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diff --git a/3475-h/3475-h.htm b/3475-h/3475-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d8f7f16 --- /dev/null +++ b/3475-h/3475-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5924 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta name="generator" content= +"HTML Tidy for Mac OS X (vers 1st December 2004), see www.w3.org" /> +<meta http-equiv="content-type" content= +"text/html; charset=us-ascii" /> +<title>The Efficiency Expert, by Edgar Rice Burroughs.</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + body {font-family:Georgia,serif;margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%;} + p {text-align: justify;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center;} + pre {font-family:Courier,monospaced;font-size: 0.8em;} + hr {width: 50%;} + hr.full {width: 100%;} + hr.short {width:25%;} + h3 {padding-top:1.5em;} + + + ol {list-style-type:upper-roman;margin-left:10%;font-variant:small-caps;} + .returnTOC {text-align:right;font-size:.7em;} + .cen {text-align:center;} + .rgt {text-align:right;} + a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:red} +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Efficiency Expert, by Edgar Rice Burroughs + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: The Efficiency Expert + +Author: Edgar Rice Burroughs + +Posting Date: May 6, 2012 [EBook #3475] +Release Date: October, 2002 [Etext #3475] +[The actual date this file first posted = 10/30/01] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EFFICIENCY EXPERT *** + + + + +Produced by Fred M. Adams (fsadams@magma.cs) + + + + + +</pre> + +<hr class="full" /> +<h1>THE EFFICIENCY EXPERT</h1> +<h4>by</h4> +<h2>Edgar Rice Burroughs</h2> +<hr /> +<h2><a id="Contents" name="Contents"></a>Contents</h2> +<ol> +<li><a href="#Ch_I">JIMMY TORRANCE, JR.</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_II">JIMMY WILL ACCEPT A POSITION.</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_III">THE LIZARD.</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_IV">JIMMY HUNTS A JOB.</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_V">JIMMY LANDS ONE.</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_VI">HAROLD PLAYS THE RAVEN.</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_VII">JOBLESS AGAIN.</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_VIII">BREAD FROM THE WATERS.</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_IX">HAROLD SITS IN A GAME.</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_X">AT FEINHEIMER'S.</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_XI">CHRISTMAS EVE.</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_XII">UP OR DOWN?</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_XIII">HARRIET PHILOSOPHIZES.</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_XIV">IN AGAIN--OUT AGAIN.</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_XV">LITTLE EVA.</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_XVI">JIMMY THROWS A BLUFF.</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_XVII">JIMMY ON THE JOB.</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_XVIII">THE EFFICIENCY EXPERT.</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_XIX">PLOTTING.</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_XX">AN INVITATION TO DINE.</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_XXI">JIMMY TELLS THE TRUTH.</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_XXII">A LETTER FROM MURRAY.</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_XXIII">LAID UP.</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_XXIV">IN THE TOILS.</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_XXV">CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE.</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_XXVI">"THE ONLY FRIENDS HE HAS."</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_XXVII">THE TRIAL.</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_XXVIII">THE VERDICT.</a></li> +</ol> +<hr /> +<h3><a id="Ch_I" name="Ch_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h3> +<h2>JIMMY TORRANCE, JR.</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>The gymnasium was packed as Jimmy Torrance stepped into the ring +for the final event of the evening that was to decide the boxing +championship of the university. Drawing to a close were the nearly +four years of his college career—profitable years, Jimmy +considered them, and certainly successful up to this point. In the +beginning of his senior year he had captained the varsity eleven, +and in the coming spring he would again sally forth upon the +diamond as the star initial sacker of collegedom.</p> +<p>His football triumphs were in the past, his continued baseball +successes a foregone conclusion—if he won to-night his cup of +happiness, and an unassailably dominant position among his fellows, +would be assured, leaving nothing more, in so far as Jimmy +reasoned, to be desired from four years attendance at one of +America’s oldest and most famous universities.</p> +<p>The youth who would dispute the right to championship honors +with Jimmy was a dark horse to the extent that he was a freshman, +and, therefore, practically unknown. He had worked hard, however, +and given a good account of himself in his preparations for the +battle, and there were rumors, as there always are about every +campus, of marvelous exploits prior to his college days. It was +even darkly hinted that he was a professional pugilist. As a matter +of fact, he was the best exponent of the manly art of self-defense +that Jimmy Torrance had ever faced, and in addition thereto he +outweighed the senior and outreached him.</p> +<p>The boxing contest, as the faculty members of the athletic +committee preferred to call it, was, from the tap of the gong, as +pretty a two-fisted scrap as ever any aggregation of low-browed +fight fans witnessed. The details of this gory contest, while +interesting, have no particular bearing upon the development of +this tale. What interests us is the outcome, which occurred in the +middle of a very bloody fourth round, in which Jimmy Torrance +scored a clean knock-out.</p> +<p>It was a battered but happy Jimmy who sat in his room the +following Monday afternoon, striving to concentrate his mind upon a +college text-book which should, by all the laws of fiction, have +been ‘well thumbed,’ but in reality, possessed +unruffled freshness which belied its real age.</p> +<p>“I wish,” mused Jimmy, “that I could have got +to the bird who invented mathematics before he inflicted all this +unnecessary anguish upon an already unhappy world. In about three +rounds I could have saved thousands from the sorrow which I feel +every time I open this blooming book.”</p> +<p>He was still deeply engrossed in the futile attempt of +accomplishing in an hour that for which the college curriculum set +aside several months when there came sounds of approaching +footsteps rapidly ascending the stairway. His door was +unceremoniously thrown open, and there appeared one of those +strange apparitions which is the envy and despair of the small-town +youth—a naturally good-looking young fellow, the sartorial +arts of whose tailor had elevated his waist-line to his arm-pits, +dragged down his shoulders, and caved in his front until he had the +appearance of being badly dished from chin to knees. His trousers +appeared to have been made for a man with legs six inches longer +than his, while his hat was evidently several sizes too large, +since it would have entirely extinguished his face had it not been +supported by his ears.</p> +<p>“Hello, Kid!” cried Jimmy. “What’s +new?”</p> +<p>“Whiskers wants you,” replied the other. +“Faculty meeting. They just got through with me.”</p> +<p>“Hell!” muttered Jimmy feelingly. “I +don’t know what Whiskers wants with me, but he never wants to +see anybody about anything pleasant.”</p> +<p>“I am here,” agreed the other, “to announce to +the universe that you are right, Jimmy. He didn’t have +anything pleasant to say to me. In fact, he insinuated that dear +old alma mater might be able to wiggle along without me if I +didn’t abjure my criminal life. Made some nasty comparison +between my academic achievements and foxtrotting. I wonder, Jimmy, +how they get that way?”</p> +<p>“That’s why they are profs,” explained Jimmy. +“There are two kinds of people in this world—human +beings and profs. When does he want me?”</p> +<p>“Now.”</p> +<p>Jimmy arose and put on his hat and coat. “Good-by, +Kid,” he said. “Pray for me, and leave me one cigarette +to smoke when I get back,” and, grinning, he left the +room.</p> +<p>James Torrance, Jr., was not greatly abashed as he faced the +dour tribunal of the faculty. The younger members, among whom were +several he knew to be mighty good fellows at heart, sat at the +lower end of the long table, and with owlish gravity attempted to +emulate the appearance and manners of their seniors. At the head of +the table sat Whiskers, as the dignified and venerable president of +the university was popularly named. It was generally believed and +solemnly sworn to throughout the large corps of undergraduates that +within the knowledge of any living man Whiskers had never been +known to smile, and to-day he was running true to form.</p> +<p>“Mr. Torrance,” he said, sighing, “it has been +my painful duty on more than one occasion to call your attention to +the uniformly low average of your academic standing. At the earnest +solicitation of the faculty members of the athletic committee, I +have been influenced, against my better judgment, to temporize with +an utterly insufferable condition.</p> +<p>“You are rapidly approaching the close of your senior +year, and in the light of the records which I have before me I am +constrained to believe that it will be utterly impossible for you +to graduate, unless from now to the end of the semester you devote +yourself exclusively to your academic work. If you cannot assure me +that you will do this, I believe it would be to the best interests +of the university for you to resign now, rather than to fail of +graduation. And in this decision I am fully seconded by the faculty +members of the athletic committee, who realize the harmful effect +upon university athletics in the future were so prominent an +athlete as you to fail at graduation.”</p> +<p>If they had sentenced Jimmy to be shot at sunrise the blow could +scarcely have been more stunning than that which followed the +realization that he was not to be permitted to round out his fourth +successful season at first base. But if Jimmy was momentarily +stunned he gave no outward indication of the fact, and in the brief +interval of silence following the president’s ultimatum his +alert mind functioned with the rapidity which it had often shown +upon the gridiron, the diamond, and the squared circle.</p> +<p>Just for a moment the thought of being deprived of the pleasure +and excitement of the coming baseball season filled his mind to the +exclusion of every other consideration, but presently a less +selfish impulse projected upon the screen of recollection the +figure of the father he idolized. The boy realized the +disappointment that this man would feel should his four years of +college end thus disastrously and without the coveted diploma.</p> +<p>And then it was that he raised his eyes to those of the +president.</p> +<p>“I hope, sir,” he said, “that you will give me +one more chance—that you will let me go on as I have in the +past as far as baseball is concerned, with the understanding that +if at the end of each month between now and commencement I do not +show satisfactory improvement I shall not be permitted to play on +the team. But please don’t make that restriction binding yet. +If I lay off the track work I believe I can make up enough so that +baseball will not interfere with my graduation.”</p> +<p>And so Whiskers, who was much more human than the student body +gave him credit for being, and was, in the bargain, a good judge of +boys, gave Jimmy another chance on his own terms, and the +university’s heavyweight champion returned to his room filled +with determination to make good at the eleventh hour.</p> +<p>Possibly one of the greatest obstacles which lay in +Jimmy’s path toward academic honors was the fact that he +possessed those qualities of character which attracted others to +him, with the result that there was seldom an hour during the day +that he had his room to himself. On his return from the faculty +meeting he found a half-dozen of his classmates there, awaiting his +return.</p> +<p>“Well?” they inquired as he entered.</p> +<p>“It’s worse than that,” said Jimmy, as he +unfolded the harrowing details of what had transpired at his +meeting with the faculty. “And now,” he said, “if +you birds love me, keep out of here from now until commencement. +There isn’t a guy on earth can concentrate on anything with a +roomful of you mental ciphers sitting around and yapping about +girls and other non-essential creations.”</p> +<p>“Non-essential!” gasped one of his visitors, letting +his eyes wander over the walls of Jimmy’s study, whereon were +nailed, pinned or hung countless framed and unframed pictures of +non-essential creations.</p> +<p>“All right, Jimmy,” said another. “We are with +you, horse, foot and artillery. When you want us, give us the +high-sign and we will come. Otherwise we will leave you to your +beloved books. It is too bad, though, as the bar-boy was just +explaining how the great drought might be circumvented by means of +carrots, potato peelings, dish-water, and a raisin.”</p> +<p>“Go on,” said Jimmy; “I am not +interested,” and the boys left him to his +“beloved” books.</p> +<p>Jimmy Torrance worked hard, and by dint of long hours and +hard-working tutors he finished his college course and won his +diploma. Nor did he have to forego the crowning honors of his last +baseball season, although, like Ulysses S. Grant, he would have +graduated at the head of his class had the list been turned upside +down.</p> +<h3><a id="Ch_II" name="Ch_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h3> +<h2>JIMMY WILL ACCEPT A POSITION.</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Following his graduation he went to New York to visit with one +of his classmates for a short time before returning home. He was a +very self-satisfied Jimmy, nor who can wonder, since almost from +his matriculation there had been constantly dinned into his ears +the plaudits of his fellow students. Jimmy Torrance had been the +one big outstanding feature of each succeeding class from his +freshman to his senior year, and as a junior and senior he had been +the acknowledged leader of the student body and as popular a man as +the university had ever known.</p> +<p>To his fellows, as well as to himself, he had been a great +success—the success of the university—and he and they +saw in the future only continued success in whatever vocation he +decided to honor with his presence. It was in a mental attitude +that had become almost habitual with him, and which was +superinduced by these influences, that Jimmy approached the new +life that was opening before him. For a while he would play, but in +the fall it was his firm intention to settle down to some serious +occupation, and it was in this attitude that he opened a letter +from his father—the first that he had received since his +graduation.</p> +<p>The letter was written on the letterhead of the Beatrice Corn +Mills, Incorporated, Beatrice, Nebraska, and in the upper left-hand +corner, in small type, appeared “James Torrance, Sr., +President and General Manager,” and this is what he read:</p> +<blockquote> +<p>Dear Jim</p> +<p>You have graduated—I didn’t think you +would—with honors in football, baseball, prize-fighting, and +five thousand dollars in debt. How you got your diploma is beyond +me—in my day you would have got the sack. Well, son, I am not +surprised nor disappointed—it is what I expected. I know you +are clean, though, and that some day you will awaken to the sterner +side of life and an appreciation of your responsibilities.</p> +<p>To be an entirely orthodox father I should raise merry hell +about your debts and utter inutility, at the same time +disinheriting you, but instead I am going to urge you to come home +and run in debt here where the cost of living is not so high as in +the East—meanwhile praying that your awakening may come while +I am on earth to rejoice.</p> +<p class="rgt">Your affectionate<br /> +FATHER,</p> +<p>Am enclosing check to cover your debts and present needs.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>For a long time the boy sat looking at the letter before him. He +reread it once, twice, three times, and with each reading the film +of unconscious egotism that had blinded him to his own shortcomings +gradually became less opaque, until finally he saw himself as his +father must see him. He had come to college for the purpose of +fitting himself to succeed in some particular way in the stern +battle of life which must follow his graduation; for, though his +father had ample means to support him in indolence, Jimmy had never +even momentarily considered such an eventuality.</p> +<p>In weighing his assets now he discovered that he had probably as +excellent a conception of gridiron strategy and tactics as any man +in America; that as a boxer he occupied a position in the forefront +of amateur ranks; and he was quite positive that out-side of the +major leagues there was not a better first baseman.</p> +<p>But in the last few minutes there had dawned upon him the +realization that none of these accomplishments was greatly in +demand in the business world. Jimmy spent a very blue and unhappy +hour, and then slowly his natural optimism reasserted itself, and +with it came the realization of his youth and strength and inherent +ability, which, without egotism, he might claim.</p> +<p>“And then, too,” he mused, “I have my diploma. +I am a college graduate, and that must mean something. If dad had +only reproached me or threatened some condign punishment I +don’t believe I should feel half as badly as I do. But every +line of that letter breathes disappointment in me; and yet, God +bless him, he tells me to come home and spend his money there. Not +on your life! If he won’t disinherit me, I am going to +disinherit myself. I am going to make him proud of me. He’s +the best dad a fellow ever had, and I am going to show him that I +appreciate him.”</p> +<p>And so he sat down and wrote his father this reply:</p> +<blockquote> +<p>DEAR DAD:</p> +<p>I have your letter and check. You may not believe it, but the +former is worth more to me than the latter. Not, however, that I +spurn the check, which it was just like you to send without a lot +of grumbling and reproaches, even if I do deserve them.</p> +<p>Your letter shows me what a rotten mess I have made of myself. +I’m not going to hand you a lot of mush, dad, but I want to +try to do something that will give you reason to at least have +hopes of rejoicing before I come home again. If I fail I’ll +come home anyway, and then neither one of us will have any doubt +but what you will have to support me for the rest of my life. +However, I don’t intend to fail, and one of these days I will +bob up all serene as president of a bank or a glue factory. In the +mean time I’ll keep you posted as to my whereabouts, but +don’t send me another cent until I ask for it; and when I do +you will know that I have failed.</p> +<p>Tell mother that I will write her in a day or two, probably from +Chicago, as I have always had an idea that that was one burg where +I could make good.</p> +<p>With lots of love to you all,</p> +<p class="rgt">Your affectionate<br /> +SON.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>It was a hot July day that James Torrance, Jr., alighted from +the Twentieth Century Limited at the La Salle Street Station, and, +entering a cab, directed that he be driven to a small hotel; +“for,” he soliloquized, “I might as well start +economizing at once, as it might be several days before I land a +job such as I want,” in voicing which sentiments he spoke +with the tongues of the prophets.</p> +<p>Jimmy had many friends in Chicago with whom, upon the occasion +of numerous previous visits to the Western metropolis, he had spent +many hilarious and expensive hours, but now he had come upon the +serious business of life, and there moved within him a strong +determination to win financial success without recourse to the +influence of rich and powerful acquaintances.</p> +<p>Since the first crushing blow that his father’s letter had +dealt his egotism, Jimmy’s self-esteem had been gradually +returning, though along new and more practical lines. His +self-assurance was formed in a similar mold to those of all his +other salient characteristics, and these conformed to his physical +proportions, for physically, mentally and morally Jimmy Torrance +was big; not that he was noticeably taller than other men or his +features more than ordinarily attractive, but there was something +so well balanced and harmonious in all the proportions of his frame +and features as to almost invariably compel a second glance from +even a casual observer, especially if the casual observer happened +to be in the nonessential creation class.</p> +<p>And so Jimmy, having had plenty of opportunity to commune with +himself during the journey from New York, was confident that there +were many opportunities awaiting him in Chicago. He remembered +distinctly of having read somewhere that the growing need of big +business concerns was competent executive material—that there +were fewer big men than there were big jobs—and that if such +was the case all that remained to be done was to connect himself +with the particular big job that suited him.</p> +<p>In the lobby of the hotel he bought several of the daily papers, +and after reaching his room he started perusing the “Help +Wanted” columns. Immediately he was impressed and elated by +the discovery that there were plenty of jobs, and that a +satisfactory percentage of them appeared to be big jobs. There were +so many, however, that appealed to him as excellent possibilities +that he saw it would be impossible to apply for each and every one; +and then it occurred to him that he might occupy a more strategic +position in the negotiations preceding his acceptance of a position +if his future employer came to him first, rather than should he be +the one to apply for the position.</p> +<p>And so he decided the wisest plan would be to insert an ad in +the “Situations Wanted” column, and then from the +replies select those which most appealed to him; in other words, he +would choose from the cream of those who desired the services of +such a man as himself rather than risk the chance of obtaining a +less profitable position through undue haste in seizing upon the +first opening advertised.</p> +<p>Having reached this decision, and following his habitual custom, +he permitted no grass to grow beneath his feet. Writing out an ad, +he reviewed it carefully, compared it with others that he saw upon +the printed page, made a few changes, rewrote it, and then +descended to the lobby, where he called a cab and was driven to the +office of one of the area’s metropolitan morning +newspapers.</p> +<p>Jimmy felt very important as he passed through the massive +doorway into the great general offices of the newspaper. Of course, +he didn’t exactly expect that he would be ushered into the +presence of the president or business manager, or that even the +advertising manager would necessarily have to pass upon his copy, +but there was within him a certain sensation that at that instant +something was transpiring that in later years would be a matter of +great moment, and he was really very sorry for the publishers of +the newspaper that they did not know who it was who was inserting +an ad in their Situations Wanted column.</p> +<p>He could not help but watch the face of the young man who +received his ad and counted the words, as he was sure that the +clerk’s facial expression would betray his excitement. It was +a great moment for Jimmy Torrance. He realized that it was probably +the greatest moment of his life—that here Jimmy Torrance +ceased to be, and James Torrance, Jr., Esq., began his career. But +though he carefully watched the face of the clerk, he was finally +forced to admit that the young man possessed wonderful control over +his facial expression.</p> +<p>“That bird has a regular poker-face,” mused Jimmy; +“never batted an eye,” and paying for his ad he +pocketed the change and walked out.</p> +<p>“Let’s see,” he figured; “it will be in +tomorrow morning’s edition. The tired business man will read +it either at breakfast or after he reaches his office. I understand +that there are three million people here in Chicago. Out of that +three million it is safe to assume that one million will read my +advertisement, and of that one-million there must be at least one +thousand who have responsible positions which are, at present, +inadequately filled.</p> +<p>“Of course, the truth of the matter is that there are +probably tens of thousands of such positions, but to be +conservative I will assume that there are only one thousand, and +reducing it still further to almost an absurdity, I will figure +that only ten per cent of those reply to my advertisement. In other +words, at the lowest possible estimate I should have one hundred +replies on the first day. I knew it was foolish to run it for three +days, but the fellow insisted that that was the proper way to do, +as I got a lower rate.</p> +<p>“By taking it for three days, however, it doesn’t +seem right to make so many busy men waste their time answering the +ad when I shall doubtless find a satisfactory position the first +day.”</p> +<h3><a id="Ch_III" name="Ch_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h3> +<h2>THE LIZARD.</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>That night Jimmy attended a show, and treated himself to a +lonely dinner afterward. He should have liked very much to have +looked up some of his friends. A telephone call would have brought +invitations to dinner and a pleasant evening with convivial +companions, but he had mapped his course and he was determined to +stick to it to the end.</p> +<p>“There will be plenty of time,” he thought, +“for amusement after I have gotten a good grasp of my new +duties.” Jimmy elected to walk from the theater to his hotel, +and as he was turning the corner from Randolph into La Salle a +young man jostled him. An instant later the stranger was upon his +knees, his wrist doubled suddenly backward and very close to the +breaking-point.</p> +<p>“Wot t’ hell yuh doin’?” he +screamed.</p> +<p>“Pardon me,” replied Jimmy: “you got your hand +in the wrong pocket. I suppose you meant to put it in your own, but +you didn’t.”</p> +<p>“Aw, g’wan; lemme go,” pleaded the stranger. +“I didn’t get nuthin’— you ain’t got +the goods on me.”</p> +<p>Now, such a tableau as Jimmy and his new acquaintance formed +cannot be staged at the corner of Randolph and La Salle beneath an +arc light, even at midnight, without attracting attention. And so +it was that before Jimmy realized it a dozen curious pedestrians +were approaching them from different directions, and a burly +blue-coated figure was shouldering his way forward.</p> +<p>Jimmy had permitted his captive to rise, but he still held +tightly to his wrist as the officer confronted them. He took one +look at Jimmy’s companion, and then grabbed him roughly by +the arm. “So, it’s you again, is it?” he +growled.</p> +<p>“I ain’t done nuthin’,” muttered the +man.</p> +<p>The officer looked inquiringly at Jimmy.</p> +<p>“What’s all the excitement about?” asked the +latter. “My friend and I have done nothing.”</p> +<p>“Your fri’nd and you?” replied the policeman. +“He ain’t no fri’nd o’ yours, or yez +wouldn’t be sayin’ so.”</p> +<p>“Well, I’ll admit,” replied Jimmy, “that +possibly I haven’t known him long enough to presume to claim +any close friendship, but there’s no telling what time may +develop.”</p> +<p>“You don’t want him pinched?” asked the +policeman.</p> +<p>“Of course not,” replied Jimmy. “Why should he +be pinched?”</p> +<p>The officer turned roughly upon the stranger, shook him +viciously a few times, and then gave him a mighty shove which all +but sent him sprawling into the gutter.</p> +<p>“G’wan wid yez,” he yelled after him, +“and if I see ye on this beat again I’ll run yez in. +An’ you”—he turned upon +Jimmy—“ye’d betther be on your way—and not +be afther makin’ up with ivery dip ye meet.”