticket from now on, if you play it straight." Kinnison grinned to himself, at something which the young people could not see.
"You told me w