</p> +<p>“Thanks,” said Jimmy. “Have a +cigar.”</p> +<p>After the officer had helped himself and condescended to relax +his stern features into the semblance of a smile the young man bid +him good night and resumed his way toward the hotel.</p> +<p>“Pretty early to go to bed,” he thought as he +reached for his watch to note the time, running his fingers into an +empty pocket. Gingerly he felt in another pocket, where he knew his +watch couldn’t possibly be, nor was. Carefully Jimmy examined +each pocket of his coat and trousers, a slow and broad grin +illumining his face.</p> +<p>“What do you know about that?” he mused. “And +I thought I was a wise guy.”</p> +<p>A few minutes after Jimmy reached his room the office called him +on the telephone to tell him that a man had called to see him.</p> +<p>“Send him up,” said Jimmy, wondering who it might +be, since he was sure that no one knew of his presence in the city. +He tried to connect the call in some way with his advertisement, +but inasmuch as that had been inserted blind he felt that there +could be no possible connection between that and his caller.</p> +<p>A few minutes later there was a knock on his door, and in +response to his summons to enter the door opened, and there stood +before him the young man of his recent encounter upon the street. +The latter entered softly, closing the door behind him. His feet +made no sound upon the carpet, and no sound came from the door as +he closed it, nor any slightest click from the latch. His utter +silence and the stealth of his movements were so pronounced as to +attract immediate attention. He did not speak until he had reached +the center of the room and halted on the opposite side of the table +at which Jimmy was standing; and then a very slow smile moved his +lips, though the expression of his eyes remained unchanged.</p> +<p>“Miss anything?” he asked.</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Jimmy.</p> +<p>“Here it is,” said the visitor, laying the +other’s watch upon the table.</p> +<p>“Why this spasm of virtue?” asked Jimmy.</p> +<p>“Oh, I don’t know,” replied the other. +“I guess it’s because you’re a white guy. +O’Donnell has been trying to get something on me for the last +year. He’s got it in for me—I wouldn’t cough +every time the big stiff seen me.”</p> +<p>“Sit down,” said Jimmy.</p> +<p>“Naw,” said the other; “I gotta be +goin’.”</p> +<p>“Come,” insisted the host; “sit down for a few +minutes at least. I was just wishing that I had someone to talk +to.”</p> +<p>The other sank noiselessly into a chair. “All right, +bo,” he said.</p> +<p>Jimmy proffered him his cigar-case.</p> +<p>“No, thanks,” declined the visitor. “I’d +rather have a coffin-nail,” which Jimmy forthwith +furnished.</p> +<p>“I should think,” said Jimmy, “that your +particular line of endeavor would prove rather hazardous in a place +where you are known by the police.”</p> +<p>The other smiled and, as before, with his lips alone.</p> +<p>“Naw,” he said; “this is the safest place to +work. If ten per cent of the bulls know me I got that much on them, +and then some, because any boob can spot any one o’ de +harness bunch, and I know nearly every fly on the department. +They’re the guys yuh gotta know, and usually I know something +besides their names, too,” and again his lips smiled.</p> +<p>“How much of your time do you have to put in at your +occupation to make a living?” asked Jimmy.</p> +<p>“Sometimes I put in six or eight hours a day,” +replied the visitor. “De rush hours on de surface line are +usually good for two or t’ree hours a day, but I been +layin’ off dat stuff lately and goin’ in fer de +t’ater crowd. Dere’s more money and shorter +hours.”</p> +<p>“You confine yourself,” asked Jimmy, +“to—er—ah—pocket-picking solely?”</p> +<p>Again the lip smile. “I’ll tell youse sumpin’, +bo, dat dey don’t none o’ dem big stiffs on de +department know. De dip game is a stall. I learned it when I was a +kid, an’ dese yaps t’ink dat’s all I know, and I +keep dem t’inkin’ it by pullin’ stuff under der +noses often enough to give ‘em de hunch dat I’m still +at de same ol’ business.” He leaned confidentially +across the table. “If you ever want a box cracked, look up +the Lizard.”</p> +<p>“Meaning?” asked Jimmy.</p> +<p>“Me, bo, I’m the Lizard.”</p> +<p>“Box cracked?” repeated Jimmy. “An ice-box or +a hot box?”</p> +<p>His visitor grinned. “Safe,” he explained.</p> +<p>“Oh,” said Jimmy, “if I ever want any one to +break into a safe, come to you, huh?”</p> +<p>“You get me,” replied the other.</p> +<p>“All right,” said Jimmy, laughing, “I’ll +call on you. That the only name you got, Mr. Lizard?”</p> +<p>“That’s all—just the Lizard. Now I gotta be +beatin’ it.”</p> +<p>“Goin’ to crack a box?” asked Jimmy.</p> +<p>The other smiled his lip smile and turned toward the door.</p> +<p>“Wait a second,” said Jimmy. “What would you +have gotten on this watch of mine?”</p> +<p>“It would have stood me about twenty bucks.”</p> +<p>Jimmy reached into his pocket and drew forth a roll of bills. +“Here,” he said, handing the other two tens.</p> +<p>“Naw,” said the Lizard, shoving the proffered money +away. “I’m no cheap skate.”</p> +<p>“Come on—take it,” said Jimmy. “I may +want a box cracked some day.”</p> +<p>“All right,” said the Lizard, “if you put it +that way, bo.”</p> +<p>“I should think,” said Jimmy, “that a man of +your ability could earn a living by less precarious methods.”</p> +<p>“You would think so,” replied the Lizard. +“I’ve tried two or three times to go straight. Wore out +my shoes looking for a job. Never landed anything that paid me more +than ten bucks per, and worked nine or ten hours a day, and half +the time I couldn’t get that.”</p> +<p>“I suppose the police hounded you all the time, +too,” suggested Jimmy.</p> +<p>“Naw,” said the Lizard; “dat’s all bunk. +De fellows that couldn’t even float down a sewer straight +pull dat. Once in a while dey get it in for some guy, but +dey’re glad enough to leave us alone if we leave dem alone. I +worked four hours to-day, maybe six before I get through, and +I’ll stand a chance of makin’ all the way from fifty +dollars to five thousand. Suppose I was drivin’ a milk-wagon, +gettin’ up at t’ree o’clock in the mornin’ +and workin’ like hell—how much would I get out of dat? +Expectin’ every minute some one was goin’ tuh fire me. +Nuthin’ doin’—dey can’t nobody fire me now. +I’m my own boss.”</p> +<p>“Well,” said Jimmy, “your logic sounds all +right, but it all depends upon the viewpoint. But I’ll tell +you: you’ve offered me your services; I’ll offer you +mine. Whenever you want a job, look me up. I’m going to be +general manager of a big concern here, and you’ll find me in +the next issue of the telephone directory.” He handed the +Lizard his card.</p> +<p>“Tanks,” said the latter. “If you don’t +want a box cracked any sooner than I want a job, the chances are we +will never meet again. So-long,” and he was gone as +noiselessly as he had come.</p> +<p>Jimmy breakfasted at nine the next morning, and as he waited for +his bacon and eggs he searched the Situations Wanted columns of the +morning paper until his eye finally alighted upon that for which he +sought—the ad that was to infuse into the business life of +the great city a new and potent force. Before his breakfast was +served Jimmy had read the few lines over a dozen times, and with +each succeeding reading he was more and more pleased with the +result of his advertising ability as it appeared in print.</p> +<blockquote> +<p>WANTED—By College Graduate—Position as General +Manager of Large Business where ability, energy and experience will +be appreciated. Address 263-S, Tribune Office.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>He had decided to wait until after lunch before calling at the +newspaper office for replies to his advertisement, but during +breakfast it occurred to him there probably would be several alert +prospective employers who would despatch their replies by special +messengers, and realizing that promptness was one of the cardinal +virtues in the business world, Jimmy reasoned that it would make a +favorable impression were he to present himself as soon as possible +after the receipt of replies.</p> +<p>By a simple system of reasoning he deduced that ten +o’clock would be none too early to expect some returns from +his ad, and therefore at ten promptly he presented himself at the +Want Ad Department in the Tribune office.</p> +<p>Comparing the number of the receipt which Jimmy handed him with +the numbers upon a file of little pigeonholes, the clerk presently +turned back toward the counter with a handful of letters.</p> +<p>“Whew!” thought Jimmy. “I never would have +guessed that I would receive a bunch like that so early in the +morning.” But then, as he saw the clerk running through them +one by one, he realized that they were not all for him, and as the +young man ran through them Jimmy’s spirits dropped a notch +with each letter that was passed over without being thrown out to +him, until, when the last letter had passed beneath the scrutiny of +the clerk, and the advertiser realized that he had received no +replies, he was quite sure that there was some error.</p> +<p>“Nothing,” said the clerk, shaking his head +negatively.</p> +<p>“Are you sure you looked in the right compartment?” +asked Jimmy.</p> +<p>“Sure,” replied the clerk. “There is nothing +for you.”</p> +<p>Jimmy pocketed his slip and walked from the office. “This +town is slower than I thought it was,” he mused. +“‘I guess they do need some live wires here to manage +their business.”</p> +<p>At noon he returned, only to be again disappointed, and then at +two o’clock, and when he came in at four the same clerk +looked up wearily and shook his head.</p> +<p>“Nothing for you,” he said. “I distributed all +the stuff myself since you were in last.”</p> +<p>As Jimmy stood there almost dazed by surprise that during an +entire day his ad had appeared in Chicago’s largest +newspaper, and he had not received one reply, a man approached the +counter, passed a slip similar to Jimmy’s to the clerk, and +received fully a hundred letters in return. Jimmy was positive now +that something was wrong.</p> +<p>“Are you sure,” he asked the clerk, “that my +replies haven’t been sidetracked somewhere? I have seen +people taking letters away from here all day, and that bird there +just walked off with a fistful.”</p> +<p>The clerk grinned. “What you advertising for?” he +asked.</p> +<p>“A position,” replied Jimmy.</p> +<p>“That’s the answer,” explained the clerk. +“That fellow there was advertising for help.”</p> +<h3><a id="Ch_IV" name="Ch_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h3> +<h2>JIMMY HUNTS A JOB.</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Once again Jimmy walked out onto Madison Street, and, turning to +his right, dropped into a continuous vaudeville show in an attempt +to coax his spirits back to somewhere near their normal high-water +mark. Upon the next day he again haunted the newspaper office +without reward, and again upon the third day with similar results. +To say that Jimmy was dumfounded would be but a futile description +of his mental state. It was simply beyond him to conceive that in +one of the largest cities in the world, the center of a thriving +district of fifty million souls, there was no business man with +sufficient acumen to realize how badly he needed James Torrance, +Jr., to conduct his business for him successfully.</p> +<p>With the close of the fourth day, and no reply, Jimmy was +thoroughly exasperated. The kindly clerk, who by this time had +taken a personal interest in this steadiest of customers, suggested +that Jimmy try applying for positions advertised in the Help Wanted +column, and this he decided to do.</p> +<p>There were only two concerns advertising for general managers in +the issue which Jimmy scanned; one ad called for an experienced +executive to assume the general management of an old established +sash, door and blind factory; the other insisted upon a man with +mail-order experience to take charge of the mail-order department +of a large department store.</p> +<p>Neither of these were precisely what Jimmy had hoped for, his +preference really being for the general management of an automobile +manufactory or possibly something in the airplane line. Sash, door +and blind sounded extremely prosaic and uninteresting to Mr. +Torrance. The mail-order proposition, while possibly more +interesting, struck him as being too trifling and unimportant.</p> +<p>“However,” he thought, “it will do no harm to +have a talk with these people, and possibly I might even consider +giving one of them a trial.”</p> +<p>And so, calling a taxi, he drove out onto the west side where, +in a dingy and squalid neighborhood, the taxi stopped in front of a +grimy unpainted three-story brick building, from which a great deal +of noise and dust were issuing. Jimmy found the office on the +second floor, after ascending a narrow, dark, and dirty stairway. +Jimmy’s experience of manufacturing plants was extremely +limited, but he needed no experience as he entered the room to see +that he was in a busy office of a busy plant. Everything about the +office was plain and rather dingy, but there were a great many file +clerks and typists and considerable bustling about.</p> +<p>After stating his business to a young lady who sat behind a +switchboard, upon the front of which was the word +“Information,” and waiting while she communicated with +an inner office over the telephone, he was directed in the +direction of a glass partition at the opposite end of the +room—a partition in which there were doors at intervals, and +upon each door a name.</p> +<p>He had been told that Mr. Brown would see him, and rapping upon +the door bearing that name he was bid to enter, and a moment later +found himself in the presence of a middle-aged man whose every +gesture and movement was charged with suppressed nerve energy.</p> +<p>As Jimmy entered the man was reading a letter. He finished it +quickly, slapped it into a tray, and wheeled in his chair toward +his caller.</p> +<p>“Well?” he snapped, as Jimmy approached him.</p> +<p>“I came in reply to your advertisement for a general +manager,” announced Jimmy confidently.</p> +<p>The man sized him up quickly from head to foot. His eyes +narrowed and his brows contracted.</p> +<p>“What experience you had? Who you been with, and how many +years?” He snapped the questions at Jimmy with the rapidity +of machine-gun fire.</p> +<p>“I have the necessary ability,” replied Jimmy, +“to manage your business.”</p> +<p>“How many years have you had in the sash, door and blind +business?” snapped Mr. Brown.</p> +<p>“I have never had any experience in the sash, door and +blind business,” replied Jimmy. “I didn’t come +here to make sash, doors and blinds. I came here to manage your +business.”</p> +<p>Mr. Brown half rose from his chair. His eyes opened a little +wider than normal. “What the—” he started; and +then, “Well, of all the—” Once again he found it +impossible to go on. “You came here to manage a sash, door +and blind factory, and don’t know anything about the +business! Well, of all—”</p> +<p>“I assumed,” said Jimmy, “that what you wanted +in a general manager was executive ability, and that’s what I +have.”</p> +<p>“What you have,” replied Mr. Brown, “is a hell +of a crust. Now, run along, young fellow. I am a very busy +man—and don’t forget to close the door after you as you +go out.”</p> +<p>Jimmy did not forget to close the door. As he walked the length +of the interminable room between rows of desks, before which were +seated young men and young women, all of whom Jimmy thought were +staring at him, he could feel the deep crimson burning upward from +his collar to the roots of his hair.</p> +<p>Never before in his life had Jimmy’s self-esteem received +such a tremendous jolt. He was still blushing when he reached his +cab, and as he drove back toward the Loop he could feel successive +hot waves suffuse his countenance at each recollection of the +humiliating scene through which he had just passed.</p> +<p>It was not until the next day that Jimmy had sufficiently +reestablished his self-confidence to permit him to seek out the +party who wished a mail-order manager, and while in this instance +he met with very pleasant and gentlemanly treatment, his +application was no less definitely turned down.</p> +<p>For a month Jimmy trailed one job after another. At the end of +the first week he decided that the street-cars and sole leather +were less expensive than taxicabs, as his funds were running +perilously low; and he also lowered his aspirations successively +from general managerships through departmental heads, assistants +thereto, office managers, assistant office managers, and various +other vocations, all with the same result; discovering meanwhile +that experience, while possibly not essential as some of the ads +stated, was usually the rock upon which his hopes were dashed.</p> +<p>He also learned something else which surprised him greatly: that +rather than being an aid to his securing employment, his college +education was a drawback, several men telling him bluntly that they +had no vacancies for rah-rah boys.</p> +<p>At the end of the second week Jimmy had moved from his hotel to +a still less expensive one, and a week later to a cheap +boarding-house on the north side. At first he had written his +father and his mother regularly, but now he found it difficult to +write them at all. Toward the middle of the fourth week Jimmy had +reached a point where he applied for a position as office-boy.</p> +<p>“I’ll be damned if I’m going to quit,” +he said to himself, “if I have to turn street-sweeper. There +must be some job here in the city that I am capable of filling, and +I’m pretty sure that I can at least get a job as +office-boy.”</p> +<p>And so he presented himself to the office manager of a +life-insurance company that had advertised such a vacancy. A very +kindly gentleman interviewed him.</p> +<p>“What experience have you had?” he asked.</p> +<p>Jimmy looked at him aghast.</p> +<p>“Do I have to have experience to be an office-boy?” +he asked.</p> +<p>“Well, of course,” replied the gentleman, “it +is not essential, but it is preferable. I already have applications +from a dozen or more fellows, half of whom have had experience, and +one in particular, whom I have about decided to employ, held a +similar position with another life-insurance company.”</p> +<p>Jimmy rose. “Good day,” he said, and walked out.</p> +<p>That day he ate no lunch, but he had discovered a place where an +abundance might be had for twenty-five cents if one knew how to +order and ordered judiciously. And so to this place he repaired for +his dinner. Perched upon a high stool, he filled at least a corner +of the aching void within.</p> +<p>Sitting in his room that night he took account of his assets and +his liabilities. His room rent was paid until Saturday and this was +Thursday, and in his pocket were one dollar and sixty cents. +Opening his trunk, he drew forth a sheet of paper and an envelope, +and, clearing the top of the rickety little table which stood at +the head of his bed, he sat down on the soiled counterpane and +wrote a letter.</p> +<blockquote> +<p>DEAR DAD:</p> +<p>I guess I’m through, I have tried and failed. It is hard +to admit it, but I guess I’ll have to. If you will send me +the price I’ll come home.</p> +<p class="rgt">With love,<br /> +Jim</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Slowly he folded the letter and inserted it in the envelope, his +face mirroring an utter dejection such as Jimmy Torrance had never +before experienced in his life.</p> +<p>“Failure,” he muttered, “unutterable +failure.”</p> +<p>Taking his hat, he walked down the creaking stairway, with its +threadbare carpet, and out onto the street to post his letter.</p> +<h3><a id="Ch_V" name="Ch_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h3> +<h2>JIMMY LANDS ONE.</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Miss Elizabeth Compton sat in the dimly lighted library upon a +deep-cushioned, tapestried sofa. She was not alone, yet although +there were many comfortable chairs in the large room, and the sofa +was an exceptionally long one, she and her companion occupied but +little more space than would have comfortably accommodated a single +individual.</p> +<p>“Stop it, Harold,” she admonished. “I utterly +loathe being mauled.”</p> +<p>“But I can’t help it, dear. It seems so absolutely +wonderful! I can’t believe it—that you are really +mine.”</p> +<p>“But I’m not—yet!” exclaimed the +girl.</p> +<p>“There are a lot of formalities and bridesmaids and +ministers and things that have got to be taken into consideration +before I am yours. And anyway there is no necessity for mussing me +up so. You might as well know now as later that I utterly loathe +this cave-man stuff. And really, Harold, there is nothing about +your appearance that suggests a cave-man, which is probably one +reason that I like you.”</p> +<p>“Like me?” exclaimed the young man. “I thought +you loved me.”</p> +<p>“I have to like you in order to love you, don’t +I?” she parried. “And one certainly has to like the man +she is going to marry.”</p> +<p>“Well,” grumbled Mr. Bince, “you might be more +enthusiastic about it.”</p> +<p>“I prefer,” explained the girl, “to be loved +decorously. I do not care to be pawed or clawed or crumpled. After +we have been married for fifteen or twenty years and are really +well acquainted—”</p> +<p>“Possibly you will permit me to kiss you,” Bince +finished for her.</p> +<p>“Don’t be silly, Harold,” she retorted. +“You have kissed me so much now that my hair is all down, and +my face must be a sight. Lips are what you are supposed to kiss +with—you don’t have to kiss with your hands.”</p> +<p>“Possibly I was a little bit rough. I am sorry,” +apologized the young man. “But when a fellow has just been +told by the sweetest girl in the world that she will marry him, +it’s enough to make him a little bit crazy.”</p> +<p>“Not at all,” rejoined Miss Compton. “We +should never forget the stratum of society to which we belong, and +what we owe to the maintenance of the position we hold. My father +has always impressed upon me the fact that gentlemen or gentlewomen +are always gentle-folk under any and all circumstances and +conditions. I distinctly recall his remark about one of his +friends, whom he greatly admired, to this effect: that he always +got drunk like a gentleman. Therefore we should do everything as +gentle-folk should do things, and when we make love we should make +love like gentlefolk, and not like hod-carriers or +cavemen.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said the young man; “I’ll try to +remember.”</p> +<p>It was a little after nine o’clock when Harold Bince arose +to leave.</p> +<p>“I’ll drive you home,” volunteered the girl. +“Just wait, and I’ll have Barry bring the roadster +around.”</p> +<p>“I thought we should always do the things that gentle-folk +should do,” said Bince, grinning, after being seated safely +in the car. They had turned out of the driveway into Lincoln +Parkway.</p> +<p>“What do you mean?” asked Elizabeth.</p> +<p>“Is it perfectly proper for young ladies to drive around +the streets of a big city alone after dark?”</p> +<p>“But I’m not alone,” she said.</p> +<p>“You will be after you leave me at home.”</p> +<p>“Oh, well, I’m different.”</p> +<p>“And I’m glad that you are!” exclaimed Bince +fervently. “I wouldn’t love you if you were like the +ordinary run.”</p> +<p>Bince lived at one of the down-town clubs, and after depositing +him there and parting with a decorous handclasp the girl turned her +machine and headed north for home. At Erie Street came a sudden +loud hissing of escaping air.</p> +<p>“Darn!” exclaimed Miss Elizabeth Compton as she drew +in beside the curb and stopped. Although she knew perfectly well +that one of the tires was punctured, she got out and walked around +in front as though in search of the cause of the disturbance, and +sure enough, there it was, flat as a pancake, the left front +tire.</p> +<p>There was an extra wheel on the rear of the roadster, but it was +heavy and cumbersome, and the girl knew from experience what a +dirty job changing a wheel is. She had just about decided to drive +home on the rim, when a young man crossed the walk from Erie Street +and joined her in her doleful appraisement of the punctured +casing.</p> +<p>“Can I help you any?” he asked.</p> +<p>She looked up at him. “Thank you,” she replied, +“but I think I’ll drive home on it as it is. They can +change it there.”</p> +<p>“It looks like a new casing,” he said. “It +would be too bad to ruin it. If you have a spare I will be very +glad to change it for you,” and without waiting for her +acquiescence he stripped off his coat, rolled up his shirt-sleeves, +and dove under the seat for the jack.</p> +<p>Elizabeth Compton was about to protest, but there was something +about the way in which the stranger went at the job that indicated +that he would probably finish it if he wished to, in spite of any +arguments she could advance to the contrary. As he worked she +talked with him, discovering not only that he was a rather nice +person to look at, but that he was equally nice to talk to.</p> +<p>She could not help but notice that his clothes were rather badly +wrinkled and that his shoes were dusty and well worn; for when he +kneeled in the street to operate the jack the sole of one shoe was +revealed beneath the light of an adjacent arc, and she saw that it +was badly worn. Evidently he was a poor young man.</p> +<p>She had observed these things almost unconsciously, and yet they +made their impression upon her, so that when he had finished she +recalled them, and was emboldened thereby to offer him a bill in +payment for his services. He refused, as she had almost expected +him to do, for while his clothes and his shoes suggested that he +might accept a gratuity, his voice and his manner belied them.</p> +<p>During the operation of changing the wheel the young man had a +good opportunity to appraise the face and figure of the girl, both +of which he found entirely to his liking, and when finally she +started off, after thanking him, he stood upon the curb watching +the car until it disappeared from view.</p> +<p>Slowly he drew from his pocket an envelope which had been +addressed and stamped for mailing, and very carefully tore it into +small bits which he dropped into the gutter. He could not have told +had any one asked him what prompted him to the act. A girl had come +into his life for an instant, and had gone out again, doubtless +forever, and yet in that instant Jimmy Torrance had taken a new +grasp upon his self-esteem.</p> +<p>It might have been the girl, and again it might not have been. +He could not tell. Possibly it was the simple little act of +refusing the tip she had proffered him. It might have been any one +of a dozen little different things, or an accumulation of them all, +that had brought back a sudden flood of the old self-confidence and +optimism.</p> +<p>“To-morrow,” said Jimmy as he climbed into his bed, +“I am going to land a job.”</p> +<p>And he did. In the department store to the general managership +of whose mail-order department he had aspired Jimmy secured a +position in the hosiery department at ten dollars a week. The +department buyer who had interviewed him asked him what experience +he had had with ladies’ hosiery.</p> +<p>“About four or five years,” replied Jimmy.</p> +<p>“For whom did you work?”</p> +<p>“I was in business for myself,” replied the +applicant, “both in the West and in the East. I got my first +experience in a small town in Nebraska, but I carried on a larger +business in the East later.”</p> +<p>So they gave Jimmy a trial in a new section of the hosiery +department, wherein he was the only male clerk. The buyer had +discovered that there was a sufficient proportion of male +customers, many of whom displayed evident embarrassment in +purchasing hosiery from young ladies, to warrant putting a man +clerk in one of the sections for this class of trade.</p> +<p>The fact of the matter was, however, that the astute buyer was +never able to determine the wisdom of his plan, since Jimmy’s +entire time was usually occupied in waiting upon impressionable +young ladies. However, inasmuch as it redounded to the profit of +the department, the buyer found no fault.</p> +<p>Possibly if Jimmy had been almost any other type of man from +what he was, his presence would not have been so flamboyantly +noticeable in a hosiery department. His stature, his features, and +his bronzed skin, that had lost nothing of its bronze in his +month’s search for work through the hot summer streets of a +big city, were as utterly out of place as would have been the +salient characteristics of a chorus-girl in a blacksmith-shop.</p> +<p>For the first week Jimmy was frightfully embarrassed, and to his +natural bronze was added an almost continuous flush of +mortification from the moment that he entered the department in the +morning until he left it at night.</p> +<p>“It is a job, however,” he thought, “and ten +dollars is better than nothing. I can hang onto it until something +better turns up.”</p> +<p>With his income now temporarily fixed at the amount of his +wages, he was forced to find a less expensive boarding-place, +although at the time he had rented his room he had been quite +positive that there could not be a cheaper or more undesirable +habitat for man. Transportation and other considerations took him +to a place on Indiana Avenue near Eighteenth Street, from whence he +found he could walk to and from work, thereby saving ten cents a +day. “And believe me,” he cogitated, “I need the +ten.”</p> +<p>Jimmy saw little of his fellow roomers. A strange, drab lot he +thought them from the occasional glimpses he had had in passings +upon the dark stairway and in the gloomy halls. They appeared to be +quiet, inoffensive sort of folk, occupied entirely with their own +affairs. He had made no friends in the place, not even an +acquaintance, nor did he care to. What leisure time he had he +devoted to what he now had come to consider as his life +work—the answering of blind ads in the Help Wanted columns of +one morning and one evening paper—the two mediums which +seemed to carry the bulk of such advertising.</p> +<p>For a while he had sought a better position by applying during +the noon hour to such places as gave an address close enough to the +department store in which he worked to permit him to make the +attempt during the forty-five-minute period he was allowed for his +lunch.</p> +<p>But he soon discovered that nine-tenths of the positions were +filled before he arrived, and that in the few cases where they were +not he not only failed of employment, but was usually so delayed +that he was late in returning to work after noon.</p> +<p>By replying to blind ads evenings he could take his replies to +the two newspaper offices during his lunch hour, thereby losing no +great amount of time. Although he never received a reply, he still +persisted as he found the attempt held something of a fascination +for him, similar probably to that which holds the lottery devotee +or the searcher after buried treasure—there was always the +chance that he would turn up something big.</p> +<p>And so another month dragged by slowly. His work in the +department store disgusted him. It seemed such a silly, futile +occupation for a full-grown man, and he was always fearful that the +sister or sweetheart or mother of some of his Chicago friends would +find him there behind the counter in the hosiery section.</p> +<p>The store was a large one, including many departments, and Jimmy +tried to persuade the hosiery buyer to arrange for his transfer to +another department where his work would be more in keeping with his +sex and appearance.</p> +<p>He rather fancied the automobile accessories line, but the buyer +was perfectly satisfied with Jimmy’s sales record, and would +do nothing to assist in the change. The university heavyweight +champion had reached a point where he loathed but one thing more +than he did silk hosiery, and that one thing was himself.</p> +<h3><a id="Ch_VI" name="Ch_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h3> +<h2>HAROLD PLAYS THE RAVEN.</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Mason Compton, president and general manager, sat in his private +office in the works of the International Machine Company, chewing +upon an unlighted cigar and occasionally running his fingers +through his iron-gray hair as he compared and recompared two +statements which lay upon the desk before him.</p> +<p>“Damn strange,” he muttered as he touched a button +beneath the edge of his desk. A boy entered the room. “Ask +Mr. Bince if he will be good enough to step in here a moment, +please,” said Compton; and a moment later, when Harold Bince +entered, the older man leaned back in his chair and motioned the +other to be seated.</p> +<p>“I can’t understand these statements, Harold,” +said Compton. “Here is one for August of last year and this +is this August’s statement of costs. We never had a better +month in the history of this organization than last month, and yet +our profits are not commensurate with the volume of business that +we did. That’s the reason I sent for these cost statements +and have compared them, and I find that our costs have increased +out of all proportions to what is warranted. How do you account for +it?”</p> +<p>“Principally the increased cost of labor,” replied +Bince. “The same holds true of everybody else. Every +manufacturer in the country is in the same plight we +are.”</p> +<p>“I know,” agreed Compton, “that that is true +to some measure. Both labor and raw materials have advanced, but we +have advanced our prices correspondingly. In some instances it +seems to me that our advance in prices, particularly on our +specialties, should have given us even a handsomer profit over the +increased cost of production than we formerly received.</p> +<p>“In the last six months since I appointed you assistant +manager I am afraid that I have sort of let things get out of my +grasp. I have a lot of confidence in you, Harold, and now that you +and Elizabeth are engaged I feel even more inclined to let you +shoulder the responsibilities that I have carried alone from the +inception of this organization. But I’ve got to be mighty +sure that you are going to do at least as well as I did. You have +shown a great deal of ability, but you are young and haven’t +had the advantage of the years of experience that made it possible +for me to finally develop a business second to none in this line in +the West.</p> +<p>“I never had a son, and after Elizabeth’s mother +died I have lived in the hope somehow that she would marry the sort +of chap who would really take the place of such a son as every man +dreams of—some one who will take his place and carry on his +work when he is ready to lay aside his tools. I liked your father, +Harold. He was one of the best friends that I ever had, and I can +tell you now what I couldn’t have you a month ago: that when +I employed you and put you in this position it was with the hope +that eventually you would fill the place in my business and in my +home of the son I never had.”</p> +<p>“Do you think Elizabeth guessed what was in your +mind?” asked Bince.</p> +<p>“I don’t know,” replied the older man. +“I have tried never to say anything to influence her. Years +ago when she was younger we used to talk about it half jokingly and +shortly after you told me of your engagement she remarked to me one +day that she was happy, for she knew you were going to be the sort +of son I had wanted.</p> +<p>“I haven’t anybody on earth but her, Harold, and +when I die she gets the business. I have arranged it in my will so +you two will share and share alike in profits after I go, but that +will be some time. I am far from being an old man, and I am a +mighty healthy one. However, I should like to be relieved of the +active management. There are a lot of things that I have always +wanted to do that I couldn’t do because I couldn’t +spare the time from my business.</p> +<p>“And so I want you to get thoroughly into the harness as +soon as possible, that I may turn over the entire management to you. +But I can’t do it, Harold, while the profits are +diminishing.”</p> +<p>As the older man’s gaze fell again to statements before +him the eyes of the younger man narrowed just a trifle as they rested +upon Mason Compton, and then as the older man looked up +Bince’s expression changed.</p> +<p>“I’ll do my best, sir,” he said, smiling. +“Of course I realize, as you must, that I have tried to learn +a great deal in a short time. I think I have reached a point now +where I pretty thoroughly grasp the possibilities and requirements +of my work, and I am sure that from now on you will note a decided +change for the better on the right side of the ledger.”</p> +<p>“I am sure of it, my boy,” said Compton heartily. +“Don’t think that I have been finding fault with +anything you have done. I just wanted to call your attention to +these figures. They mean something, and it’s up to you to +find out just what they do mean.”</p> +<p>And then there came a light tap on the door, which opened +immediately before any summons to enter had been given, and +Elizabeth Compton entered, followed by another young woman.</p> +<p>“Hello, there!” exclaimed Compton. “What gets +us out so early? And Harriet too! There is only one thing that +would bring you girls in here so early.”</p> +<p>“And what’s that?” asked Elizabeth.</p> +<p>“You are going shopping, and Elizabeth wants some +money.”</p> +<p>They all laughed. “You’re a regular Sherlock +Holmes!” exclaimed Harriet Holden.</p> +<p>“How much?” asked Compton of his daughter, still +smiling.</p> +<p>“How much have you?” asked Elizabeth. “I am +utterly broke.”</p> +<p>Compton turned to Bince. “Get her what she needs, +Harold,” he said.</p> +<p>The young man started to the door.</p> +<p>“Come with me, Elizabeth,” he said; “we will +go out to the cashier’s cage and get you fixed up.”</p> +<p>They entered Bince’s office, which adjoined +Compton’s.</p> +<p>“Wait here a minute, Elizabeth,” said Bince. +“How much do you want? I’ll get it for you and bring it +back. I want to see you a moment alone before you go.”</p> +<p>She told him how much she wanted, and he was back shortly with +the currency.</p> +<p>“Elizabeth,” he said, “I don’t know +whether you have noticed it or not, because your father isn’t +a man to carry his troubles home, but I believe that he is failing +rapidly, largely from overwork. He worries about conditions here +which really do not exist. I have been trying to take the load off +his shoulders so that he could ease up a bit, but he has got into a +rut from which he cannot be guided.</p> +<p>“He will simply have to be lifted completely out of it, or +he will stay here and die in the harness. Everything is running +splendidly, and now that I have a good grasp of the business I can +handle it. Don’t you suppose you could persuade him to take a +trip? I know that he wants to travel. He has told me so several +times, and if he could get away from here this fall and stay away +for a year, if possible, it would make a new man of him. I am +really very much worried about him, and while I hate to worry you I +feel that you are the only person who can influence him and that +something ought to be done and done at once.”</p> +<p>“Why, Harold,” exclaimed the girl, “there is +nothing the matter with father! He was never better in his life nor +more cheerful.”</p> +<p>“That’s the side of him that he lets you see,” +replied the man. “His gaiety is all forced. If you could see +him after you leave you would realize that he is on the verge of a +nervous breakdown. Your father is not an old man in years, but he +has placed a constant surtax on his nervous system for the last +twenty-five years without a let-up, and it doesn’t make any +difference how good a machine may be it is going to wear out some +day, and the better the machine the more complete will be the wreck +when the final break occurs.”</p> +<p>As he spoke he watched the girl’s face, the changing +expression of it, which marked her growing mental perturbation.</p> +<p>“You really believe it is as bad as that, Harold?” +she asked.</p> +<p>“It may be worse than I think,” he said. “It +is surely fully as bad.”</p> +<p>The girl rose slowly from the chair. “I will try and +persuade him to see Dr. Earle.”</p> +<p>The man took a step toward her. “I don’t believe a +doctor is what he needs,” he said quickly. “His +condition is one that even a nerve specialist might not diagnose +correctly. It is only some one in a position like mine, who has an +opportunity to observe him almost hourly, day by day, who would +realize his condition. I doubt if he has any organic trouble +whatever. What he needs is a long rest, entirely free from any +thought whatever of business. At least, Elizabeth, it will do him +no harm, and it may prolong his life for years. I wouldn’t go +messing around with any of these medical chaps.”</p> +<p>“Well,” she said at last, with a sigh, “I will +talk to him and see if I can’t persuade him to take a trip. +He has always wanted to visit Japan and China.”</p> +<p>“Just the thing!” exclaimed Bince; “just the +thing for him. The long sea voyage will do him a world of good. And +now,” he said, stepping to her side and putting an arm around +her.</p> +<p>She pushed him gently away.</p> +<p>“No,” she said; “I do not feel like kissing +now,” and turning she entered her father’s office, +followed by Bince.</p> +<h3><a id="Ch_VII" name="Ch_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h3> +<h2>JOBLESS AGAIN.</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>From her father’s works Elizabeth and Harriet drove to the +shopping district, where they strolled through a couple of shops +and then stopped at one of the larger stores.</p> +<p>Jimmy Torrance was arranging his stock, fully nine-tenths of +which he could have sworn he had just shown an elderly spinster who +had taken at least half an hour of his time and then left without +making a purchase. His back was toward his counter when his +attention was attracted by a feminine voice asking if he was busy. +As he turned about he recognized her instantly—the girl for +whom he had changed a wheel a month before and who unconsciously +had infused new ambition into his blood and saved him, temporarily +at least, from becoming a quitter.</p> +<p>He noticed as he waited on her that she seemed to be appraising +him very carefully, and at times there was a slightly puzzled +expression on her face, but evidently she did not recognize him, +and finally when she had concluded her purchases he was +disappointed that she paid for them in cash. He had rather hoped +that she would have them charged and sent, that he might learn her +name and address. And then she left, with Jimmy none the wiser +concerning her other than that her first name was Elizabeth and +that she was even better-looking than he recalled her to have +been.</p> +<p>“And the girl with her!” exclaimed Jimmy mentally. +“She was no slouch either. They are the two best-looking +girls I have seen in this town, notwithstanding the fact that +whether one likes Chicago or not he’s got to admit that there +are more pretty girls here than in any other city in the +country.</p> +<p>“I’m glad she didn’t recognize me. Of course, +I don’t know her, and the chances are that I never shall, but +I should hate to have any one recognize me here, or hereafter, as +that young man at the stocking counter. Gad! but it’s beastly +that a regular life-sized man should be selling stockings to women +for a living, or rather for a fraction of a living.”</p> +<p>While Jimmy had always been hugely disgusted with his position, +the sight of the girl seemed to have suddenly crystallized all +those weeks of self-contempt into a sudden almost mad desire to +escape what he considered his degrading and effeminating +surroundings. One must bear with Jimmy and judge him leniently, for +after all, notwithstanding his college diploma and physique, he was +still but a boy and so while it is difficult for a mature and sober +judgment to countenance his next step, if one can look back a few +years to his own youth he can at least find extenuating +circumstances surrounding Jimmy’s seeming foolishness.</p> +<p>For with a bang that caused startled clerks in all directions to +look up from their work he shattered the decorous monotone of the +great store by slamming his sales book viciously upon the counter, +and without a word of explanation to his fellow clerks marched out +of the section toward the buyer’s desk.</p> +<p>“Well, Mr. Torrance,” asked that gentleman, +“what can I do for you?”</p> +<p>“I am going to quit,” announced Jimmy.</p> +<p>“Quit!”’ exclaimed the buyer. “Why, +what’s wrong? Isn’t everything perfectly satisfactory? +You have never complained to me.”</p> +<p>“I can’t explain,” replied Jimmy. “I am +going to quit. I am not satisfied. I am going to +er—ah—accept another position.”</p> +<p>The buyer raised his eyebrows. “Ah!” he said. +“With—” and he named their closest +competitor.</p> +<p>“No,” said Jimmy. “I am going to get a regular +he-job.”</p> +<p>The other smiled. “If an increase in salary,” he +suggested, “would influence you, I had intended to tell you +that I would take care of you beginning next week. I thought of +making it fifteen dollars,” and with that unanswerable +argument for Jimmy’s continued service the buyer sat back and +folded his hands.</p> +<p>“Nothing stirring,” said Jimmy. “I +wouldn’t sell another sock if you paid me ten thousand +dollars a year. I am through.”</p> +<p>“Oh, very well,” said the buyer aggrievedly, +“but if you leave me this way you will be unable to refer to +the house.”</p> +<p>But nothing, not even a team of oxen, could have held Jimmy in +that section another minute, and so he got his pay and left with +nothing more in view than a slow death by starvation.</p> +<p>“There,” exclaimed Elizabeth Compton, as she sank +back on the cushions of her car.</p> +<p>“There what?” asked Harriet.</p> +<p>“I have placed him.”</p> +<p>“Whom?”</p> +<p>“That nice-looking young person who waited on us in the +hosiery section.”</p> +<p>“Oh!” said Harriet. “He was nice-looking, +wasn’t he? But he looked out of place there, and I think he +felt out of place. Did you notice how he flushed when he asked you +what size?” and the girls laughed heartily at the +recollection. “But where have you ever met him before?” +Harriet asked.</p> +<p>“I have never met him,” corrected Elizabeth, +accenting the “met.” “He changed a wheel on the +roadster several weeks ago one evening after I had taken Harold +down to the club. And he was very nice about it. I should say that +he is a gentleman, although his clothes were pretty badly +worn.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Harriet, “his suit was shabby, but +his linen was clean and his coat well brushed.”</p> +<p>“My!” exclaimed Elizabeth. “He must have made +an impression on some one.”</p> +<p>“Well,” said Harriet, “it isn’t often +you see such a nice-looking chap in the hosiery section.”</p> +<p>“No,” said Elizabeth, “and probably if he were +as nice as he looks he wouldn’t be there.”</p> +<p>Whereupon the subject was changed, and she promptly forgot Mr. +Jimmy Torrance. But Jimmy was not destined soon to forget her, for +as the jobless days passed and he realized more and more what an +ass he had made of himself, and why, he had occasion to think about +her a great deal, although never in any sense reproaching her. He +realized that the fault was his own and that he had done a foolish +thing in giving up his position because of a girl he did not know +and probably never would.</p> +<p>There came a Saturday when Jimmy, jobless and fundless, dreaded +his return to the Indiana Avenue rooming-house, where he knew the +landlady would be eagerly awaiting him, for he was a week in +arrears in his room rent already, and had been warned he could +expect no further credit.</p> +<p>“There is a nice young man wanting your room,” the +landlady had told him, “and I shall have to be having it +Saturday night unless you can pay up.”</p> +<p>Jimmy stood on the corner of Clark and Van Buren looking at his +watch. “I hate to do it,” he thought, “but the +Lizard said he could get twenty for it, and twenty would give me +another two weeks.” And so his watch went, and two weeks +later his cigarette-case and ring followed. Jimmy had never gone in +much for jewelry—a fact which he now greatly lamented.</p> +<p>Some of the clothes he still had were good, though badly in want +of pressing, and when, after still further days of fruitless +searching for work the proceeds from the articles he had pawned +were exhausted, it occurred to him he might raise something on all +but what he actually needed to cover his nakedness.</p> +<p>In his search for work he was still wearing his best-looking +suit; the others he would dispose of; and with this plan in his +mind on his return to his room that night he went to the tiny +closet to make a bundle of the things which he would dispose of on +the morrow, only to discover that in his absence some one had been +there before him, and that there was nothing left for him to +sell.</p> +<p>It would be two days before his room rent was again due, but in +the mean time Jimmy had no money wherewith to feed the inner man. +It was an almost utterly discouraged Jimmy who crawled into his bed +to spend a sleepless night of worry and vain regret, the principal +object of his regret being that he was not the son of a blacksmith +who had taught him how to shoe horses and who at the same time had +been too poor to send him to college.</p> +<p>Long since there had been driven into his mind the conviction +that for any practical purpose in life a higher education was as +useless as the proverbial fifth wheel to the coach.</p> +<p>“And even,” mused Jimmy, “if I had graduated +at the head of my class, I would be no better off than I am +now.”</p> +<h3><a id="Ch_VIII" name="Ch_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h3> +<h2>BREAD FROM THE WATERS.</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>The next day, worn out from loss of sleep, the young man started +out upon a last frenzied search for employment. He had no money for +breakfast, and so he went breakfastless, and as he had no carfare +it was necessary for him to walk the seemingly interminable miles +from one prospective job to another. By the middle of the afternoon +Jimmy was hungrier than he had ever been before in his life. He was +so hungry that it actually hurt, and he was weak from physical +fatigue and from disappointment and worry.</p> +<p>“I’ve got to eat,” he soliloquized fiercely, +“if I have to go out to-night and pound somebody on the head +to get the price, and I’m going to do it,” he concluded +as the odors of cooking food came to him from a cheap restaurant +which he was passing. He stopped a moment and looked into the +window at the catsup bottles and sad-looking pies which the +proprietor apparently seemed to think formed an artistic and +attractive window display.</p> +<p>“If I had a brick,” thought Jimmy, “I would +have one of those pies, even if I went to the jug for it,” +but his hunger had not made him as desperate as he thought he was, +and so he passed slowly on, and, glancing into the windows of the +store next door, saw a display of second-hand clothes and the sign +“Clothes Bought and Sold.”</p> +<p>Jimmy looked at those in the window and then down at his own, +which, though wrinkled, were infinitely better than anything on +display.</p> +<p>“I wonder,” he mused, “if I couldn’t put +something over in the way of high finance here,” and, acting +upon the inspiration, he entered the dingy little shop. When he +emerged twenty minutes later he wore a shabby and rather +disreputable suit of hand-me-downs, but he had two silver dollars +in his pocket.</p> +<p>When Jimmy returned to his room that night it was with a full +stomach, but with the knowledge that he had practically reached the +end of his rope. He had been unable to bring himself to the point +of writing his father an admission of his failure, and in fact he +had gone so far, and in his estimation had sunk so low, that he had +definitely determined he would rather starve to death now than +admit his utter inefficiency to those whose respect he most +valued.</p> +<p>As he climbed the stairway to his room he heard some one +descending from above, and as they passed beneath the dim light of +a flickering gas-jet he realized that the other stopped suddenly +and turned back to look after him as Jimmy continued his ascent of +the stairs; and then a low voice inquired:</p> +<p>“Say, bo, what you doin’ here?”</p> +<p>Jimmy turned toward the questioner.</p> +<p>“Oh!” he exclaimed as recognition of the other +dawned slowly upon him. “It’s you, is it? My old and +esteemed friend, the Lizard.”</p> +<p>“Sure, it’s me,” replied the Lizard. +“But what you doin’ here? Looking for an assistant +general manager?”</p> +<p>Jimmy grinned.</p> +<p>“Don’t rub it in,” he said, still smiling.</p> +<p>The other ascended toward him, his keen eyes appraising him from +head to foot.</p> +<p>“You live here?” he asked.</p> +<p>“Yes,” replied Jimmy; “do you?”</p> +<p>“Sure, I been livin’ here for the last six +months.”</p> +<p>“That’s funny,” said Jimmy; “I have been +here about two months myself.”</p> +<p>“What’s the matter with you?” asked the +Lizard. “Didn’t you like the job as general +manager?”</p> +<p>Jimmy flushed.</p> +<p>“Forget it,” he admonished.</p> +<p>“Where’s your room?” asked the Lizard.</p> +<p>“Up another flight,” said Jimmy. “Won’t +you come up?”</p> +<p>“Sure,” said the Lizard, and together the two +ascended the stairs and entered Jimmy’s room. Under the +brighter light there the Lizard scrutinized his host.</p> +<p>“You been against it, bo, haven’t you?” he +asked.</p> +<p>“I sure have,” said Jimmy.</p> +<p>“Gee,” said the other, “what a difference +clothes make! You look like a regular bum.”</p> +<p>“Thanks,” said Jimmy.</p> +<p>“What you doin’?” asked the Lizard.</p> +<p>“Nothing.”</p> +<p>“Lose your job?”</p> +<p>“I quit it,” said Jimmy. “I’ve only +worked a month since I’ve been here, and that for the +munificent salary of ten dollars a week.”</p> +<p>“Do you want to make some coin?” asked the +Lizard.</p> +<p>“I sure do,” said Jimmy. “I don’t know +of anything I would rather have.”</p> +<p>“I’m pullin’ off something to-morrow night. I +can use you,” and he eyed Jimmy shrewdly as he spoke.</p> +<p>“Cracking a box?” asked Jimmy, grinning.</p> +<p>“It might be something like that,” replied the +Lizard; “but you won’t have nothin’ to do but +stand where I put you and make a noise like a cat if you see +anybody coming. It ought to be something good. I been working on it +for three months. We’ll split something like fifty thousand +thirty-seventy.”</p> +<p>“Is that the usual percentage?” asked Jimmy.</p> +<p>“It’s what I’m offerin’ you,” +replied the lizard.</p> +<p>Thirty per cent of fifty thousand dollars! Jimmy jingled the few +pieces of silver remaining in his pocket. Fifteen thousand dollars! +And here he had been walking his legs off and starving in a vain +attempt to earn a few paltry dollars honestly.</p> +<p>“There’s something wrong somewhere,” muttered +Jimmy to himself.</p> +<p>“I’m taking it from an old crab who has more than he +can use, and all of it he got by robbing people that didn’t +have any to spare. He’s a big guy here. When anything big is +doing the newspaper guys interview him and his name is in all the +lists of subscriptions to charity—when they’re going to +be published in the papers. I’ll bet he takes nine-tenths of +his kale from women and children, and he’s an honored +citizen. I ain’t no angel, but whatever I’ve taken +didn’t cause nobody any sufferin’—I’m a +thief, bo, and I’m mighty proud of it when I think of what +this other guy is.”</p> +<p>Thirty per cent of fifty thousand dollars! Jimmy was sitting +with his legs crossed. He looked down at his ill-fitting, shabby +trousers, and then turned up the sole of one shoe which was worn +through almost to his sock. The Lizard watched him as a cat watches +a mouse. He knew that the other was thinking hard, and that +presently he would reach a decision, and through Jimmy’s mind +marched a sordid and hateful procession of recent +events—humiliation, rebuff, shame, poverty, hunger, and in +the background the face of his father and the face of a girl whose +name, even, he did not know.</p> +<p>Presently he looked up at the Lizard.</p> +<p>“Nothing doing, old top,” he said. “But +don’t mistake the motives which prompt me to refuse your +glittering offer. I am moved by no moral scruples, however +humiliating such a confession should be. The way I feel now I would +almost as lief go out and rob widows and orphans myself, but each +of us, some time in our life, has to consider some one who would +probably rather see us dead than disgraced. I don’t know +whether you get me or not.”</p> +<p>“I get you,” replied the Lizard, “and while +you may never wear diamonds, you’ll get more pleasure out of +life than I ever will, provided you don’t starve to death too +soon. You know, I had a hunch you would turn me down, and I’m +glad you did. If you were going crooked some time I thought +I’d like to have you with me. When it comes to men, I’m +a pretty good picker. That’s the reason I have kept out of +jail so long. I either pick a square one or I work +alone.”</p> +<p>“Thanks,” said Jimmy, “but how do you know +that after you pull this job I won’t tip off the police and +claim the reward.”</p> +<p>The Lizard grinned his lip grin.</p> +<p>“There ain’t one chance in a million,” he +said. “You’d starve to death before you’d do it. +And now, what you want is a job. I can probably get you one if you +ain’t too particular.”</p> +<p>“I’d do +anything,” said Jimmy, “that I could do and still look +a policeman in the face.”</p> +<p>“All right,” said the Lizard. “When I come +back I’ll bring you a job of some sort. I may be back +to-night, and I may not be back again for a month, and in the mean +time you got to live.”</p> +<p>He drew a roll of bills from his pocket and commenced to count +out several.</p> +<p>“Hold on!” cried Jimmy. “Once again, nothing +doing.”</p> +<p>“Forget it,” admonished the Lizard. “I’m +just payin’ back the twenty you loaned me.”</p> +<p>“But I didn’t loan it to you,” said Jimmy; +“I gave it to you as a reward for finding my +watch.”</p> +<p>The Lizard laughed and shoved the money across the table.</p> +<p>“Take it,” he said; “don’t be a damn +fool. And now so-long! I may bring you home a job to-night, but if +I don’t you’ve got enough to live on for a couple of +weeks.”</p> +<p>After the Lizard had gone Jimmy sat looking at the twenty +dollars for a long time.</p> +<p>“That fellow may be a thief,” he soliloquized, +“but whatever he is he’s white. Just imagine, the only +friend I’ve got in Chicago is a safe-blower.”</p> +<h3><a id="Ch_IX" name="Ch_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h3> +<h2>HAROLD SITS IN A GAME.</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>When Elizabeth Compton broached to her father the subject of a +much-needed rest and a trip to the Orient, he laughed at her. “Why, +girl,” he cried, “I was never better in my life! Where +in the world did you get this silly idea?”</p> +<p>“Harold noticed it first,” she replied, “and +called my attention to it; and now I can see that you really have +been failing.”</p> +<p>“Failing!” ejaculated Compton, with a scoff. +“Failing nothing! You’re a pair of young idiots. +I’m good for twenty years more of hard work, but, as I told +Harold, I would like to quit and travel, and I shall do so just as +soon as I am convinced that he can take my place.”</p> +<p>“Couldn’t he do it now?” asked the girl.</p> +<p>“No, I am afraid not,” replied Compton. “It is +too much to expect of him, but I believe that in another year he +will be able to.”</p> +<p>And so Compton put an end to the suggestion that he travel for +his health, and that night when Bince called she told him that she +had been unable to persuade her father that he needed a rest.</p> +<p>“I am afraid,” he said, “that you don’t +take it seriously enough yourself, and that you failed to impress +upon him the real gravity of his condition. It is really necessary +that he go—he must go.”</p> +<p>The girl looked up quickly at the speaker, whose tones seemed +unnecessarily vehement.</p> +<p>“I don’t quite understand,” she said, +“why you should take the matter so to heart. Father is the +best judge of his own condition, and, while he may need a rest, I +cannot see that he is in any immediate danger.”</p> +<p>“Oh, +well,” replied Bince irritably, “I just wanted him to +get away for his own sake. Of course, it don’t mean anything +to me.”</p> +<p>“What’s the matter with you tonight, anyway, +Harold?” she asked a half an hour later. “You’re +as cross and disagreeable as you can be.”</p> +<p>“No, I’m not,” he said. “There is +nothing the matter with me at all.”</p> +<p>But his denial failed to convince her, and as, unusually early, +a few minutes later he left, she realized that she had spent a most +unpleasant evening.</p> +<p>Bince went directly to his club, where he found four other men +who were evidently awaiting him.</p> +<p>“Want to sit in a little game to-night, Harold?” +asked one of them.</p> +<p>“Oh, hell,” replied Bince, “you fellows have +been sitting here all evening waiting for me. You know I want to. +My luck’s got to change some time.”</p> +<p>“Sure thing it has,” agreed another of the men. +“You certainly have been playing in rotten luck, but when it +does change—oh, baby!”</p> +<p>As the five men entered one of the cardrooms several of the +inevitable spectators drew away from the other games and approached +their table, for it was a matter of club gossip that these five +played for the largest stakes of any coterie among the habitues of +the card-room.</p> +<p>It was two o’clock in the morning before Bince disgustedly +threw his cards upon the table and rose. There was a nasty +expression on his face and in his mind a thing which he did not +dare voice—the final crystallization of a suspicion that he +had long harbored, that his companions had been for months +deliberately fleecing him. Tonight he had lost five thousand +dollars, nor was there a man at the table who did not hold his I. +O. U’s. for similar amounts.</p> +<p>“I’m through, absolutely through,” he said. +“I’ll be damned if I ever touch another +card.”</p> +<p>His companions only smiled wearily, for they knew that to-morrow +night he would be back at the table.</p> +<p>“How much of old man Compton’s money did you get +tonight?” asked one of the four after Bince had left the +room.</p> +<p>“About two thousand dollars,” was the reply, +“which added to what I already hold, puts Mr. Compton in my +debt some seven or eight thousand dollars.”</p> +<p>Whereupon they all laughed.</p> +<p>“I suppose,” remarked anther, “that it’s +a damn shame, but if we don’t get it some one else +will.”</p> +<p>“Is he paying anything at all?” asked another.</p> +<p>“Oh, yes; he comes across with something now and then, but +we’ll probably have to carry the bulk of it until after the +wedding.”</p> +<p>“Well, I can’t carry it forever,” said the +first speaker. “I’m not playing here for my +health,” and, rising, he too left the room. Going directly to +the buffet, he found Bince, as he was quite sure that he would.</p> +<p>“Look here, old man,” he said, “I hate to seem +insistent, but, on the level, I’ve got to have some +money.”</p> +<p>“I’ve told you two or three times,”’ +replied Bince, “that I’d let you have it as soon as I +could get it. I can’t get you any now.”</p> +<p>“If you haven’t got it, Mason Compton has,” +retorted the creditor, “and if you don’t come across +I’ll go to him and get it.”</p> +<p>Bince paled.</p> +<p>“You wouldn’t do that, Harry?” he almost +whimpered. “For God’s sake, don’t do that, and +I’ll try and see what I can do for you.”</p> +<p>“Well,” replied the other, “I don’t want +to be nasty, but I need some money badly.”</p> +<p>“Give me a little longer,” begged Bince, “and +I’ll see what I can do.”</p> +<p>Jimmy Torrance sat a long time in thought after the Lizard left. +“God!” he muttered. “I wonder what dad would say +if he knew that I had come to a point where I had even momentarily +considered going into partnership with a safe-blower, and that for +the next two weeks I shall be compelled to subsist upon the charity +of a criminal?</p> +<p>“I’m sure glad that I have a college education. It +has helped me materially to win to my present exalted standing in +society. Oh, well I might be worse off, I suppose. At least I +don’t have to worry about the income tax.</p> +<p>“It is now October, and since the first of the year I have +earned forty dollars exactly. I have also received a bequest of +twenty dollars, which of course is exempt. I venture to say that +there is not another able-bodied adult male in the United States +the making of whose income-tax schedule would be simpler than +mine.”</p> +<p>With which philosophic trend of thought, and the knowledge that +he could eat for at least two weeks longer, the erstwhile star +amateur first baseman sought the doubtful comfort of his narrow, +lumpy bed.</p> +<p>It was in the neighborhood of two o’clock the next morning +that he was awakened by a gentle tapping upon the panels of his +door.</p> +<p>“Who is it?” he asked. “What do you +want?”</p> +<p>“It’s me bo,” came the whispered reply in the +unmistakable tones of the Lizard.</p> +<p>Jimmy arose, lighted the gas, and opened the door.</p> +<p>“What’s the matter?” he whispered.</p> +<p>“Are the police on your trail?”</p> +<p>“No,” +replied the Lizard, grinning. “I just dropped in to tell you +that I grabbed a job for you.”</p> +<p>“Fine!” exclaimed Jimmy. “You’re a +regular fellow all right.”</p> +<p>“But you might not like the job,” suggested the +Lizard.</p> +<p>“As long as I can earn an honest dollar,” cried +Jimmy, striking a dramatic pose, “I care not what it may +be.”</p> +<p>The Lizard’s grin broadened.</p> +<p>“I ain’t so sure about that,” he said. +“I know your kind. You’re a regular gent. There is some +honest jobs that you would just as soon have as the smallpox, and +maybe this is one of them.”</p> +<p>“What is it?” asked Jimmy. “Don’t keep +me guessing any longer.”</p> +<p>“You know Feinheimer’s Cabaret.”</p> +<p>“The basement joint on Wells Street?” asked Jimmy. +“Sure I know it.”</p> +<p>“Well, that’s where I got you a job,” said the +Lizard.</p> +<p>“What doing?” asked Jimmy.</p> +<p>“Waiter,” was the reply.</p> +<p>“It isn’t any worse than standing behind a counter, +selling stockings to women,” said Jimmy.</p> +<p>“It ain’t such a bad job,” admitted the Lizard, +“if a guy ain’t too swelled up. Some of ‘em make +a pretty good thing out of it, what with their tips and short +changing—Oh, there are lots of little ways to get yours at +Feinheimer’s.”</p> +<p>“I see,” said Jimmy; “but don’t he pay +any wages?”</p> +<p>“Oh, sure,” replied the Lizard; “you get the +union scale.”</p> +<p>“When do I go to work?”</p> +<p>“Go around and see him to-morrow morning. He will put you +right to work.”</p> +<p>And so the following evening the patrons of Feinheimer’s +Cabaret saw a new face among the untidy servitors of the +establishment—a new face and a new figure, both of which +looked out of place in the atmosphere of the basement resort.</p> +<p>Feinheimer’s Cabaret held a unique place among the +restaurants of the city. Its patrons were from all classes of +society. At noon its many tables were largely filled by staid and +respectable business men, but at night a certain element of the +underworld claimed it as their own, and there was always a +sprinkling of people of the stage, artists, literary men and +politicians. It was, as a certain wit described it, a social +goulash, for in addition to its regular habitues there were those +few who came occasionally from the upper stratum of society in the +belief that they were doing something devilish. As a matter of +fact, slumming parties which began and ended at Feinheimer’s +were of no uncommon occurrence, and as the place was more than +usually orderly it was with the greatest safety that society made +excursions into the underworld of crime and vice through its +medium.</p> +<h3><a id="Ch_X" name="Ch_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h3> +<h2>AT FEINHEIMER’S.</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Feinheimer liked Jimmy’s appearance. He was big and +strong, and the fact that Feinheimer always retained one or two +powerful men upon his payroll accounted in a large measure for the +orderliness of his place. Occasionally one might start something at +Feinheimer’s, but no one was ever known to finish what he +started.</p> +<p>And so Jimmy found himself waiting upon table at a place that +was both reputable and disreputable, serving business men at noon +and criminals and the women of the underworld at night. In the +weeks that he was there he came to know many of the local +celebrities in various walks of life, to know them at least by +name. There was Steve Murray, the labor leader, whom rumor said was +one of Feinheimer’s financial backers—a large man with +a loud voice and the table manners of a Duroc-Jersey. Jimmy took an +instinctive dislike to the man the first time that he saw him.</p> +<p>And then there was Little Eva, whose real name was Edith. She +was a demure looking little girl, who came in every afternoon at +four o’clock for her breakfast. She usually came to +Jimmy’s table when it was vacant, and at four o’clock +she always ate alone. Later in the evening she would come in again +with a male escort, who was never twice the same.</p> +<p>“I wonder what’s the matter with me?” she said +to Jimmy one day as he was serving her breakfast. “I’m +getting awfully nervous.”</p> +<p>“That’s quite remarkable,” said Jimmy. +“I should think any one who smoked as many cigarettes and +drank as much whisky as you would have perfect nerves.”</p> +<p>The girl laughed, a rather soft and mellow laugh. “I +suppose I do hit it up a little strong,” she said.</p> +<p>“Strong?” exclaimed Jimmy. “Why, if I drank +half what you do I’d be in the Washingtonian Home in a +week.”</p> +<p>She looked at him quizzically for a moment, as she had looked at +him often since he had gone to work for Feinheimer.</p> +<p>“You’re a funny guy,” she said. “I +can’t quite figure you out. What are you doing here +anyway?”</p> +<p>“I never claimed to be much of a waiter,” said +Jimmy, “but I didn’t know I was so rotten that a +regular customer of the place couldn’t tell what I was trying +to do.”</p> +<p>“Oh, go on,” she cried; “I don’t mean +that. These other hash-slingers around here look the part. Aside +from that, about the only thing they know how to do is roll a +souse; but you’re different.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Jimmy, “I am different. My +abilities are limited. All I can do is wait on table, while they +have two accomplishments.”</p> +<p>“Oh, you don’t have to tell me,” said the +girl. “I wasn’t rubbering. I was just sort of +interested in you.”</p> +<p>“Thanks,” said Jimmy.</p> +<p>She went on with her breakfast while Jimmy set up an adjoining +table. Presently when he came to fill her water-glass she looked up +at him again.</p> +<p>“I like you, kid,” she said. “You’re not +fresh. You know what I am as well as the rest of them, but you wait +on me just the same as you would on”—she hesitated and +there was a little catch in her voice as she finished her +sentence—“just the same as you would on a decent +girl.”</p> +<p>Jimmy looked at her in surprise. It was the first indication +that he had ever had from an habitue of Feinheimer’s that +there might lurk within their breasts any of the finer +characteristics whose outward indices are pride and shame. He was +momentarily at a loss as to what to say, and as he hesitated the +girl’s gaze went past him and she exclaimed:</p> +<p>“Look who’s here!”</p> +<p>Jimmy turned to look at the newcomer, and saw the Lizard +directly behind him.</p> +<p>“Howdy, bo,” said his benefactor. “I thought +I’d come in and give you the once-over. And here’s +Little Eva with a plate of ham and at four o’clock in the +afternoon.”</p> +<p>The Lizard dropped into a chair at the table with the girl, and +after Jimmy had taken his order and departed for the kitchen Little +Eva jerked her thumb toward his retreating figure.</p> +<p>“Friend of yours?” she asked.</p> +<p>“He might have a worse friend,” replied the Lizard +non-committally.</p> +<p>“What’s his graft?” asked the girl.</p> +<p>“He ain’t got none except being on the square. +It’s funny,” the Lizard philosophized, “but +here’s me with a bank roll that would choke a horse, and you +probably with a stocking full of dough, and I’ll bet all the +money I ever had or ever expect to have if one of us could change +places with that poor simp we’d do it.”</p> +<p>“He is a square guy, isn’t he?” said the girl. +“You can almost tell it by looking at him. How did you come +to know him?”</p> +<p>“Oh, that’s a long story,” said the Lizard. +“We room at the same place, but I knew him before +that.”</p> +<p>“On Indiana near Eighteenth?” asked the girl.</p> +<p>“How the hell did you know?” he queried.</p> +<p>“I know a lot of things I ain’t supposed to +know,” replied she.</p> +<p>“You’re a wise guy, all right, Eva, and one thing I +like about you is that you don’t let anything you know hurt +you.”</p> +<p>And then, after a pause: “I like him,” she said. +“What’s his name?”</p> +<p>The Lizard eyed her for a moment.</p> +<p>“Don’t you get to liking him too much,” he said. “That +bird’s the class. He ain’t for any +little—”</p> +<p>“Cut it!” exclaimed the girl. “I’m as +good as you are and a damn straighter. What I get I earn, and I +don’t steal it.”</p> +<p>The Lizard grinned. “I guess you’re right at that; +but don’t try to pull him down any lower than he is. He is +coming up again some day to where he belongs.”</p> +<p>“I ain’t going to try to pull him down,” said +the girl. “And anyhow, when were you made his +godfather?”</p> +<p>Jimmy saw Eva almost daily for many weeks. He saw her at her +post-meridian breakfast—sober and subdued; he saw her later +in the evening, in various stages of exhilaration, but at those +times she did not come to his table and seldom if ever did he catch +her eye.</p> +<p>They talked a great deal while she breakfasted, and he learned +to like the girl and to realize that she possessed two +personalities. The one which he liked dominated her at breakfast; +the other which he loathed guided her actions later in the evening. +Neither of them ever referred to those hours of her life, and as +the days passed Jimmy found himself looking forward to the hour +when Little Eva would come to Feinheimer’s for her +breakfast.</p> +<h3><a id="Ch_XI" name="Ch_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h3> +<h2>CHRISTMAS EVE.</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>It was Christmas Eve. Elizabeth Compton and Harriet Holden were +completing the rounds of their friends’ homes with Christmas +remembrances—a custom that they had continued since +childhood. The last parcel had been delivered upon the South Side, +and they were now being driven north on Michigan Boulevard toward +home. Elizabeth directed the chauffeur to turn over Van Buren to +State, which at this season of the year was almost alive with +belated Christmas shoppers and those other thousands who always +seize upon the slightest pretext for a celebration.</p> +<p>It was a noisy, joyous crowd whose spirit, harmonizing with the +bright lights and the gay shop windows, infected all who came +within its influence. As the car moved slowly northward along the +world’s greatest retail street the girls leaned forward to +watch the passing throng through the windows.</p> +<p>“Isn’t it wonderful,” exclaimed Harriet, +“what a transformation a few lights make? Who would ever +think of State Street as a fairy-land? And yet, if you half close +your eyes the hallucination is complete. Even the people who by +daylight are shoddy and care-worn take on an appearance of romance +and gaiety, and the tawdry colored lights are the scintillant gems +of the garden of a fairy prince.”</p> +<p>“Don’t!” Elizabeth pleaded. “The city +night always affects me. It makes me want to do something +adventurous, and on Christmas Eve it is even worse. If you keep on +like that I shall soon be telling David to drive us up and down +State Street all night.”</p> +<p>“I wish we didn’t have to go home right away,” +said Harriet. “I feel like doing something +devilish.”</p> +<p>“Well, let’s!” exclaimed Elizabeth.</p> +<p>“Do something devilish?” inquired Harriet. +“What, for instance?”</p> +<p>“Oh, ‘most anything that we shouldn’t +do,” replied Elizabeth, “and there isn’t anything +that we could do down here alone that we should do.”</p> +<p>They both laughed. “I have it!” exclaimed Elizabeth +suddenly. “We’ll be utterly abandoned—we’ll +have supper at Feinheimer’s without an escort.”</p> +<p>Harriet cast a horrified glance at her companion. “Why, +Elizabeth Compton,” she cried, “you wouldn’t +dare. You know you wouldn’t dare!”</p> +<p>“Do you dare me?” asked the other.</p> +<p>“But suppose some one should see us?” argued +Harriet. “Your father would never forgive us.”</p> +<p>“If we see any one in Feinheimer’s who knows +us,” argued Elizabeth shrewdly, “they will be just as +glad to forget it as we. And anyway it will do it no harm. I +shall have David stay right outside the door so that if I call him +he can come. I don’t know what I would do without David. He +is a sort of Rock of Ages and Gibraltar all in one.”</p> +<p>Through the speaking-tube Elizabeth directed David to drive to +Feinheimer’s, and, whatever David may have thought of the +order, he gave no outward indication of it.</p> +<p>Christmas Eve at Feinheimer’s is, or was, a riot of +unconfined hilarity, although the code of ethics of the place was +on a higher plane than that which governed the Christmas Eve and +New Year’s Eve patrons of so-called respectable restaurants, +where a woman is not safe from insult even though she be properly +escorted, while in Feinheimer’s a woman with an escort was +studiously avoided by the other celebrators unless she chose to +join with them. As there was only one class of women who came to +Feinheimer’s at night without escort, the male habitues had +no difficulty in determining who they might approach and who they +might not.</p> +<p>Jimmy Torrance was as busy as a cranberry merchant. He had four +tables to attend to, and while the amount of food he served grew +more and more negligible as the evening progressed, his trips to +the bar were exceedingly frequent. One of his tables had been vacated +for a few minutes when, upon his return from the bar with a round +of drinks for Steve Murray and his party he saw that two women had +entered and were occupying his fourth table. Their backs were +toward him, and he gave them but little attention other than to +note that they were unescorted and to immediately catalogue them +accordingly. Having distributed Steve Murray’s order, Jimmy +turned toward his new patrons, and, laying a menu card before each, +he stood between them waiting for their order.</p> +<p>“What shall we take?” asked Elizabeth of Harriet. +Then: “What have you that’s good?” and she looked +up at the waiter.</p> +<p>Jimmy prided himself upon self-control, and his serving at +Feinheimer’s had still further schooled him in the repression +of any outward indication of his emotions. For, as most men of his +class, he had a well-defined conception of what constituted a +perfect waiter, one of the requisites being utter indifference to +any of the affairs of his patrons outside of those things which +actually pertained to his duties as a servitor; but in this +instance Jimmy realized that he had come very close to revealing +the astonishment which he felt on seeing this girl in +Feinheimer’s and unescorted.</p> +<p>If Jimmy was schooled in self-control, Elizabeth Compton was +equally so. She recognized the waiter immediately, but not even by +a movement of an eyelid did she betray the fact; which may possibly +be accounted for by the fact that it meant little more to her than +as though she had chanced to see the same street-sweeper several +times in succession, although after he had left with their order +she asked Harriet if she, too, had recognized him.</p> +<p>“Immediately,” replied her friend. “It +doesn’t seem possible that such a good-looking chap should be +occupying such a menial position.”</p> +<p>“There must be something wrong with him,” rejoined +Elizabeth; “probably utterly inefficient.”</p> +<p>“Or he may have some vice,” suggested Harriet.</p> +<p>“He doesn’t look it,” said Elizabeth. +“He looks too utterly healthy for that. We’ve seen some +of these drug addicts in our own set, as you may readily recall. +No, I shouldn’t say that he was that.”</p> +<p>“I suppose the poor fellow has never had an +opportunity,” said Harriet. “He has a good face, his +eyes and forehead indicate intelligence, and his jaw is strong and +aggressive. Probably, though, he was raised in poverty and knows +nothing better than what he is doing now. It is too bad that some +of these poor creatures couldn’t have the advantages of +higher education.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Elizabeth, “it is too bad. Take a +man like that; with a college education he could attain almost any +decree of success he chose.”</p> +<p>“He certainly could,” agreed Harriet; and then +suddenly: “Why, what’s the matter, Elizabeth? Your face +is perfectly scarlet.”</p> +<p>The other girl tapped the floor with the toe of one boot +impatiently.</p> +<p>“That horrid creature at the next table just winked at +me,” she said disgustedly.</p> +<p>Harriet looked about in the direction her companion had +indicated, to see a large, overdressed man staring at them. There +was a smirk on his face, and as Harriet caught his eye she saw him +rise and, to her horror, realized that he was advancing toward +their table.</p> +<p>He stopped in front of them with his huge hands resting on the +edge of their table and looked down at Elizabeth.</p> +<p>“Hello, kiddo!” he said. “What are you going +to drink?”</p> +<p>Elizabeth gave the man one look such as would utterly have +frozen a male from her own stratum of society, but it had as little +effect upon Steve Murray’s self-assurance as the cork from a +popgun would have on the armored sides of a rhinoceros.</p> +<p>“All right,” said the man, “what’s the +use of asking? There’s only one thing when Steve Murray buys. +Here, waiter,” he yelled, pounding on the table. The nearest +waiter, who chanced not to be Jimmy, who was then in the kitchen, +came hurriedly forward. “Open up some wine,” commanded +Murray. “Come on, boys! Bring your chairs over here,” +he continued, addressing his companions; “let’s have a +little party.”</p> +<p>Elizabeth Compton rose.</p> +<p>“You will oblige me,” she said, “by leaving +our table.”</p> +<p>Steve Murray laughed uproariously. He had dropped into a chair +next to hers.</p> +<p>“That’s great!” he cried. “I guess you +don’t know who I am, kiddo. You won’t cop off anything +better in this joint than Steve Murray. Come on—let’s +be friends. That’s a good girl,” and before Elizabeth +realized the man’s intentions he had seized her wrist and +pulled her down into his lap.</p> +<p>It was this scene that broke upon Jimmy’s view as he +emerged from the kitchen with a laden tray. He saw Steve Murray +seize the girl, and he saw her struggling to free herself, and then +there was a mighty crash as Jimmy dropped the tray of steaming food +upon the floor and ran quickly forward.</p> +<p>Murray was endeavoring to draw the girl’s lips to his as +Jimmy’s hand shot between their faces and pushed that of the +man away. With his free arm he encircled the girl’s body and +attempted to draw her from her assailant.</p> +<p>“Cut it, Murray!” he commanded in a low tone of +voice. “She isn’t your sort.”</p> +<p>“Who the hell are you?” cried the labor leader, +releasing the girl and rising to his feet. “Get the hell out +of here, you dirty hash-slinger! Any girl in this place belongs to +me if I want her. There don’t only one kind come in here +without an escort, or with one, either, for that matter. You get +back on your job, where you belong,” and the man pressed +forward trying to push Jimmy aside and lay hands on Elizabeth +again.</p> +<p>Jimmy did not strike him then. He merely placed the palm of one +hand against the man’s breast and pushed him backward, but +with such force that, striking a chair, Steve Murray fell backward +and sprawled upon the floor. Scrambling to his feet, he rushed +Jimmy like a mad bull.</p> +<p>In his younger days Murray had been a boiler-maker, and he still +retained most of his great strength. He was a veritable mountain of +a man, and now in the throes of a berserker rage he was a +formidable opponent. His face was white and his lips were drawn +back tightly, exposing his teeth in a bestial snarl as he charged +at Jimmy. His great arms and huge hands beat to the right and left +like enormous flails, one blow from which might seemingly have +felled an ox.</p> +<p>Torrance had stood for a moment with an arm still around the +girl; but as Murray rose to his feet he pushed her gently behind +him, and then as the man was upon him Jimmy ducked easily under the +other’s clumsy left and swung a heavy right hook to his jaw. +As Murray staggered to the impact of the blow Jimmy reached him +again quickly and easily with a left to the nose, from which a +crimson burst spattered over the waiter and his victim. Murray went +backward and would have fallen but for the fact he came in contact +with one of his friends, and then he was at Jimmy again.</p> +<p>By this time waiters and patrons were crowding forward from all +parts of the room, and Feinheimer, shrieking at the top of his +voice, was endeavoring to worm his fat, toadlike body through the +cordon of excited spectators. The proprietor reached the scene of +carnage just in time to see Jimmy plant a lovely left on the point +of Murray’s jaw.</p> +<p>The big man tottered drunkenly for an instant, his knees sagged, +and, as Jimmy stood in readiness for any eventuality, the other +crashed heavily to the floor.</p> +<p>Towering above the others in the room suddenly came a big young +fellow shouldering his way through the crowd, a young man in the +uniform of a chauffeur. Elizabeth saw him before he discovered +her.</p> +<p>“Oh David!” she cried. “Quick! Quick! Take us +out of here!”</p> +<p>As the chauffeur reached her side and took in the scene he +jerked his head toward Jimmy. “Did any one hurt you +miss?”</p> +<p>“No, no!” she cried. “This man was very kind. +Just get us out of here, David, as quickly as you can.” And, +turning to Jimmy: “How can I ever repay you? If it +hadn’t been for you—oh, I hate to think what would have +happened. Come out to the car and give David your name and address, +and I will send you something tomorrow.”</p> +<p>“Oh, that’s all right,” said Jimmy. “You +just get out of here as quick as you can. If the police happened to +look in now you might be held as a witness.”</p> +<p>“How utterly horrible!” exclaimed Elizabeth. +“Come, David! Come, Harriet!” David making a way for +her, she started for the door.</p> +<p>Harriet paused long enough to extend her hand to Jimmy. +“It was wonderfully brave of you,” she said. “We +could never do enough to repay you. My name is Harriet +Holden,” and she gave him an address on Lake Shore Drive. +“If you will come Monday morning about ten +o’clock,” she said, “I am sure that there is +something we can do for you. If you want a better position,” +she half suggested, “I know my father could help, although he +must never know about this to-night.”</p> +<p>“Thanks,” said Jimmy, smiling. “It’s +awfully good of you, but you must hurry now. There goes your +friend.”</p> +<p>Feinheimer stood as one dazed, looking down at the bulk of his +friend and associate.</p> +<p>“Mein Gott!” he cried. “What kind of a place +you think I run, young man?” He turned angrily on Jimmy. +“What you think I hire you for? To beat up my best +customer?”</p> +<p>“He got what was coming to him,” said a soft +feminine voice at Jimmy’s elbow. The man looked to see Little +Eva standing at his side. “I didn’t think anybody could +do that to Murray,” she continued. “Lord, but it was +pretty. He’s had it coming to him ever since I’ve known +him, but the big stiff had everybody around this joint buffaloed. +He got away with anything he started.”</p> +<p>Feinheimer looked at Little Eva disgustedly.</p> +<p>“He’s my best customer,” he cried, “and +a bum waiter comes along and beats him up just when he is trying to +have a little innocent sport on Christmas Eve. You take off your +apron, young man, and get your time. I won’t have no rough +stuff in Feinheimer’s.”</p> +<p>Jimmy shrugged his shoulders and grinned.</p> +<p>“Shouldn’t I wait to see if I can’t do +something more for Mr. Murray?” he suggested.</p> +<p>“You get out of here!” cried Feinheimer, “Get +out of here or I’ll call the police.”</p> +<p>Jimmy laughed and took off his apron as he walked back to the +servants’ coat-room. As he emerged again and crossed through +the dining-room he saw that Murray had regained consciousness and +was sitting at a table wiping the blood from his face with a wet +napkin. As Murray’s eyes fell upon his late antagonist he +half rose from his chair and shook his fist at Jimmy.</p> +<p>“I’ll get you for this, young feller!” he +yelled. “I’ll get you yet, and don’t you forget +it.”</p> +<p>“You just had me,” Jimmy called back; “but it +didn’t seem to make you very happy.”</p> +<p>He could still hear Murray fuming and cursing as he passed out +into the barroom, at the front of which was Feinheimer’s +office.</p> +<h3><a id="Ch_XII" name="Ch_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h3> +<h2>UP OR DOWN?</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>After Jimmy had received his check and was about to leave, a +couple of men approached him.</p> +<p>“We seen that little mix-up in there,” said one of +them. “You handle your mitts like you been there +before.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Jimmy, smiling, “I’ve had a +little experience in the manly art of self-defense.”</p> +<p>The two men were sizing him up.</p> +<p>“Feinheimer can you?” asked one of them. Jimmy +nodded affirmatively. “Got anything else in view?”</p> +<p>“No,” said Jimmy.</p> +<p>“How’d you like a job as one of Brophy’s +sparring partners?”</p> +<p>“I wouldn’t mind,” said Jimmy. “What is +there in it?”</p> +<p>They named a figure that was entirely satisfactory to Jimmy.</p> +<p>“Come over the day after Christmas,” he was told, +“and we’ll give you a trial.”</p> +<p>“I wonder,” thought Jimmy as he started for home, +“if I have gone up a notch in the social scale or down a +notch? From the view-point of the underworld a pug occupies a more +exalted position than a waiter; but— oh, well, a job’s +a job, and at least I won’t have to look at that greasy +Feinheimer all day.”</p> +<p>At ten o’clock Monday Jimmy was at Young Brophy’s +training quarters, for, although he had not forgotten Harriet +Holden’s invitation, he had never seriously considered +availing himself of her offer to help him to a better position. +While he had not found it difficult to accept the rough friendship +and assistance of the Lizard, the idea of becoming an object of +“charity,” as he considered it, at the hands of a girl +in the same walk of life as that to which he belonged was +intolerable.</p> +<p>Young Brophy’s manager, whom Jimmy discovered to be one of +the men who had accosted him in Feinheimer’s after his +trouble with Murray, took him into a private office and talked with +him confidentially for a half-hour before he was definitely +employed.</p> +<p>It seemed that one of the principal requisites of the position +was a willingness to take punishment without attempting to inflict +too much upon Young Brophy. The manager did not go into specific +details as to the reason for this restriction, and Jimmy, badly in +need of a job, felt no particular inclination to search too deeply +for the root of the matter.</p> +<p>“What I don’t know,” he soliloquized, +“won’t hurt me any.” But he had not been there +many days before the piecing together of chance remarks and the +gossip of the hangers-on and other sparring partners made it very +apparent why Brophy should not be badly man-handled. As it finally +revealed itself to Jimmy it was very simple indeed. Brophy was to +be pitted against a man whom he had already out-pointed in a former +bout. He was the ruling favorite in the betting, and it was the +intention to keep him so while he and his backers quietly placed +all their money on the other man.</p> +<p>One of the sparring partners who seemed to harbor a petty grudge +against Brophy finally explained the whole plan to Jimmy. +Everything was to be done to carry the impression to the public +through the newspapers, who were usually well represented at the +training quarters, that Brophy was in the pink of condition; that +he was training hard; that it was impossible to find men who could +stand up to him on account of the terrific punishment he inflicted +upon his sparring partners; and that the result of the fight was +already a foregone conclusion; and then in the third round Young +Brophy was to lie down and by reclining peacefully on his stomach +for ten seconds make more money than several years of hard and +conscientious work earnestly performed could ever net him.</p> +<p>It was all very, very simple; but how easily public opinion +might be changed should one of the sparring partners really make a +good stand against Brophy in the presence of members of the +newspaper fraternity!</p> +<p>“I see,” said Jimmy, running his fingers through his +hair. “Oh, well, it’s none of my business, and if the +suckers want to bet their money on a prize-fight they’re +about due to lose it anyway.”</p> +<p>And so he continued permitting himself to be battered up four or +five times a week at the hands of the pussy Mr. Brophy. He paid +back the twenty the Lizard had loaned him, got his watch out of +pawn, and was even figuring on a new suit of clothes. Never before +in his life had Jimmy realized what it meant to be prosperous, +since for obvious reasons Young Brophy’s manager was +extremely liberal in the matter of salaries with all those +connected with the training-camp.</p> +<p>At first it had been rather humiliating to Jimmy to take the +drubbings he did at the hands of Young Brophy in the presence of +the audience which usually filled the small gymnasium where the +fighter was training. It was nearly always about the same crowd, +however, made up of dyed-in-the-wool fans, a few newspaper men, and +a sprinkling of thrill-seekers from other walks of life far removed +from the prize-ring. Jimmy often noticed women among the +spectators—well-dressed women, with every appearance of +refinement, and there were always men of the same upper class of +society.</p> +<p>He mentioned the fact once to the same young man who had +previously explained the plan under which the fight was to be +faked.</p> +<p>“That’s just part of the graft,” said his +informant. “These birds have got next to a bunch of would-be +sports with more money than brains through the athletic director +of—” he mentioned the name of one of the big athletic +clubs—“and they been inviting ‘em here to watch +Brophy training. Every one of the simps will be tryin’ to get +money down on Brophy, and this bunch will take it all up as fast as +they come.</p> +<p>“The bettin’ hasn’t really started yet; in +fact, they are holding off themselves until the odds are better. If +Brophy goes into the ring a three-to-one favorite these fellows +will make a killing that will be talked of for the next twenty +years.”</p> +<p>“And incidentally give boxing another black +eye,” interjected Jimmy.</p> +<p>“Oh, what the hell do we care?” said the other. +“I’m goin’ to make mine out of it, and you better +do the same. I’m goin’ to put up every cent I can +borrow or steal on the other guy.”</p> +<p>It was Saturday, the 15th of January, just a week before the +fight, that Jimmy, trained now almost to perfection, stepped into +the ring to take his usual mauling. For some time past there had +been insidiously working its way into his mind a vast contempt for +the pugilistic prowess of Young Brophy.</p> +<p>“If,” thought Jimmy, “this bird is of +championship caliber, I might be a champion myself.” For, +though Young Brophy was not a champion, the newspapers had been +pointing to him for some time as a likely possibility for these +pugilistic honors later.</p> +<p>As this mental attitude grew within him and took hold of Jimmy +it more and more irked him to take the punishment which he inwardly +felt he could easily inflict upon Brophy instead, but, as Jimmy had +learned through lean and hungry months, a job is a job, and no job +is to be sneezed at or lightly thrown aside.</p> +<p>There was quite a gathering that afternoon to watch Young +Brophy’s work-out, and rather a larger representation than +usual from society’s younger set. The program, which had +consisted in part of shadow boxing and bag punching by Young +Brophy, was to terminate with three rounds with Jimmy.</p> +<p>For two rounds the young man had permitted Brophy to make a +monkey of him, hitting him where he would at will, while Jimmy, as +a result of several weeks of diligent practice, was able to put up +apparently a very ferocious attempt to annihilate his opponent +without doing the latter any material damage.</p> +<p>At the close of the second round Brophy landed a particularly +vicious right, which dropped Jimmy to the canvas. The crowd +applauded vociferously, and as the gong sounded as Jimmy was slowly +rising to his feet they were all assured that it was all that had +saved the young man from an even worse thrashing.</p> +<p>As Jimmy returned to his corner there arose within him a +determination to thrash Young Brophy within an inch of his life +after the big fight was out of the way and Jimmy no longer bound by +any obligations, for he realized that for some reason Brophy had +just gone a little too far with his rough tactics, there having +been in the arrangement with the sparring partners an understanding +that when a knock-down was to be staged Brophy was to give his +opponent the cue. No cue had been given, however. Jimmy had not +been expecting it, and he had been floored with a punch behind +which were all the weight and brawn of the pugilist.</p> +<p>He had long since ceased to consider what the spectators might +think. So far as Jimmy was concerned, they might have been so many +chairs. He was merely angry at the unnecessary punishment that had +been inflicted. As he sprawled in his corner he let his eyes run +over the faces of the spectators directly in front of him, to whom +previously he had paid no particular attention, and even now it was +scarcely more than an involuntary glance; but his eyes stopped +suddenly upon a face, and as recognition suddenly dawned upon him +he could feel the hot blood rushing to his own. For there was the +girl whom Fate had thrice before thrown in his path! Beside her he +recognized the Miss Harriet Holden who had been with her the night +at Feinheimer’s, and with them were two young men.</p> +<p>Something within Jimmy Torrance rebelled to a point where it +utterly dominated him—rebelled at the thought that this girl, +whom he had unconsciously set upon a pedestal to worship from afar, +should always find him in some menial and humiliating position. It +was bad enough that she should see him as a sparring partner of a +professional pug, but it made it infinitely worse that she should +see him as what he must appear, an unsuccessful third or fourth +rate fighter.</p> +<p>Everything within Jimmy’s mind turned suddenly topsyturvy. +He seemed to lose all sense of proportion and all sense of value in +one overpowering thought, that he must not again be humiliated in +her presence.</p> +<p>And so it was that at the tap of the gong for the third round it +was not Torrance the sparring partner that advanced from his +corner, but Jimmy Torrance, champion heavyweight boxer of a certain +famous university. But why enter into the harrowing details of the +ensuing minute and a half?</p> +<p>In thirty seconds it was unquestionably apparent to every one in +the room, including Young Brophy himself, that the latter was +pitifully outclassed. Jimmy hit him whenever and wherever he +elected to hit, and he hit him hard, while Brophy, at best only a +second or third rate fighter, pussy and undertrained, was not only +unable to elude the blows of his adversary but equally so to land +effectively himself.</p> +<p>And there before the eyes of half a dozen newspaper reporters, +of a dozen wealthy young men who had fully intended to place large +sums on Brophy, and before the eyes of his horrified manager and +backer, Jimmy, at the end of ninety seconds, landed a punch that +sent the flabby Mr. Brophy through the ropes and into dreamland for +a much longer period than the requisite ten seconds.</p> +<p>Before Jimmy got dressed and out of the gymnasium he, with +difficulty, escaped a half-dozen more fistic encounters, as +everybody from the manager down felt that his crime deserved +nothing short of capital punishment. He had absolutely wrecked a +perfectly good scheme in the perfection of which several thousand +dollars had been spent, and now there could not be even the +possibility of a chance of their breaking even.</p> +<h3><a id="Ch_XIII" name="Ch_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h3> +<h2>HARRIET PHILOSOPHIZES.</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>When Jimmy got home that night he saw a light in the +Lizard’s room and entered.</p> +<p>“Well,” said the cracksman, “how’s every +little thing?”</p> +<p>Jimmy smiled ruefully.</p> +<p>“Canned again,” he announced, and then he told the +Lizard the story of his downfall, attributing the results of the +third round, however, to Brophy’s unwarranted action at the +end of the second.</p> +<p>“Well,” said the Lizard, “you certainly are +the champion boob. There you had a chance to cop off a nice bunch +of coin on that fight and instead you kill it for yourself and +everybody else.”</p> +<p>“You don’t think,” said Jimmy, “that I +would have put any money on that crooked scrap.”</p> +<p>“Why not?” asked the Lizard, and then he shook his +head sadly. “No, I don’t suppose you would. +There’s lots of things about you that I can’t +understand, and one of them is the fact that you would rather +starve to death than take a little easy money off of birds that +have got more than they got any business to have. Why, with your +education and front we two could pull off some of the classiest +stuff that this burg ever saw.”</p> +<p>“Forget it,” admonished Jimmy.</p> +<p>“What are you going to do now?” asked the +Lizard.</p> +<p>“Go out and hunt for another job,” said Jimmy.</p> +<p>“Well, I wish you luck,” said the Lizard.</p> +<p>“Maybe I can find something for you. I’ll try, and +in the mean time if you need any mazuma I always got a little roll +tucked away in my sock.”</p> +<p>“Thanks,” said Jimmy, “and I don’t mind +telling you that you’re the one man I know whom I’d +just as soon borrow from and would like the opportunity of loaning +to. You say that you can’t understand me, and yet +you’re a whole lot more of an enigma yourself! You admit, in +fact, you’re inclined to boast, that you’re a +pickpocket and a safe-blower and yet I’d trust you, Lizard, +with anything that I had.”</p> +<p>The Lizard smiled, and for the first time since he had known him +Jimmy noticed that his eyes smiled with his lips.</p> +<p>“I’ve always had the reputation,” said the +Lizard, “of being a white guy with my friends. As a matter of +fact, I ain’t no different from what you’d probably be +if you were in business and what most of your friends are. Morally +they’re a bunch of thieves and crooks. Of course, they +don’t go out and frisk any one and they don’t work with +a jimmy or a bottle of soup. They work their graft with the help of +contracts and lawyers, and they’d gyp a friend or a pauper +almost as soon as they would an enemy. I don’t know much +about morality, but when it comes right down to a question of +morals I believe my trade is just as decent as that of a lot of +these birds you see rolling up and down Mich Boul in their +limousines.”</p> +<p>“It’s all in the point of view,” said +Jimmy.</p> +<p>“Yes,” said the Lizard. “It’s all in the +point of view, and my point of view ain’t warped by no +college education.”</p> +<p>Jimmy grinned. “Eventually, Lizard, you may win me over; +but when you do why fritter away our abilities upon this simple +village when we have the capitals of all Europe to play around +in?”</p> +<p>“There’s something in that,” said the Lizard; +“but don’t get it into your head for a minute that I am +tryin’ to drag you from the straight and narrow. I think I +like you better the way you are.”</p> +<p>“Did you ever,” said Harriet Holden, “see +anything so weird as the way we keep bumping into that +stocking-counter young man?”</p> +<p>“No,” said Elizabeth, “it’s commencing +to get on my nerves. Every time I turn a corner now I expect to +bump into him. I suppose we see other people many times without +recognizing them, but he is so utterly good-looking that he sort of +sticks in one’s memory.”</p> +<p>“Do you know,” said Harriet, “that I have a +suspicion that he recognized us. I saw him looking up at us just +after that other person knocked him down and I could have sworn +that he blushed. And then, you know, he went in and was entirely +different from what he had been in the two preceding rounds. Billy +said that he is really a wonderful fighter, and there are not very +many good fights that Billy misses. What in the world do you +suppose his profession is anyway? Since we first noticed him he has +been a hosiery clerk, a waiter, and a prize-fighter.”</p> +<p>“I don’t know, I am sure,” said Elizabeth, +yawning. “You seem to be terribly interested in +him.”</p> +<p>“I am,” admitted Harriet frankly. “He’s +a regular adventure all in himself—a whole series of +adventures.”</p> +<p>“I’ve never been partial to serials,” said +Elizabeth.</p> +<p>“Well, I should think one would be a relief after a whole +winter of heavy tragedy,” retorted Harriet.</p> +<p>“What do you mean?” asked Elizabeth.</p> +<p>“Oh, I mean Harold, of course,” said Harriet. +“He’s gone around all winter with a grouch and a face a +mile long. What’s the matter with him anyway?”</p> +<p>“I don’t know,” sighed Elizabeth. +“I’m afraid he’s working too hard.”</p> +<p>Harriet giggled.</p> +<p>“Oh, fiddlesticks!” she exclaimed. “You know +perfectly well that Harold Bince will never work himself to +death.”</p> +<p>“Well, he is working hard, Harriet. Father says so. And +he’s worrying about the business, too. He’s trying so +hard to make good.”</p> +<p>“I will admit that he has stuck to his job more faithfully +than anybody expected him to.”</p> +<p>Elizabeth turned slowly upon her friend, “You don’t +like Harold,” she said; “why is it?”</p> +<p>Harriet shook her head.</p> +<p>“I do like him, Elizabeth, for your sake. I suppose the +trouble is that I realize that he is not good enough for you. I +have known him all my life, and even as a little child he was never +sincere. Possibly he has changed now. I hope so. And then again I +know as well as you do that you are not in love with +him.”</p> +<p>“How perfectly ridiculous!” cried Elizabeth. +“Do you suppose that I would marry a man whom I didn’t +love?”</p> +<p>“You haven’t the remotest idea what love is. +You’ve never been in love.”</p> +<p>“Have you?” asked Elizabeth.</p> +<p>“No,” replied Harriet, “I haven’t, but I +know the symptoms and you certainly haven’t got one of them. +Whenever Harold isn’t going to be up for dinner or for the +evening you’re always relieved. Possibly you don’t +realize it yourself, but you show it to any one who knows +you.”</p> +<p>“Well, I do love him,” insisted Elizabeth, +“and I intend to marry him. I never had any patience with +this silly, love-sick business that requires people to pine away +when they are not together and bore everybody else to death when +they were.”</p> +<p>“All of which proves,” said Harriet, “that you +haven’t been stung yet, and I sincerely hope that you may +never be unless it happens before you marry Harold.”</p> +<h3><a id="Ch_XIV" name="Ch_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h3> +<h2>IN AGAIN—OUT AGAIN.</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Jimmy Torrance was out of a job a week this time, and once more +he was indebted to the Lizard for a position, the latter knowing a +politician who was heavily interested in a dairy company, with the +result that Jimmy presently found himself driving a milk-wagon. +Jimmy’s route was on the north side, which he regretted, as +it was in the district where a number of the friends of his former +life resided. His delivery schedule, however, and the fact that his +point of contact with the homes of his customers was at the back +door relieved him of any considerable apprehension of being +discovered by an acquaintance.</p> +<p>His letters home were infrequent, for he found that his powers +of invention were being rapidly depleted. It was difficult to write +glowing accounts of the business success he was upon the point of +achieving on the strength of any of the positions he so far had +held, and doubly so during the far greater period that he had been +jobless and hungry. But he had not been able to bring himself to +the point of admitting to his family his long weeks of consistent +and unrelieved failure.</p> +<p>Recently he had abandoned his futile attempts to obtain +positions through the medium of the Help Wanted columns.</p> +<p>“It is no use,” he thought. “There must be +something inherently wrong with me that in a city full of jobs I am +unable to land anything without some sort of a pull and then only +work that any unskilled laborer could perform.”</p> +<p>The truth of the matter was that Jimmy Torrance was slowly +approaching that mental condition that is aptly described by the +phrase, “losing your grip,” one of the symptoms of +which was the fact that he was almost contented with his present +job.</p> +<p>He had driven for about a week when, upon coming into the barn +after completing his morning delivery, he was instructed to take a +special order to a certain address on Lake Shore Drive. Although +the address was not that of one of his regular customers he felt +that there was something vaguely familiar about it, but when he +finally arrived he realized that it was a residence at which he had +never before called.</p> +<p>Driving up the alley Jimmy stopped in the rear of a large and +pretentious home, and entering through a gateway in a high stone +wall he saw that the walk to the rear entrance bordered a very +delightful garden. He realized what a wonderfully pretty little +spot it must be in the summer time, with its pool and fountain and +tree-shaded benches, its vine-covered walls and artistically +arranged shrubs, and it recalled to Jimmy with an accompanying sigh +the homes in which he had visited in what seemed now a remote past, +and also of his own home in the West.</p> +<p>On the alley in one corner of the property stood a garage and +stable, in which Jimmy could see men working upon the owner’s +cars and about the box-stalls of his saddle horses. At the sight of +the horses Jimmy heaved another sigh as he continued his way to the +rear entrance. As he stood waiting for a reply to his summons he +glanced back at the stable to see that horses had just entered and +that their riders were dismounting, evidently two of the women of +the household, and then a houseman opened the door and Jimmy made +his delivery and started to retrace his steps to his wagon.</p> +<p>Approaching him along the walk from the stable were the +riders—two young women, laughing and talking as they +approached the house, and suddenly Jimmy, in his neat white suit, +carrying his little tray of milk-bottles, recognized them, and +instantly there flashed into recollection the address that Harriet +Holden had given him that night at Feinheimer’s.</p> +<p>“What infernal luck,” he groaned inwardly; “I +suppose the next time I see that girl I’ll be collecting +garbage from her back door.” And then, with his eyes straight +to the front, he stepped aside to let the two pass.</p> +<p>It was Harriet Holden who recognized him first, and stopped with +a little exclamation of surprise. Jimmy stopped, too. There was +nothing else that a gentleman might do, although he would have +given his right hand to have been out of the yard.</p> +<p>“You never came to the house as I asked you to,” +said Miss Holden reproachfully. “We wanted so much to do +something to repay you for your protection that night.”</p> +<p>“There was no use in my coming,” said Jimmy, +“for, you see, I couldn’t have accepted anything for +what I did—I couldn’t very well have done anything +else, could I, under the circumstances?”</p> +<p>“There were many other men in the place,” replied +Harriet, “but you were the only one who came to our +help.”</p> +<p>“But the others were not—-” Jimmy been upon +the point of saying gentlemen, but then he happened to think that +in the eyes of these two girls, and according to their standard, he +might not be a gentleman, either. “Well, you see,” he +continued lamely, “they probably didn’t know who you +were.”</p> +<p>“Did you?” asked Elizabeth.</p> +<p>“No,” Jimmy admitted, “of course, I +didn’t know who you were, but I knew what you were not, which +was the thing that counted most then.”</p> +<p>“I wish,” said Harriet, “that you would let us +do something for you.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Elizabeth, “if a hundred dollars +would be of any use to you—“ Harriet laid a hand quickly +on her friend’s arm.</p> +<p>“I wasn’t thinking of money,” she said to +Jimmy. “One can’t pay for things like that with money, +but we know so many people here we might help you in some way, if +you are not entirely satisfied with your present +position.”</p> +<p>Out of the corner of his eye Jimmy could not help but note that +Elizabeth was appraising him critically from head to foot and he +felt that he could almost read what was passing through her mind as +she took stock of his cheap cotton uniform and his cap, with the +badge of his employer above the vizor. Involuntarily Jimmy +straightened his shoulders and raised his chin a trifle.</p> +<p>“No, thank you,” he said to Harriet, “it is +kind of you, but really I am perfectly satisfied with my present +job. It is by far the best one I have ever held,” and +touching his cap, he continued his interrupted way to his +wagon.</p> +<p>“What a strange young man,” exclaimed Harriet. +“He is like many of his class,” replied Elizabeth, +“probably entirely without ambition and with no desire to +work any too hard or to assume additional +responsibilities.”</p> +<p>“I don’t believe it,” retorted Harriet. +“Unless I am greatly mistaken, that man is a gentleman. +Everything about him indicates it; his inflection even is that of a +well-bred man.”</p> +<p>“How utterly silly,” exclaimed Elizabeth. +“You’ve heard him speak scarcely a dozen words. I +venture to say that in a fifteen-minute conversation he would +commit more horrible crimes against the king’s English than +even that new stable-boy of yours. Really, Harriet, you seem very +much interested in this person.”</p> +<p>“Why shouldn’t I be?” asked Harriet. +“He’s becoming my little pet mystery. I wonder under +what circumstances we see him next?”</p> +<p>“Probably as a white-wings,” laughed Elizabeth. +“But if so I positively refuse to permit you to stop in the +middle of Michigan Boulevard and converse with a street-sweeper +while I’m with you.”</p> +<p>Jimmy’s new job lasted two weeks, and then the milk-wagon +drivers went on strike and Jimmy was thrown out of employment.</p> +<p>“Tough luck,” sympathized the Lizard. “You +sure are the Calamity Kid. But don’t worry, we’ll land +you something else. And remember that that partnership proposition +is still open.”</p> +<p>There ensued another month of idleness, during which Jimmy again +had recourse to the Help Wanted column. The Lizard tried during the +first week to find something for him, and then occurred a certain +very famous safe-robbery, and the Lizard disappeared.</p> +<h3><a id="Ch_XV" name="Ch_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h3> +<h2>LITTLE EVA.</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Early in March Jimmy was again forced to part with his watch. As +he was coming out of the pawn-shop late in the afternoon he almost +collided with Little Eva.</p> +<p>“For the love of Mike!” cried that young lady, +“where have you been all this time, and what’s happened +to you? You look as though you’d lost your last +friend.” And then noting the shop from which he had emerged +and the deduction being all too obvious, she laid one of her +shapely hands upon the sleeve of his cheap, ill-fitting coat. +“You’re up against it, kid, ain’t you?” she +asked.</p> +<p>“Oh, it’s nothing,” said Jimmy ruefully. +“I’m getting used to it.”</p> +<p>“I guess you’re too square,” said the girl. +“I heard about that Brophy business.” And then she +laughed softly. “Do you know who the biggest backers of that +graft were?”</p> +<p>“No,” said Jimmy.</p> +<p>“Well, don’t laugh yourself to death,” she +admonished. “They were Steve Murray and Feinheimer. Talk +about sore pups! You never saw anything like it, and when they +found who it was that had ditched their wonderful scheme they threw +another fit. Say, those birds have been weeping on each +other’s shoulders ever since.”</p> +<p>“Do you still breakfast at Feinheimer’s?” +asked Jimmy.</p> +<p>“Once in a while,” said the girl, “but not so +often now.” And she dropped her eyes to the ground in what, +in another than Little Eva, might have been construed as +embarrassment. “Where you going now?” she asked +quickly.</p> +<p>“To eat,” said Jimmy, and then prompted by the +instincts of his earlier training and without appreciable pause: +“Won’t you take dinner with me?” +“No,” said the girl, “but you are going to take +dinner with me. You’re out of a job and broke, and the +chances are you’ve just this minute hocked your watch, while +I have plenty of money. No,” she said as Jimmy started to +protest, “this is going to be on me. I never knew how much I +enjoyed talking with you at breakfast until after you had left +Feinheimer’s. I’ve been real lonesome ever +since,” she admitted frankly. “You talk to me different +from what the other men do.” She pressed his arm gently. +“You talk to me, kid, just like a fellow might talk to his +sister.”</p> +<p>Jimmy didn’t know just what rejoinder to make, and so he +made none. As a matter of fact, he had not realized that he had +said or done anything to win her confidence, nor could he explain +his attitude toward her in the light of what he knew of her life +and vocation. There is a type of man that respects and reveres +woman-hood for those inherent virtues which are supposed to be the +natural attributes of the sex because in their childhood they have +seen them exemplified in their mothers, their sisters and in the +majority of women and girls who were parts of the natural +environment of their early lives.</p> +<p>It is difficult ever entirely to shatter the faith of such men, +and however they may be wronged by individuals of the opposite sex +their subjective attitude toward woman in the abstract is one of +chivalrous respect. As far as outward appearances were concerned +Little Eva might have passed readily as a paragon of all the +virtues. As yet, there was no sign nor line of dissipation marked +upon her piquant face, nor in her consociation with Jimmy was there +ever the slightest reference to or reminder of her vocation.</p> +<p>They chose a quiet and eminently respectable dining place, and +after they had ordered, Jimmy spread upon the table an evening +paper he had purchased upon the street.</p> +<p>“Help me find a job,” he said to the girl, and +together the two ran through the want columns.</p> +<p>“Here’s a bunch of them,” cried the girl +laughingly, “all in one ad. Night cook, one hundred and fifty +dollars; swing man, one hundred and forty dollars; roast cook, one +hundred and twenty dollars; broiler, one hundred and twenty +dollars. I’d better apply for that. Fry cook, one hundred and +ten dollars. Oh, here’s something for Steve Murray: chicken +butcher, eighty dollars; here’s a job I’d like,” +she cried, “ice-cream man, one hundred dollars.”</p> +<p>“Quit your kidding,” said Jimmy. “I’m +looking for a job, not an acrostic.”</p> +<p>“Well,” she said, “here are two solid pages of +them, but nobody seems to want a waiter. What else can you +do?” she asked smiling up at him.</p> +<p>“I can drive a milk-wagon,” said Jimmy, “but +the drivers are all on strike.”</p> +<p>“Now, be serious,” she announced. “Let’s +look for something really good. Here’s somebody wants a +finishing superintendent for a string music instrument factory, and +a business manager and electrical engineer in this one. +What’s an efficiency expert?”</p> +<p>“Oh, he’s a fellow who gums up the works, puts you +three weeks behind in less than a week and has all your best men +resigning inside of a month. I know, because my dad had one at his +plant a few years ago.”</p> +<p>The girl looked at him for a moment. “Your father is a +business man?” she asked, and without waiting for an answer, +“Why don’t you work for him?”</p> +<p>It was the first reference that Jimmy had ever made to his +connections or his past.</p> +<p>“Oh,” he said, “he’s a long way off +and—if I’m no good to any one here I certainly +wouldn’t be any good to him.”</p> +<p>His companion made no comment, but resumed her reading of the +advertisement before her:</p> +<blockquote> +<p>WANTED, an Efficiency Expert—Machine works wants man +capable of thoroughly reorganizing large business along modern +lines, stopping leaks and systematizing every activity. Call +International Machine Company, West Superior Street. Ask for Mr. +Compton.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>“What do you have to know to be an efficiency +expert?” asked the girl.</p> +<p>“From what I saw of the bird I just mentioned the less one +knows about anything the more successful he should be as an +efficiency expert, for he certainly didn’t know anything. And +yet the results from kicking everybody in the plant out of his own +particular rut eventually worked wonders for the organization. If +the man had had any sense, tact or diplomacy nothing would have +been accomplished.”</p> +<p>“Why don’t you try it?” asked the girl.</p> +<p>Jimmy looked at her with a quizzical smile. “Thank +you,” he said.</p> +<p>“Oh, I didn’t mean it that way,” she cried. +“But from what you tell me I imagine that all a man needs is +a front and plenty of punch. You’ve got the front all right +with your looks and gift of gab, and I leave it to Young Brophy if +you haven’t got the punch.”</p> +<p>“Maybe that’s not the punch an efficiency expert +needs,” suggested Jimmy.</p> +<p>“It might be a good thing to have up his sleeve,” +replied the girl, and then suddenly, “do you believe in +hunches?”</p> +<p>“Sometimes,” replied Jimmy.</p> +<p>“Well, this is a hunch, take it from me,” she +continued. “I’ll bet you can land that job and make +good.”</p> +<p>“What makes you think so?” asked Jimmy.</p> +<p>“I don’t know,” she replied, “but you +know what a woman’s intuition is.”</p> +<p>“I suppose,” said Jimmy, “that it’s the +feminine of hunch. But however good your hunch or intuition may be +it would certainly get a terrible jolt if I presented myself to the +head of the International Machine Company in this scenery. Do you +see anything about my clothes that indicates efficiency?”</p> +<p>“It isn’t your clothes that count, Jimmy,” she +said, “it’s the combination of that face of yours and +what you’ve got in your head. You’re the most efficient +looking person I ever saw, and if you want a reference I’ll +say this much for you, you’re the most efficient waiter that +Feinheimer ever had. He said so himself, even after he canned +you.”</p> +<p>“Your enthusiasm,” said Jimmy, “is contagious. +If it wasn’t for these sorry rags of mine I’d take a +chance on that hunch of yours.”</p> +<p>The girl laid her hand impulsively upon his.</p> +<p>“Won’t you let me help you?” she asked. +“I’d like to, and it will only be a loan if you wanted +to look at it that way. Enough to get you a decent-looking outfit, +such an outfit as you ought to have to land a good job. I know, and +everybody else knows, that clothes do count no matter what we say +to the contrary. I’ll bet you’re some looker when +you’re dolled up! Please,” she continued, “just +try it for a gamble?”</p> +<p>“I don’t see how I can,” he objected. +“The chances are I could never pay you back, and there is no +reason in the world why you should loan me money. You are certainly +under no obligation to me.”</p> +<p>“I wish you would let me, Jimmy,” she said. +“It would make me awfully happy!”</p> +<p>The man hesitated.</p> +<p>“Oh,” she said, “I’m going to do it, +anyway. Wait a minute,” and, rising, she left the table.</p> +<p>In a few minutes she returned. “Here,” she said, +“you’ve got to take it,” and extended her hand +toward him beneath the edge of the table. “I +can’t,” said Jimmy. “It wouldn’t be +right.”</p> +<p>The girl looked at him and flushed.</p> +<p>“Do you mean,” she said, “because it’s +my—because of what I am?”</p> +<p>“Oh, no,” said Jimmy; “please don’t +think that!” And impulsively he took her hand beneath the +table. At the contact the girl caught her breath with a little +quick-drawn sigh.</p> +<p>“Here, take it!” she said, and drawing her hand away +quickly, left a roll of bills in Jimmy’s hand.</p> +<h3><a id="Ch_XVI" name="Ch_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h3> +<h2>JIMMY THROWS A BLUFF.</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>That afternoon Mr. Harold Bince had entered his superior’s +office with an afternoon paper in his hand.</p> +<p>“What’s the idea of this ad, Mr. Compton?” he +asked. “Why do we need an efficiency expert? I wish you had +let me know what you intended doing.”</p> +<p>“I knew that if I told you, Harold, you would +object,” said the older man, “and I thought I would +have a talk with several applicants before saying anything about it +to any one. Of course, whoever we get will work with you, but I +would rather not have it generally known about the plant. There +seems to be a leak somewhere and evidently we are too close to the +work to see it ourselves. It will require an outsider to discover +it.”</p> +<p>“I am very much opposed to the idea,” said Bince. +“These fellows usually do nothing more than disrupt an +organization. We have a force that has been here, many of them, for +years. There is as little lost motion in this plant as in any in +the country, and if we start in saddling these men with a lot of +red tape which will necessitate their filling out innumerable forms +for every job, about half their time will be spent in bookkeeping, +which can just as well be done here in the office as it is now. I +hope that you will reconsider your intention and let us work out +our own solution in a practical manner, which we can do better in +the light of our own experience than can an outsider who knows +nothing of our peculiar problems.”</p> +<p>“We will not permit the organization to be +disrupted,” replied Mr. Compton. “It may do a lot of +good to get a new angle on our problems and at least it will do no +harm.”</p> +<p>“I can’t agree with you,” replied Bince. +“I think it will do a lot of harm.”</p> +<p>Compton looked at his watch. “It is getting late, +Harold,” he said, “and this is pay-day. I should think +Everett could help you with the pay-roll.” Everett was the +cashier.</p> +<p>“I prefer to do it myself,” replied Bince. +“Everett has about all he can do, and anyway, I don’t +like to trust it to any one else.” And realizing that Compton +did not care to discuss the matter of the efficiency expert further +Bince returned to his own office.</p> +<p>The following afternoon the office boy entered Mr. +Compton’s office. “A gentleman to see you, sir,” +he announced. “He said to tell you that he came in reply to +your advertisement.”</p> +<p>“Show him in,” instructed Compton, and a moment +later Jimmy entered—a rehabilitated Jimmy. Upon his excellent +figure the ready-made suit had all the appearance of faultlessly +tailored garments. Compton looked up at his visitor, and with the +glance he swiftly appraised Jimmy—a glance that assured him +that here might be just the man he wanted, for intelligence, +aggressiveness and efficiency were evidently the outstanding +characteristics of the young man before him. After Jimmy had +presented himself the other motioned him to a chair.</p> +<p>“I am looking,” said Mr. Compton, “for an +experienced man who can come in here and find out just what is +wrong with us. We have an old-established business which has been +making money for years. We are taking all the work that we can +possibly handle at the highest prices we have ever received, and +yet our profits are not at all commensurate with the volume of +business. It has occurred to me that an experienced man from the +outside would be able to more quickly put his finger on the leaks +and stop them. Now tell me just what your experience has been and +we will see if we can come to some understanding.”</p> +<p>From his pocket Jimmy drew a half-dozen envelopes, and taking +the contents from them one by one laid them on the desk before Mr. +Compton. On the letter-heads of half a dozen large out-of-town +manufacturers in various lines were brief but eulogistic comments +upon the work done in their plants by Mr. James Torrance, Jr. As he +was reading them Mr. Compton glanced up by chance to see that the +face of the applicant was slightly flushed, which he thought +undoubtedly due to the fact that the other knew he was reading the +words of praise contained in the letters, whereas the truth of the +matter was that Jimmy’s color was heightened by a feeling of +guilt.</p> +<p>“These are very good,” said Mr. Compton, looking up +from the letters. “I don’t know that I need go any +further. A great deal depends on a man’s personality in a +position of this sort, and from your appearance I should imagine +that you’re all right along that line and you seem to have +had the right kind of experience. Now, what arrangement can we +make?”</p> +<p>Jimmy had given the matter of pay considerable thought, but the +trouble was that he did not know what an efficiency expert might be +expected to demand. He recalled vaguely that the one his father had +employed got something like ten dollars a day, or one hundred a +day, Jimmy couldn’t remember which, and so he was afraid that +he might ask too much and lose the opportunity, or too little and +reveal that he had no knowledge of the value of such services.</p> +<p>“I would rather leave that to you,” he said. +“What do you think the work would be worth to you?”</p> +<p>“Do you expect to continue in this line of work?” +asked Mr. Compton. “When this job is finished you would want +to go somewhere else, I suppose?”</p> +<p>Jimmy saw an opening and leaped for it. “Oh, no!” he +replied. “On the contrary, I wouldn’t mind working into +a permanent position, and if you think there might be a possibility +of that I would consider a reasonable salary arrangement rather +than the usual contract rate for expert service.”</p> +<p>“It is very possible,” said Mr. Compton, “that +if you are the right man there would be a permanent place in the +organization for you. With that idea in mind I should say that two +hundred and fifty dollars a month might be a mutually fair +arrangement to begin with.”</p> +<p>Two hundred and fifty dollars a month! Jimmy tried to look +bored, but not too bored.</p> +<p>“Of course,” he said, “with the idea that it +may become a permanent, well-paying position I think I might be +inclined to consider it—in fact, I am very favorably inclined +toward it,” he added hastily as he thought he noted a sudden +waning of interest in Compton’s expression. “But be +sure yourself that I am the man you want. For instance, my +methods—you should know something of them first.”</p> +<p>In Jimmy’s pocket was a small book he had purchased at a +second-hand bookshop the evening before, upon the cover of which +appeared the title “How to Get More Out of Your +Factory.” He had not had sufficient time to study it +thoroughly, but had succeeded in memorizing several principal +headings on the contents page.</p> +<p>“At first,” he explained, “I won’t seem +to be accomplishing much, as I always lay the foundation of my +future work by studying my men. Some men have that within them +which spurs them on; while some need artificial +initiative—outside encouragement,” he quoted glibly +from “How to Get More Out of Your Factory.” “Some +men extend themselves under stern discipline; some respond only to +a gentle rein. I study men—the men over me, under me, around +me. I study them and learn how to get from each the most that is in +him. At the same time I shall be looking for leaks and +investigating timekeeping methods, wage-paying systems and planning +on efficiency producers. Later I shall start reducing costs by +studying machines, handling material economically and producing +power at lowest cost; keeping the product moving, making +environment count on the balance-sheet and protecting against +accident and fire.” This was as far as Jimmy had memorized, +and so he stopped.</p> +<p>“I think,” said Mr. Compton, “that you have +the right idea. Some of your points are not entirely clear to me, +as there are many modern methods that I have not, I am sorry to +say, investigated sufficiently.”</p> +<p>Jimmy did not think it necessary to explain that they were not +clear to him either.</p> +<p>“And now,” said Compton, “if you are satisfied +with the salary, when can you start?”</p> +<p>Jimmy rose with a brisk and businesslike manner. “I am +free now,” he said, “with the exception of a little +personal business which I can doubtless finish up +tomorrow—suppose I come Thursday?”</p> +<p>“Good,” exclaimed Compton, “but before you go +I want you to meet our assistant general manager, Mr. Bince.” +And he led Jimmy toward Bince’s office.</p> +<p>“This is Mr. Torrance, Harold,” said Mr. Compton as +they entered. “Mr. Bince, Mr. Torrance. Mr. Torrance is going +to help us systematize the plant. He will report directly to me and +I know you will do everything in your power to help him. You can go +to Mr. Bince for anything in the way of information you require, +and Harold, when Mr. Torrance comes Thursday I wish you would +introduce him to Everett and the various department heads and +explain that they are to give him full cooperation. And now, as I +have an appointment, I shall have to ask you to excuse me. I will +see you Thursday. If there are any questions you want to ask, Mr. +Bince will be glad to give you any information you wish or care +for.”</p> +<p>Jimmy had felt from the moment that he was introduced to Bince +that the latter was antagonistic and now that the two were alone +together he was not long left in doubt as to the correctness of his +surmise. As soon as the door had closed behind Mr. Compton Bince +wheeled toward Jimmy.</p> +<p>“I don’t mind telling you, Mr. Torrance,” he +said, “that I consider the services of an expert absolutely +unnecessary, but if Mr. Compton wishes to experiment I will +interfere in no way and I shall help you all I can, but I sincerely +hope that you, on your part, will refrain from interfering with my +activities. As a matter of fact, you won't have to leave this +office to get all the information you need, and if you will come to +me I can make it easy for you to investigate the entire workings of +the plant and save you a great deal of unnecessary personal labor. +I suppose that you have had a great deal of experience along this +line?”</p> +<p>Jimmy nodded affirmatively.</p> +<p>“Just how do you purpose proceeding?”</p> +<p>“Oh, well,” said Jimmy, “each one of us really +has a system of his own. At first I won’t seem to be +accomplishing much, as I always lay the foundation of my future +work by studying my men. Some men have that within them which spurs +them on; while some need artificial initiative—outside +encouragement.” He hoped that the door to Compton’s +office was securely closed.</p> +<p>“Some men extend themselves under stern discipline; some +respond only to a gentle rein. I study men—the men over me, +under me, around me. I study them and learn how to get from each +the most that is in him. At the same time I shall be looking for +leaks and investigating time-keeping methods“—he was +looking straight at Bince and he could not help but note the slight +narrowing of the other’s lids— “wage-paying +systems and planning on efficiency producers.”</p> +<p>Here he hesitated a moment as though weighing his words, though +as a matter of fact he had merely forgotten the title of the next +chapter, but presently he went on again:</p> +<p>“Later I shall start reducing costs by studying machines, +handling material economically and producing power at lowest costs: +keeping the product moving, making environment count on the +balance-sheet and protecting against accident and fire.”</p> +<p>“Is that all?” asked Mr. Bince.</p> +<p>“Oh, no, indeed!” said Jimmy. “That’s +just a very brief outline of the way I shall start.”</p> +<p>“Ah!” said Mr. Bince. “And just how, may I +ask, do you make environment count on the balance-sheet? I do not +quite understand.”</p> +<p>Jimmy was mentally gasping and going down for the third time. He +had wondered when he read that chapter title just what it might +mean.</p> +<p>“Oh,” he said, “you will understand that +thoroughly when we reach that point. It is one of the steps in my +method. Other things lead up to it. It is really rather difficult +to explain until we have a concrete example, something that you can +really visualize, you know. But I assure you that it will be +perfectly plain to you when we arrive at that point.</p> +<p>“And now,” he said, rising, “I must be going. +I have a great deal to attend to this afternoon and to-morrow, as I +wish to get some personal matters out of the way before I start in +here Thursday.”</p> +<p>“All right,” said Mr. Bince, “I suppose we +shall see you Thursday, but just bear in mind, please, that you and +I can work better together than at cross-purposes.”</p> +<h3><a id="Ch_XVII" name="Ch_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h3> +<h2>JIMMY ON THE JOB.</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>As Jimmy left the office he discovered that those last words of +Bince’s had made a considerable and a rather unfavorable +impression on him. He was sure that there was an underlying +meaning, though just what it portended he was unable to +imagine.</p> +<p>From the International Machine Company Jimmy went directly to +the restaurant where he and Little Eva had dined the night before. +He found her waiting for him, as they had agreed she would.</p> +<p>“Well, what luck?” she asked as he took the chair +next to her.</p> +<p>“Oh, I landed the job all right,” said Jimmy, +“but I feel like a crook. I don’t know how in the world +I ever came to stand for those letters of recommendation. They were +the things that got me the job all right, but I honestly feel just +as though I had stolen something.”</p> +<p>“Don’t feel that way,” said the girl. +“You’ll make good, I know, and then it won't make any +difference about the letters.”</p> +<p>“And now,” said Jimmy, “tell me where you got +them. You promised me that you would tell me afterward.”</p> +<p>“Oh,” said the girl, “that was easy. A girl +who rooms at the same place I do works in a big printing and +engraving plant and I got her to get me some samples of letterheads +early this morning. In fact, I went down-town with her when she +went to work and then I went over to the Underwood offices and +wrote the recommendations out on a machine—I used to be a +stenographer.”</p> +<p>“And you forged these names?” asked Jimmy, +horrified.</p> +<p>“I didn’t forge anybody’s name,” replied +the girl. “I made them up.”</p> +<p>“You mean there are no such men?”</p> +<p>“As far as I know there are not,” she replied, +laughing.</p> +<p>Slowly Jimmy drew the letters from his inside pocket and read +them one by one, spreading them out upon the table before him. +Presently he looked up at the girl.</p> +<p>“Why don’t you get a position again as a +stenographer?” he asked.</p> +<p>“I have been thinking of it,” she said; “do +you want me to?”</p> +<p>“Yes,” he said, “I want you to very +much.”</p> +<p>“It will be easy,” she said. “There is no +reason why I shouldn’t except that there was no one ever +cared what I did.”</p> +<p>As she finished speaking they were both aware that a man had +approached their table and stopped opposite them. Jimmy and the +girl looked up to see a large man in a dark suit looking down at +Eva. Jimmy did not recognize the man, but he knew at once what he +was.</p> +<p>“Well, O’Donnell, what’s doing?” asked +the girl.</p> +<p>“You know what’s doing,” said the officer. +“How miny toimes do the capt’in have to be afther +isshuin’ orrders tellin’ you janes to kape out uv +dacent places?”</p> +<p>The girl flushed. “I’m not working here,” she +said.</p> +<p>“To hell ye ain’t,” sneered O’Donnell. +“Didn’t I see ye flag this guy whin he came +in?”</p> +<p>“This young lady is a friend of mine,” said Jimmy. +“I had an appointment to meet her here.”</p> +<p>O’Donnell shifted his gaze from the girl to her escort and +for the first time appraised Jimmy thoroughly. “Oh, +it’s you, is it?” he asked.</p> +<p>“It is,” said Jimmy; “you guessed it the first +time, but far be it from me to know what you have guessed, as I +never saw you before, my friend.”</p> +<p>“Well, I’ve seen you before,” said +O’Donnell, “and ye put one over on me that time all +roight, I can see now. I don’t know what your game was, but +you and the Lizard played it pretty slick when you could pull the +wool over Patrick O’Donnell’s eyes the way ye +done.”</p> +<p>“Oh,” said Jimmy, “I’ve got you now. +You’re the bull who interfered with my friend and me on +Randolph and La Salle way back last July.”</p> +<p>“I am,” said O’Donnell, “and I thought +ye was a foine young gentleman, and you are a foine one,” he +said with intense sarcasm.</p> +<p>“Go away and leave us alone,” said the girl. +“We’re not doing anything. We ate in here last night +together. This man is perfectly respectable. He isn’t what +you think him, at all.”</p> +<p>“I’m not going to pinch him,” said +O’Donnell; “I ain’t got nothin’ to pinch +him for, but the next time I see him I’ll know +him.”</p> +<p>“Well,” said the girl, “are you going to beat +it or are you going to stick around here bothering us all evening? +There hasn’t anybody registered a complaint against me in +here.”</p> +<p>“Naw,” said O’Donnell, “they +ain’t, but you want to watch your step or they +will.”</p> +<p>“All right,” said the girl, “run along and +sell your papers.” And she turned again to Jimmy, and as +though utterly unconscious of the presence of the police officer, +she remarked, “That big stiff gives me a pain. He’s the +original Buttinsky Kid.”</p> +<p>O’Donnell flushed. “Watch your step, young +lady,” he said as he turned and walked away.</p> +<p>“I thought,” said Jimmy, “that it was the +customary practise to attempt to mollify the guardians of the +law.”</p> +<p>“Mollify nothing,” returned the girl. “None of +these big bruisers knows what decency is, and if you’re +decent to them they think you’re afraid of them. When they +got something on you you got to be nice, but when they +haven’t, tell them where they get off. I knew he +wouldn’t pinch me; he’s got nothing to pinch me for, +and he’d have been out of luck if he had, for there +hasn’t one of them got anything on me.”</p> +<p>“But +won’t he have it in for you?” asked Jimmy.</p> +<p>“Sure, he will,” said the girl. “He’s +got it in for everybody. That’s what being a policeman does +to a man. Say, most of these guys hate themselves. I tell you, +though,” she said presently and more seriously, +“I’m sorry on your account. These dicks never forget a +face. He’s got you catalogued and filed away in what he calls +his brain alongside of a dip and—a”—she +hesitated—“a girl like me, and no matter how high up +you ever get if your foot slips up will bob O’Donnell with +these two facts.”</p> +<p>“I’m not worrying,” said Jimmy. “I +don’t intend to let my foot slip in his direction.”</p> +<p>“I hope not,” said the girl.</p> +<hr class="short" /> +<p>Thursday morning Jimmy took up his duties as efficiency expert +at the plant of the International Machine Company. Since his +interview with Compton his constant companion had been “How +to Get More Out of Your Factory,” with the result that he +felt that unless he happened to be pitted against another +efficiency expert he could at least make a noise like efficiency, +and also he had grasped what he considered the fundamental +principle of efficiency, namely, simplicity.</p> +<p>“If,” he reasoned, “I cannot find in any plant +hundreds of operations that are not being done in the simplest +manner it will be because I haven’t even ordinary powers of +observation or intelligence,” for after his second interview +with Compton, Jimmy had suddenly realized that the job meant +something to him beside the two hundred and fifty dollars a +month—that he couldn’t deliberately rob Compton, as he +felt that he would be doing unless he could give value received in +services, and he meant to do his best to accomplish that end.</p> +<p>He knew that for a while his greatest asset would be bluff, but +there was something about Mason Compton that had inspired in the +young man a vast respect and another sentiment that he realized +upon better acquaintance might ripen into affection. Compton +reminded him in many ways of his father, and with the realization +of that resemblance Jimmy felt more and more ashamed of the part he +was playing, but now that he had gone into it he made up his mind +that he would stick to it, and there was besides the slight +encouragement that he had derived from the enthusiasm of the girl +who had suggested the idea to him and of her oft-repeated assertion +relative to her “hunch”, that he would make good.</p> +<h3><a id="Ch_XVIII" name="Ch_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h3> +<h2>THE EFFICIENCY EXPERT.</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Unlike most other plants the International Machine Company paid +on Monday, and it was on the Monday following his assumption of his +new duties that Jimmy had his first clash with Bince. He had been +talking with Everett, the cashier, whom, in accordance with his +“method,” he was studying. From Everett he had learned +that it was pay-day and he had asked the cashier to let him see the +pay-roll.</p> +<p>“I don’t handle the pay-roll,” replied Everett +a trifle peevishly. “Shortly after Mr. Bince was made +assistant general manager a new rule was promulgated, to the effect +that all salaries and wages were to be considered as confidential +and that no one but the assistant general manager would handle the +pay-rolls. All I know is the amount of the weekly check. He hires +and fires everybody and pays everybody.”</p> +<p>“Rather unusual, isn’t it?” commented +Jimmy.</p> +<p>“Very,” said Everett. “Here’s some of us +have been with Mr. Compton since Bince was in long clothes, and +then he comes in here and says that we are not to be trusted with +the pay-roll.”</p> +<p>“Well,” said Jimmy, “I shall have to go to him +to see it then.”</p> +<p>“He won’t show it to you,” said Everett.</p> +<p>“Oh, I guess he will,” said Jimmy, and a moment +later he knocked at Bince’s office door. When Bince saw who +it was he turned back to his work with a grunt.</p> +<p>“I am sorry, Torrance,” he said, “but I +can’t talk with you just now. I’m very busy.”</p> +<p>“Working on the pay-roll?” said Jimmy. +“Yes,” snarled Bince.</p> +<p>“That’s what I came in to see,” said the +efficiency expert.</p> +<p>“Impossible,” said Bince. “The International +Machine Company’s pay-roll is confidential, absolutely +confidential. Nobody sees it but me or Mr. Compton if he wishes +to.”</p> +<p>“I understood from Mr. Compton,” said Jimmy, +“that I was to have full access to all records.”</p> +<p>“That merely applied to operation records,” said +Bince. “It had nothing to do with the pay-roll.”</p> +<p>“I should consider the pay-roll very closely allied to +operations,” responded Jimmy.</p> +<p>“I shouldn’t,” said Bince.</p> +<p>“You won’t let me see it then?” demanded +Jimmy.</p> +<p>“Look here,” said Bince, “we agreed that we +wouldn’t interfere with each other. I haven’t +interfered with you. Now don’t you interfere with me. This is +my work, and my office is not being investigated by any efficiency +expert or any one else.”</p> +<p>“I don’t recall that I made any such +agreement,” said Jimmy. “I must insist on seeing that +pay-roll.”</p> +<p>Bince turned white with suppressed anger, and then suddenly +slamming his pen on the desk, he wheeled around toward the +other.</p> +<p>“I might as well tell you something,” he said, +“that will make your path easier here, if you know it. I +understand that you want a permanent job with us. If you do you +might as well understand now as any other time that you have got to +be satisfactory to me. Of course, it is none of your business, but +it may help you to understand conditions when I tell you that I am +to marry Mr. Compton’s daughter, and when I do that he +expects to retire from business, leaving me in full charge here. +Now, do you get me?”</p> +<p>Jimmy had involuntarily acquired antipathy toward Bince at their +first meeting, an antipathy which had been growing the more that he +saw of the assistant general manager. This fact, coupled with +Bince’s present rather nasty manner, was rapidly arousing the +anger of the efficiency expert. “I didn’t come in +here,” he said, “to discuss your matrimonial prospects, +Mr. Bince. I came in here to see the pay-roll, and you will oblige +me by letting me see it.”</p> +<p>“I tell you again,” said Bince, “once and for +all, that you don’t see the pay-roll nor anything else +connected with my office, and you will oblige me by not bothering +me any longer. As I told you when you first came in, I am very +busy.”</p> +<p>Jimmy turned and left the room. He was on the point of going to +Compton’s office and asking for authority to see the +pay-roll, and then it occurred to him that Compton would probably +not take sides against his assistant general manager and future +son-in-law.</p> +<p>“I’ve got to get at it some other way,” said +Jimmy, “but you bet your life I’m going to get at it. +It looks to me as though there’s something funny about that +pay-roll.”</p> +<p>On his way out he stopped at Everett’s cage. “What +was the amount of the check for the pay-roll for this week, +Everett?” he asked.</p> +<p>“A little over ninety-six hundred dollars.”</p> +<p>“Thanks,” said Jimmy, and returned to the shops to +continue his study of his men, and as he studied them he asked many +questions, made many notes in his little note-book, and always +there were two questions that were the same: “What is your +name? What wages do you get?”</p> +<p>“I guess,” said Jimmy, “that in a short time I +will know as much about the payroll as the assistant general +manager.”</p> +<p>Nor was it the pay-roll only that claimed Jimmy’s +attention. He found that several handlings of materials could be +eliminated by the adoption of simple changes, and that a +rearrangement of some of the machines removed the necessity for +long hauls from one part of the shop to another. After an evening +with the little volume he had purchased for twenty-five cents in +the second-hand bookshop he ordered changes that enabled him to cut +five men from the pay-roll and at the same time do the work more +expeditiously and efficiently.</p> +<p>“Little book,” he said one evening, “I take my +hat off to you. You are the best two-bits’ worth I ever +purchased.”</p> +<p>The day following the completion of the changes he had made in +the shop he was in Compton’s office.</p> +<p>“Patton was explaining some of the changes you have +made,” remarked Compton. Patton was the shop foreman. +“He said they were so simple that he wondered none of us had +thought of them before. I quite agree with him.”</p> +<p>“So do I,” returned Jimmy, “but, then, my +whole method is based upon simplicity.” And his mind traveled +to the unpretentious little book on the table in his room on +Indiana Avenue.</p> +<p>“The feature that appeals to me most strongly is that you +have been able to get the cooperation of the men,” continued +Compton “that’s what I feared—that they +wouldn’t accept your suggestions. How did you do +it?”</p> +<p>“I showed them how they could turn out more work and make +more money by my plan. This appealed to the piece-workers. I +demonstrated to the others that the right way is the easiest +way—I showed them how they could earn their wages with less +effort.”</p> +<p>“Good,” said Compton. “You are running into no +difficulties then? Is there any way in which I can help +you?”</p> +<p>“I am getting the best kind of cooperation from the men in +the shop, practically without exception,” replied Jimmy, +“although there is one fellow, a straw boss named Krovac, who +does not seem to take as kindly to the changes I have made as the +others, but he really doesn’t amount to anything as an +obstacle.” Jimmy also thought of Bince and the pay-roll, but +he was still afraid to broach the subject. Suddenly an inspiration +came to him.</p> +<p>“Yes,” he said, “I believe your accounting +system could be improved—it will take me months to get around +to it, as my work is primarily in the shop, at first, at least. You +can save both time and money by having your books audited by a firm +of public accountants who can also suggest a new and more +up-to-date system.”</p> +<p>“Not a bad idea,” said Compton. “I think we +will do it.”</p> +<p>For another half-hour they discussed Jimmy’s work, and +then as the latter was leaving Compton stopped him.</p> +<p>“By the way, you don’t happen to know of a good +stenographer, do you? Miss Withe is leaving me Saturday.”</p> +<p>Jimmy thought a moment. Instantly he thought of Little Eva and +what she had said of her experience as a stenographer, and her +desire to abandon her present life for something in the line of her +former work. Here was a chance to repay her in some measure for her +kindness to him.</p> +<p>“Yes,” he said, “I do know of a young lady +who, I believe, could do the work. Shall I have her call on +you?”</p> +<p>“If you will, please,” replied Compton</p> +<p>As Jimmy left the office Compton rang for Bince, and when the +latter came, told him of his plan to employ a firm of accountants +to renovate their entire system of bookkeeping.</p> +<p>“Is that one of Torrance’s suggestions?” asked +Bince.</p> +<p>“Yes, the idea is his,” replied Compton, “and +I think it is a good one.”</p> +<p>“It seems to me,” said Bince, “that Torrance +is balling things up sufficiently as it is without getting in other +theorizers who have no practical knowledge of our business. The +result of all this will be to greatly increase our overhead by +saddling us with a lot of red-tape in the accounting department +similar to that which Torrance is loading the producing end +with.”</p> +<p>“I am afraid that you are prejudiced, Harold,” said +Compton. “I cannot discover that Torrance is doing anything +to in any way complicate the shop work. As a matter of fact a +single change which he has just made has resulted in our performing +certain operations in less time and to better advantage with five +less men than formerly. Just in this one thing he has not only more +than earned his salary, but is really paying dividends on our +investment.”</p> +<p>Bince was silent for a moment. He had walked to the window and +was looking out on the street below, then he turned suddenly toward +Compton.</p> +<p>“Mr. Compton,” he said, “you have made me +assistant general manager here and now, just when I am reaching a +point where I feel I can accomplish something, you are practically +taking the authority out of my hands and putting it in that of a +stranger. I feel not only that you are making a grave mistake, but +that it is casting a reflection on my work. It is making a +difference in the attitude of the men toward me that I am afraid +can never be overcome, and consequently while lessening my +authority it is also lessening my value to the plant. I am going to +ask you to drop this whole idea. As assistant general manager, I +feel that it is working injury to the organization, and I hope that +before it is too late—that, in fact, immediately, you will +discharge Torrance and drop this idea of getting outsiders to come +in and install a new accounting system.”</p> +<p>“You’re altogether too sensitive, Harold,” +replied Compton. “It is no reflection on you whatsoever. The +system under which we have been working is, with very few +exceptions, the very system that I evolved myself through years of +experience in this business. If there is any reflection upon any +one it is upon me and not you. You must learn to realize, if you do +not already, what I realize—that no one is infallible. Just +because the system is mine or yours we must not think that no +better system can be devised. I am perfectly satisfied with what +Mr. Torrance is doing, and I agree with his suggestion that we +employ a firm of accountants, but I think no less of you or your +ability on that account.”</p> +<p>Bince saw that it was futile to argue the matter further.</p> +<p>“Very well, sir,” he said. “I hope that I am +mistaken and that no serious harm will result. When do you expect +to start these accountants in?”</p> +<p>“Immediately,” replied Compton. “I shall get +in touch with somebody today.”</p> +<p>Bince shook his head dubiously as he returned to his own +office.</p> +<h3><a id="Ch_XIX" name="Ch_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h3> +<h2>PLOTTING.</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>The following Monday Miss Edith Hudson went to work for the +International Machine Company as Mr. Compton’s stenographer. +Nor could the most fastidious have discovered aught to criticize in +the appearance or deportment of Little Eva.</p> +<p>The same day the certified public accountants came. Mr. Harold +Bince appeared nervous and irritable, and he would have been more +nervous and more irritable had he known that Jimmy had just learned +the amount of the pay-check from Everett and that he had discovered +that, although five men had been laid off and no new ones employed +since the previous week, the payroll check was practically the same +as before— approximately one thousand dollars more than his +note-book indicated it should be.</p> +<p>“Phew!” whistled Jimmy. “These C.P.A.s are +going to find this a more interesting job than they anticipated. +Poor old Compton! I feel mighty sorry for him, but he had better +find it out now than after that grafter has wrecked his business +entirely.”</p> +<p>That afternoon Mr. Compton left the office earlier than usual, +complaining of a headache, and the next morning his daughter +telephoned that he was ill and would not come to the office that +day. During the morning as Bince was walking through the shop he +stopped to talk with Krovac.</p> +<p>Pete Krovac was a rat-faced little foreigner, looked upon among +the men as a trouble-maker. He nursed a perpetual grievance against +his employer and his job, and whenever the opportunity presented, +and sometimes when it did not present itself, he endeavored to +inoculate others with his dissatisfaction. Bince had hired the man, +and during the several months that Krovac had been with the +company, the assistant general manager had learned enough from +other workers to realize that the man was an agitator and a +troublemaker. Several times he had been upon the point of +discharging him, but now he was glad that he had not, for he +thought he saw in him a type that in the light of present +conditions might be of use to him.</p> +<p>In fact, for the past couple of weeks he had been using the man +in an endeavor to get some information concerning Torrance and his +methods that would permit him to go to Compton with a valid +argument for Jimmy’s discharge.</p> +<p>“Well, Krovac,” he said as he came upon the man, +“is Torrance interfering with you any now?”</p> +<p>“He hasn’t got my job yet,” growled the other, +“but he’s letting out hard-working men with families +without any reason. The first thing you know you’ll have a +strike on your hands.”</p> +<p>“I haven’t heard any one else complaining,” +said Bince. “You will, though,” replied Krovac. +“They don’t any of us know when we are going to be +canned to give Compton more profit, and men are not going to stand +for that long.”</p> +<p>“Then,” said Bince, “I take it that he really +hasn’t interfered with you much?”</p> +<p>“Oh, he’s always around asking a lot of fool +questions,” said Krovac. “Last week he asked every man +in the place what his name was and what wages he was getting. Wrote +it all down in a little book. I suppose he is planning on cutting +pay.”</p> +<p>Bince’s eyes narrowed. “He got that information from +every man in the shop?” he asked.</p> +<p>“Yes,” replied Krovac.</p> +<p>Bince was very pale. He stood in silence for some minutes, +apparently studying the man before him. At last he spoke.</p> +<p>“Krovac,” he said, “you don’t like this +man Torrance, do you?”</p> +<p>“No,” said the other, “I +don’t.”</p> +<p>“Neither do I,” said Bince. “I know his plans +even better than you. This shop has short hours and good pay, but +if we don’t get rid of him it will have the longest hours and +lowest pay of any shop in the city.”</p> +<p>“Well?” questioned Krovac.</p> +<p>“I think,” said Bince, “that there ought to be +some way to prevent this man doing any further harm +here.”</p> +<p>He looked straight into Krovac’s eyes.</p> +<p>“There is,” muttered the latter.</p> +<p>“It would be worth something of course,” suggested +Bince. “How much?” asked Krovac.</p> +<p>“Oh, I should think it ought to be worth a hundred +dollars,” replied Bince.</p> +<p>Krovac thought for a moment.</p> +<p>“I think I can arrange it,” he said, “but I +would have to have fifty now.”</p> +<p>“I cannot give it to you here,” said Bince, +“but if I should happen to pass through the shop this +afternoon you might find an envelope on the floor beside your +machine after I have gone.”</p> +<p>The following evening as Jimmy alighted from the Indiana Avenue +car at Eighteenth Street, two men left the car behind him. He did +not notice them, although, as he made his way toward his +boarding-house, he heard footsteps directly in his rear, and +suddenly noting that they were approaching him rapidly, he +involuntarily cast a glance behind him just as one of the men +raised an arm to strike at him with what appeared to be a short +piece of pipe.</p> +<p>Jimmy dodged the blow and then both men sprang for him. The +first one Jimmy caught on the point of the chin with a blow that +put its recipient out of the fight before he got into it, and then +his companion, who was the larger, succeeded in closing with the +efficiency expert. Inadvertently, however, he caught Jimmy about +the neck, leaving both his intended victim’s arms free with +the result that the latter was able to seize his antagonist low +down about the body, and then pressing him close to him and hurling +himself suddenly forward, he threw the fellow backward upon the +cement sidewalk with his own body on top. With a resounding whack +the attacker’s head came in contact with the concrete, his +arms relaxed their hold upon Jimmy’s neck, and as the latter +arose he saw both his assailants, temporarily at least, out of the +fighting.</p> +<p>Jimmy glanced hastily in both directions. There was no one in +sight. His boardinghouse was but a few steps away, and two minutes +later he was safe in his room.</p> +<p>“A year ago,” he thought to himself, smiling, +“my first thought would have been to have called in the +police, but the Lizard has evidently given me a new view-point in +regard to them,” for the latter had impressed upon Jimmy the +fact that whatever knowledge a policeman might have regarding one +was always acquired with the idea that eventually it might be used +against the person to whom it pertained.</p> +<p>“What a policeman don’t know about you will never +hurt you,” was one way that the Lizard put it.</p> +<p>When Jimmy appeared in the shop the next morning he noted +casually that Krovac had a cut upon his chin, but he did not give +the matter a second thought. Bince had arrived late. His first +question, as he entered the small outer office where Mr. +Compton’s stenographer and his worked, was addressed to Miss +Edith Hudson.</p> +<p>“Is Mr. Torrance down yet?” he asked.</p> +<p>“Yes,” replied the girl, “he has been here +some time. Do you wish to see him?”</p> +<p>Edith thought that the “No” which he snapped at her +was a trifle more emphatic than the circumstances seemed to +warrant, nor could she help but notice after he had entered his +office the vehement manner in which he slammed the door.</p> +<p>“I wonder what’s eating him,” thought Miss +Hudson to herself. “Of course he doesn’t like Jimmy, +but why is he so peeved because Jimmy came to work this +morning—I don’t quite get it.”</p> +<p>Almost immediately Bince sent for Krovac, and when the latter +came and stood before his desk the assistant general manager looked +up at him questioningly.</p> +<p>“Well?” he asked.</p> +<p>“Look at my chin,” was Krovac’s reply, +“and he damn near killed the other guy.”</p> +<p>“Maybe you’ll have better luck the next time,” +growled Bince.</p> +<p>“There ain’t goin’ to be no next time,” +asserted Krovac. “I don’t tackle that guy +again.”</p> +<p>Bince held out his hand.</p> +<p>“All right,” he said, “you might return the +fifty then.”</p> +<p>“Return nothin’,” growled Krovac. “I +sure done fifty dollars’ worth last night.”</p> +<p>“Come on,” said Bince, “hand over the +fifty.”</p> +<p>“Nothin’ doin’,” said Krovac with an +angry snarl. “It might be worth another fifty to you to know +that I wasn’t going to tell old man Compton.”</p> +<p>“You damn scoundrel!” exclaimed Bince.</p> +<p>“Don’t go callin’ me names,” admonished +Krovac. “A fellow that hires another to croak a man for him +for one hundred bucks ain’t got no license to call nobody +names.”</p> +<p>Bince realized only too well that he was absolutely in the power +of the fellow and immediately his manner changed.</p> +<p>“Come,” he said, “Krovac, there is no use in +our quarreling. You can help me and I can help you. There must be +some other way to get around this.”</p> +<p>“What are you trying to do?” asked Krovac. “I +got enough on you now to send you up, and I don’t mind +tellin’ yuh,” he added, “that I had a guy hid +down there in the shop where he could watch you drop the envelope +behind my machine. I got a witness, yuh understand!”</p> +<p>Mr. Bince did understand, but still he managed to control his +temper.</p> +<p>“What of it?” he said. “Nobody would believe +your story, but let’s forget that. What we want to do is get +rid of Torrance.”</p> +<p>“That isn’t all you want to do,” said Krovac. +“There is something else.”</p> +<p>Bince realized that he was compromised as hopelessly already as +he could be if the man had even more information.</p> +<p>“Yes,” he said, “there is something beside +Torrance’s interference in the shop. He’s interfering +with our accounting system and I don’t want it interfered +with just now.”</p> +<p>“You mean the pay-roll?” asked Krovac.</p> +<p>“It might be,” said Bince.</p> +<p>“You want them two new guys that are working in the office +croaked, too?” asked Krovac.</p> +<p>“I don’t want anybody ‘croaked’,” replied Bince. “I didn’t tell you to kill +Torrance in the first place. I just said I didn’t want him to +come back here to work.”</p> +<p>“Ah, hell, what you givin’ us?” growled the +other. “I knew what you meant and you knew what you meant, +too. Come across straight. What do you want?”</p> +<p>“I want all the records of the certified public +accountants who are working here,” said Bince after a +moment’s pause. “I want them destroyed, together with +the pay-roll records.”</p> +<p>“Where are they?”</p> +<p>“They will all be in the safe in Mr. Compton’s +office.”</p> +<p>Krovac knitted his brows in thought for several moments. +“Say,” he said, “we can do the whole thing with +one job.”</p> +<p>“What do you mean?” asked Bince,</p> +<p>“We can get rid of this Torrance guy and get the records, +too.”</p> +<p>“How?” asked Bince. “Do you know where +Feinheimer’s is?”</p> +<p>“Yes.”</p> +<p>“Well, you be over there to-night about ten thirty and +I’ll introduce you to a guy who can pull off this whole +thing, and you and I won’t have to be mixed up in it at +all.”</p> +<p>“To-night at ten thirty,” said Bince.</p> +<p>“At Feinheimer’s,” said Krovac.</p> +<h3><a id="Ch_XX" name="Ch_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h3> +<h2>AN INVITATION TO DINE.</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>As the workman passed through the little outer office Edith +Hudson glanced up at him.</p> +<p>“Where,” she thought after he had gone, “have +I seen that fellow before?”</p> +<p>Jimmy was in the shop applying “How to Get More Out of +Your Factory” to the problems of the International Machine +Company when he was called to the telephone.</p> +<p>“Is this Mr. Torrance?” asked a feminine voice.</p> +<p>“It is,” replied Jimmy.</p> +<p>“I am Miss Compton. My father will probably not be able to +get to the office for several days, and as he wishes very much to +talk with you he has asked me to suggest that you take dinner with +us this evening.” “Thank you,” said Jimmy. +“Tell Mr. Compton that I will come to the house right after +the shop closes to-night.”</p> +<p>“I suppose,” said Elizabeth Compton as she turned +away from the phone, “that an efficiency expert is a very +superior party and that his conversation will be far above my +head.”</p> +<p>Compton laughed. “Torrance seems to be a very likable +chap,” he said, “and as far as his work is concerned he +is doing splendidly.”</p> +<p>“Harold doesn’t think so,” said Elizabeth. +“He is terribly put out about the fellow. He told me only the +other night that he really believed that it would take years to +overcome the bad effect that this man has had upon the organization +and upon the work in general.”</p> +<p>“That is all poppycock,” exclaimed Compton, rather +more irritably than was usual with him. “For some reason +Harold has taken an unwarranted dislike to this man, but I am +watching him closely, and I will see that no very serious mistakes +are made.”</p> +<p>When Jimmy arrived at the Compton home he was ushered into the +library where Mr. Compton was sitting. In a corner of the room, +with her back toward the door, Elizabeth Compton sat reading. She +did not lay aside her book or look in his direction as Jimmy +entered, for the man was in no sense a guest in the light of her +understanding of the term. He was merely one of her father’s +employees here on business to see him, doubtless a very ordinary +sort of person whom she would, of course, have to meet when dinner +was announced, but not one for whom it was necessary to put oneself +out in any way.</p> +<p>Mr. Compton rose and greeted Jimmy cordially and then turned +toward his daughter.</p> +<p>“Elizabeth,” he said, “this is Mr. Torrance, +the efficiency expert at the plant.”</p> +<p>Leisurely Miss Compton laid aside her book. Rising, she faced +the newcomer, and as their eyes met, Jimmy barely stifled a gasp of +astonishment and dismay. Elizabeth Compton’s arched brows +raised slightly and involuntarily she breathed a low ejaculation, +“Efficiency expert!”</p> +<p>Simultaneously there flashed through the minds of both in rapid +succession a series of recollections of their previous meetings. +The girl saw the clerk at the stocking-counter, the waiter at +Feinheimer’s, the prize-fighter at the training quarters and +the milk-wagon driver. All these things passed through her mind in +the brief instant of the introduction and her acknowledgment of it. +She was too well-bred to permit any outward indication of her +recognition of the man other than the first almost inaudible +ejaculation that had been surprised from her.</p> +<p>The indifference she had felt prior to meeting the efficiency +expert was altered now to a feeling of keen interest as she +realized that she held the power to relieve Bince of the further +embarrassment of the man’s activities in the plant, and also +to save her father from the annoyance and losses that Bince had +assured her would result from Torrance’s methods. And so she +greeted Jimmy Torrance pleasantly, almost cordially.</p> +<p>“I am delighted,” she said, “but I am afraid +that I am a little awed, too, as I was just saying to father before +you came that I felt an efficiency expert must be a very superior +sort of person.”</p> +<p>If she placed special emphasis on the word +“superior” it was so cleverly done that it escaped the +notice of her father.</p> +<p>“Oh, not at all,” replied Jimmy. “We +efficiency experts are really quite ordinary people. One is apt to +meet us in any place that nice people are supposed to +go.”</p> +<p>Elizabeth felt the color rising slowly to her cheek. She +realized then that if she had thrown down the gage of battle the +young man had lost no time in taking it up.</p> +<p>“I am afraid,” she said, “that I do not +understand very much about the nature or the purpose of your work, +but I presume the idea is to make the concern with which you are +connected more prosperous—more successful?”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said her father, “that is the idea, and +even in the short time he has been with us Mr. Torrance has +effected some very excellent changes.”</p> +<p>“It must be very interesting work,” commented the +girl; “a profession that requires years of particular +experience and study, and I suppose one must be really thoroughly +efficient and successful himself, too, before he can help to +improve upon the methods of others or to bring them greater +prosperity.”</p> +<p>“Quite true,” said Jimmy. “Whatever a man +undertakes he should succeed in before he can hope to bring success +to others.”</p> +<p>“Even in trifling occupations, I presume,” suggested +the girl, “efficiency methods are best—an efficiency +expert could doubtlessly drive a milk-wagon better than an ordinary +person?” And she looked straight into Jimmy’s eyes, an +unquestioned challenge in her own.</p> +<p>“Unquestionably,” said Jimmy. “He could wait +on table better, too.”</p> +<p>“Or sell stockings?” suggested Elizabeth.</p> +<p>It was at this moment that Mr. Compton was called to the +telephone in an adjoining room, and when he had gone the girl +turned suddenly upon Jimmy Torrance. There was no cordiality nor +friendship in her expression; a sneer upcurved her short upper +lip.</p> +<p>“I do not wish to humiliate you unnecessarily in the +presence of my father,” she said. “You have managed to +deceive him into believing that you are what you claim to be. Mr. +Bince has known from the start that you are incompetent and +incapable of accomplishing the results father thinks you are +accomplishing. Now that you know that I know you to be an impostor, +what do you intend to do?”</p> +<p>“I intend to keep right on with my work in the plant, Miss +Compton,” replied Jimmy.</p> +<p>“How long do you suppose father would keep you after I +told him what I know of you? Do you think that he would for a +moment place the future of his business in the hands of an +ex-waiter from Feinheimer’s—-that he would let a +milk-wagon driver tell him how to run his business?”</p> +<p>“It probably might make a difference,” said Jimmy, +“if he knew, but he will not know—listen, Miss Compton, +I have discovered some things there that I have not even dared as +yet to tell your father. The whole future of the business may +depend upon my being there during the next few weeks. If I +wasn’t sure of what I am saying I might consider acceding to +your demands rather than to embarrass you with certain knowledge +which I have.”</p> +<p>“You refuse to leave, then?” she demanded.</p> +<p>“I do,” he said.</p> +<p>“Very well,” she replied; “I shall tell father +when he returns to this room just what I know of you.”</p> +<p>“Will you tell him,” asked Jimmy, “that you +went to the training quarters of a prize-fighter, or that you dined +unescorted at Feinheimer’s at night and were an object of the +insulting attentions of such a notorious character as Steve +Murray?”</p> +<p>The girl flushed. “You would tell him that?” she +demanded. “Oh, of course, I might have known that you would. +It is difficult to realize that any one dining at my father’s +home is not a gentleman. I had forgotten for the moment.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Jimmy, “I would tell him, not from +a desire to harm you, but because this is the only way that I can +compel you to refrain from something that would result in +inestimable harm to your father.”</p> +<h3><a id="Ch_XXI" name="Ch_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h3> +<h2>JIMMY TELLS THE TRUTH.</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Mr. Compton returned to the room before Jimmy had discovered +whether the girl intended to expose him or not. She said nothing +about the matter during dinner, and immediately thereafter she +excused herself, leaving the two men alone.</p> +<p>During the conversation that ensued Jimmy discovered that Bince +had been using every argument at his command to induce Compton to +let him go, as well as getting rid of the certified public +accountants.</p> +<p>“I can’t help but feel,” said Compton, +“that possibly there may be some reason in what Mr. Bince +says, for he seems to feel more strongly on this subject than +almost any question that has ever arisen in the plant wherein we +differed, and it may be that I am doing wrong to absolutely ignore +his wishes in the matter.</p> +<p>“As a matter of fact, Mr. Torrance, I have reached the +point where I don’t particularly relish a fight, as I did in +the past. I would rather have things run along smoothly than to +have this feeling of unrest and unpleasantness that now exists in +the plant. I do not say that you are to blame for it, but the fact +remains that ever since you came I have been constantly harassed by +this same unpleasant condition which grows worse day by day. There +is no question but what you have accomplished a great deal for us +of a practical nature, but I believe in view of Mr. Bince’s +feelings in the matter that we had better terminate our +arrangement.”</p> +<p>Jimmy suddenly noted how old and tired his employer looked. He +realized, too, that for a week he had been fighting an incipient +influenza and that doubtless his entire mental attitude was +influenced by the insidious workings of the disease, one of the +marked symptoms of which he knew to be a feeling of despondency and +mental depression, which sapped both courage and initiative.</p> +<p>They were passing through the hallway from the dining-room to +the library, and as Compton concluded what was equivalent to +Jimmy’s discharge, he had stopped and turned toward the +younger man. They were standing near the entrance to the music-room +in which Elizabeth chanced to be, so that she overheard her +father’s words, and not without a smile of satisfaction and +relief.</p> +<p>“Mr. Compton,” replied Jimmy, “no matter what +you do with me, you simply must not let those C.P.A.’s go +until they have completed their work. I know something of what it +is going to mean to your business, but I would rather that the +reports come from them than from me.”</p> +<p>“What do you mean?” asked Compton.</p> +<p>“I didn’t want to be the one to tell you,” +replied Jimmy. “I preferred that the C.P.A.’s discover +it, as they will within the next day or two—you are being +systematically robbed. I suspected it before I had been there ten +days, and I was absolutely sure of it at the time I suggested you +employ the C.P.A.’s. You are being robbed at the rate of +approximately one thousand dollars a week.”</p> +<p>“How?” asked Compton.</p> +<p>“I would rather you would wait for the report of the +C.P.A.’s,” returned Jimmy.</p> +<p>“I wish to know now,” said Compton, “how I am +being robbed.”</p> +<p>Jimmy looked straight into the older man’s eyes. +“Through the pay-roll,” he replied.</p> +<p>For a full minute Compton did not speak.</p> +<p>“You may continue with your work in the plant,” he +said at last, “and we will keep the accountants, for a while +at least. And now I am going to ask you to excuse me. I find that I +tire very quickly since I have been threatened with +influenza.”</p> +<p>Jimmy bid his employer good night, and Mr. Compton turned into +the library as the former continued along across the hall to the +entrance. He was putting on his overcoat when Elizabeth Compton +emerged from the music-room and approached him.</p> +<p>“I overheard your conversation with father,” she +said. “It seems to me that you are making a deliberate +attempt to cause him worry and apprehension—you are taking +advantage of his illness to frighten him into keeping you in his +employ. I should think you would be ashamed of yourself.”</p> +<p>“I am sorry that you think that,” said Jimmy. +“If it was not for your father and you I wouldn’t have +urged the matter at all.”</p> +<p>“You are just doing it to hold your position,” +retorted the girl, “and now, by threats of blackmail you +prevent me from exposing you—you are a despicable +cur.”</p> +<p>Jimmy felt the blood mounting to his face. He was mortified and +angry, and yet he was helpless because his traducer was a woman. +Unconsciously he drew himself to his full height.</p> +<p>“You will have to think about me as you please,” he +said; “I cannot influence that, but I want you to understand +that you are not to interfere with my work. I think we understand +one another perfectly, Miss Compton. Good night.”</p> +<p>And as he closed the door behind him he left a very angry young +lady biting her lower lip and almost upon the verge of angry +tears.</p> +<p>“The boor,” she exclaimed; “he dared to order +me about and threaten me.”</p> +<p>The telephone interrupted her unhappy train of thoughts. It was +Bince.</p> +<p>“I am sorry, Elizabeth,” he said, “but I +won’t be able to come up this evening. I have some important +business to attend to. How is your father?”</p> +<p>“He seems very tired and despondent,” replied +Elizabeth. “That efficiency person was here to dinner. He +just left.”</p> +<p>She could not see the startled and angry expression of +Bince’s face as he received this information. +“Torrance was there?” he asked. “How did that +happen?”</p> +<p>“Father asked him to dinner, and when he wanted to +discharge the fellow Torrance told him something that upset father +terribly, and urged that he be kept a little while longer, to which +father agreed.”</p> +<p>“What did he tell him?” asked Bince.</p> +<p>“Oh, some alarmist tale about somebody robbing father. I +didn’t quite make out what it was all about, but it had +something to do with the pay-roll.”</p> +<p>Bince went white. “Don’t believe anything that +fellow says,” he exclaimed excitedly: “he’s +nothing but a crook. Elizabeth, can’t you make your father +realize that he ought to get rid of the man, that he ought to leave +things to me instead of trusting an absolute stranger?”</p> +<p>“I have,” replied the girl, “and he was on the +point of doing it until Torrance told him this story.”</p> +<p>“Something will have to be done,” said Bince, +“at once. I’ll be over to see your father in the +morning. Good-by, dear,” and he hung up the receiver.</p> +<p>After Jimmy left the Compton home he started to walk down-town. +It was too early to go to his dismal little room on Indiana Avenue. +The Lizard was still away. He had seen nothing of him for weeks, +and with his going he had come to realize that he had rather +depended upon the Lizard for company. He was full of interesting +stories of the underworld and his dry humor and strange philosophy +amused and entertained Jimmy.</p> +<p>And now as he walked along the almost deserted drive after his +recent unpleasant scene with Elizabeth Compton he felt more blue +and lonely than he had for many weeks. He craved human +companionship, and so strong was the urge that his thoughts +naturally turned to the only person other than the Lizard who +seemed to have taken any particularly kindly interest in him. +Acting on the impulse he turned west at the first cross street +until he came to a drugstore. Entering a telephone-booth he called +a certain number and a moment later had his connection.</p> +<p>“Is that you, Edith?” he asked, and at the +affirmative reply, “this is Jimmy Torrance. I’m feeling +terribly lonesome. I was wondering if I couldn’t drag you out +to listen to my troubles?”</p> +<p>“Surest thing you know,” cried the girl. +“Where are you?” He told her. “Take a Clark +Street car,” she told him, “and I’ll be at the +corner of North Avenue by the time you get there.”</p> +<p>As the girl hung up the receiver and turned from the phone a +slightly quizzical expression reflected some thought that was in +her mind. “I wonder,” she said as she returned to her +room, “if he is going to be like the rest?”</p> +<p>She seated herself before her mirror and critically examined her +reflection in the glass. She knew she was good-looking. No need of +a mirror to tell her that. Her youth and her good looks had been +her stock in trade, and yet this evening she appraised her features +most critically, and as with light fingers she touched her hair, +now in one place and now in another, she found herself humming a +gay little tune and she realized that she was very happy.</p> +<p>When Jimmy Torrance alighted from the Clark Street car he found +Edith waiting for him.</p> +<p>“It was mighty good of you,” he said. “I +don’t know when I have had such a fit of blues, but I feel +better already.”</p> +<p>“What is the matter?” she asked.</p> +<p>“I just had a talk with Mr. Compton,” he replied. +“He sent for me and I had to tell him something that I +didn’t want to tell him, although he’s got to find it +out sooner or later anyway.”</p> +<p>“Is there something wrong at the plant?” she +asked.</p> +<p>“Wrong doesn’t describe it,” he exclaimed +bitterly. “The man that he has done the most for and in whose +loyalty he ought to have the right of implicit confidence, is +robbing him blind.”</p> +<p>“Bince?” asked the girl. Jimmy nodded. “I +didn’t like that pill,” she said, “from the +moment I saw him.”</p> +<p>“Nor I,” said Jimmy, “but he is going to marry +Miss Compton and inherit the business. He’s the last man in +the place that Compton would suspect. It was just like suggesting +to a man that his son was robbing him.”</p> +<p>“Have you got the goods on him?” asked Edith.</p> +<p>“I will have as soon as the C.P.A.’s get to digging +into the pay-roll,” he replied, “and I just as good as +got the information I need even without that. Well, let’s +forget our troubles. What shall we do?”</p> +<p>“What do you want to do?” she asked.</p> +<p>He could not tell by either her tone or expression with what +anxiety she awaited his reply. “Suppose we do something +exciting, like going to the movies,” he suggested with a +laugh.</p> +<p>“That suits me all right,” said the girl. +“There is a dandy comedy down at the Castle.”</p> +<p>And so they went to the picture show, and when it was over he +suggested that they have a bite to eat.</p> +<p>“I’ll tell you,” Edith suggested. +“Suppose we go to Feinheimer’s restaurant and see if we +can’t get that table that I used to eat at when you waited on +me?” They both laughed.</p> +<p>“If old Feinheimer sees me he will have me +poisoned,” said Jimmy.</p> +<p>“Not if you have any money to spend in his +place.”</p> +<p>It was eleven thirty when they reached Feinheimer’s. The +table they wanted was vacant, a little table in a corner of the +room and furthest from the orchestra. The waiter, a new man, did +not know them, and no one had recognized them as they entered.</p> +<p>Jimmy sat looking at the girl’s profile as she studied the +menu-card. She was very pretty. He had always thought her that, but +somehow to-night she seemed to be different, even more beautiful +than in the past. He wished that he could forget what she had been. +And he realized as he looked at her sweet girlish face upon which +vice had left no slightest impression to mark her familiarity with +vice, that it might be easy to forget her past. And then between +him and the face of the girl before him arose the vision of another +face, the face of the girl that he had set upon a pedestal and +worshiped from afar. And with the recollection of her came a +realization of the real cause of his sorrow and depression earlier +in the evening.</p> +<p>He had attributed it to the unpleasant knowledge he had been +forced to partially impart to her father and also in some measure +to the regrettable interview he had had with her, but now he knew +that these were only contributory causes, that the real reason was +that during the months she had occupied his thoughts and in the few +meetings he had had with her there had developed within him, +unknown to himself, a sentiment for her that could be described by +but one word—love.</p> +<p>Always, though he had realized that she was unattainable, there +must have lingered within his breast a faint spark of hope that +somehow, some time, there would be a chance, but after to-night he +knew there could never be a chance. She had openly confessed her +contempt for him, and how would she feel later when she realized +that through his efforts her happiness was to be wrecked, and the +man she loved and was to marry branded as a criminal?</p> +<h3><a id="Ch_XXII" name="Ch_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h3> +<h2>A LETTER FROM MURRAY.</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>The girl opposite him looked up from the card before her. The +lines of her face were softened by the suggestion of a contented +smile. “My gracious!” she exclaimed. +“What’s the matter now? You look as though you had lost +your last friend.”</p> +<p>Jimmy quickly forced a smile to his lips. “On the +contrary,” he said, “I think I’ve found a regular +friend—in you.”</p> +<p>It was easy to see that his words pleased her.</p> +<p>“No,” continued Jimmy; “I was thinking of what +an awful mess I make of everything I tackle.”</p> +<p>“You’re not making any mess of this new job,” +she said. “You’re making good. You see, my hunch was +all right.”</p> +<p>“I wish you hadn’t had your hunch,” he said +with a smile. “It’s going to bring a lot of trouble to +several people, but now that I’m in it I’m going to +stick to it to a finish.”</p> +<p>The girl’s eyes were wandering around the room, taking in +the faces of the diners about them. Suddenly she extended her hand +and laid it on Jimmy’s.</p> +<p>“For the love of Mike,” she exclaimed. “Look +over there.”</p> +<p>Slowly Jimmy turned his eyes in the direction she indicated.</p> +<p>“What do you know about that?” he ejaculated. +“Steve Murray and Bince!”</p> +<p>“And thick as thieves,” said the girl.</p> +<p>“Naturally,” commented Jimmy.</p> +<p>The two men left the restaurant before Edith and Jimmy had +finished their supper, leaving the two hazarding various guesses as +to the reason for their meeting.</p> +<p>“You can bet it’s for no good,” said the girl. +“I’ve known Murray for a long while, and I never knew +him to do a decent thing in his life.”</p> +<p>Their supper over, they walked to Clark Street and took a +northbound car, but after alighting Jimmy walked with the girl to +the entrance of her apartment.</p> +<p>“I can’t thank you enough,” he said, +“for giving me this evening. It is the only evening I have +enjoyed since I struck this town last July.”</p> +<p>He unlocked the outer door for her and was holding it open.</p> +<p>“It is I who ought to thank you,” she said. Her +voice was very low and filled with suppressed feeling. “I +ought to thank you, for this has been the happiest evening of my +life,” and as though she could not trust herself to say more, +she entered the hallway and closed the door between them.</p> +<p>As Jimmy turned away to retrace his steps to the car-line he +found his mind suddenly in a whirl of jumbled emotions, for he was +not so stupid as to have failed to grasp something of the +significance of the girl’s words and manner.</p> +<p>“Hell!” he muttered. “Look what I’ve +done now!”</p> +<p>The girl hurried to her room and turned on the lights, and again +she seated herself before her mirror, and for a moment sat staring +at the countenance reflected before her. She saw lips parted to +rapid breathing, lips that curved sweetly in a happy smile, and +then as she sat there looking she saw the expression of the face +before her change. The lips ceased to smile, the soft, brown eyes +went wide and staring as though in sudden horror. For a moment she +sat thus and then, throwing her body forward upon her +dressing-table, she buried her face in her arms.</p> +<p>“My God!” she cried through choking sobs.</p> +<p>Mason Compton was at his office the next morning, contrary to +the pleas of his daughter and the orders of his physician. Bince +was feeling more cheerful. Murray had assured him that there was a +way out. He would not tell Bince what the way was.</p> +<p>“Just leave it to me,” he said. “The less you +know, the better off you’ll be. What you want is to get rid +of this fresh guy and have all the papers in a certain vault +destroyed. You see to it that only the papers you want destroyed +are in that vault, and I’ll do the rest.”</p> +<p>All of which relieved Mr. Harold Bince’s elastic +conscience of any feeling of responsibility in the matter. Whatever +Murray did was no business of his. He was glad that Murray +hadn’t told him.</p> +<p>He greeted Jimmy Torrance almost affably, but he lost something +of his self-composure when Mason Compton arrived at the office, for +Bince had been sure that his employer would be laid up for at least +another week, during which time Murray would have completed his +work.</p> +<p>The noon mail brought a letter from Murray.</p> +<p>“Show the enclosed to Compton,” it read. “Tell +him you found it on your desk, and destroy this letter.” The +enclosure was a crudely printed note on a piece of soiled +wrapping-paper:</p> +<p class="cen">TREAT YOUR MEN RIGHT OR<br /> +SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES<br /> +I. W. W.</p> +<p>Bince laid Murray’s letter face down upon the balance of +the open mail, and sat for a long time looking at the ominous words +of the enclosure. At first he was inclined to be frightened, but +finally a crooked smile twisted his lips. “Murray’s not +such a fool, after all,” he soliloquized.</p> +<p>“He’s framing an alibi before he starts.”</p> +<p>With the note in his hand, Bince entered Compton’s office, +where he found the latter dictating to Edith Hudson. “Look at +this thing!” exclaimed Bince, laying the note before Compton. +“What do you suppose it means?”</p> +<p>Compton read it, and his brows knitted. “Have the men been +complaining at all?” he asked.</p> +<p>“Recently I have heard a little grumbling,” replied +Bince. “They haven’t taken very kindly to +Torrance’s changes, and I guess some of them are afraid they +are going to lose their jobs, as they know he is cutting down the +force in order to cut costs.”</p> +<p>“He ought to know about this,” said Compton. +“Wait; I’ll have him in,” and he pressed a button +on his desk. A moment later Jimmy entered, and Compton showed him +the note.</p> +<p>“What do you think of it?” asked Compton.</p> +<p>“I doubt if it amounts to much,” replied Jimmy. +“The men have no grievance. It may be the work of some fellow +who was afraid of his job, but I doubt if it really emanates from +any organized scheme of intimidation. If I were you, sir, I would +simply ignore it.”</p> +<p>To Jimmy’s surprise, Bince agreed with him. It was the +first time that Bince had agreed with anything Jimmy had +suggested.</p> +<p>“Very well,” assented Compton, “but +we’ll preserve this bit of evidence in case we may need it +later,” and he handed the slip of paper to Edith Hudson. +“File this, please, Miss Hudson,” he said; and then, +turning to Bince:</p> +<p>“It may be nothing, but I don’t like the idea of it. +There is apt to be something underlying this, or even if it is only +a single individual and he happens to be a crank he could cause a +lot of trouble. Suppose, for instance, one of these crack-brained +foreigners in the shop got it into his head that Torrance here was +grinding him down in order to increase our profits? Why, he might +attack him at any time! I tell you, we have got to be prepared for +such a contingency, especially now that we have concrete evidence +that there is such a man in our employ. I think you ought to be +armed, Mr. Torrance. Have you a pistol?”</p> +<p>Jimmy shook his head negatively.</p> +<p>“No, sir,” he said; “not here.”</p> +<p>Compton opened a desk drawer.</p> +<p>“Take this one,” he said, and handed Jimmy an +automatic.</p> +<p>The latter smiled. “Really, Mr. Compton,” he said, +“I don’t believe I need such an article.”</p> +<p>“I want you to take it,” insisted Compton. “I +want you to be on the safe side.”</p> +<p>A moment later Bince and Jimmy left the office together. Jimmy +still carried the pistol in his hand.</p> +<p>“You’d better put that thing in your pocket,” +cautioned Bince.</p> +<p>They were in the small office on which Compton’s and +Bince’s offices opened, and Jimmy had stopped beside the desk +that had been placed there for him.</p> +<p>“I think I’ll leave it here,” he said. +“The thing would be a nuisance in my pocket,” and he +dropped it into one of the desk drawers, while Bince continued his +way toward the shop.</p> +<p>Compton was looking through the papers and letters on his desk, +evidently searching for something which he could not find, while +the girl sat waiting for him to continue his dictation.</p> +<p>“That’s funny,” commented Compton.</p> +<p>“I was certain that that letter was here. Have you seen +anything of a letter from Mosher?”</p> +<p>“No, sir,” replied Edith.</p> +<p>“Well, I wish you would step into Mr. Bince’s +office, and see if it is on his desk.”</p> +<p>Upon the assistant general manager’s desk lay a small pile +of papers, face down, which Edith proceeded to examine in search of +the Mosher letter. She had turned them all over at once, commencing +at what had previously been the bottom of the pile, so that she ran +through them all without finding the Mosher letter before she came +to Murray’s epistle.</p> +<p>As its import dawned upon her, her eyes widened at first in +surprise and then narrowed as she realized the value of her +discovery. At first she placed the letter back with the others just +as she had found them, but on second thought she took it up quickly +and, folding it, slipped it inside her waist. Then she returned to +Compton’s office.</p> +<p>“I cannot find the Mosher letter,” she said.</p> +<h3><a id="Ch_XXIII" name="Ch_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h3> +<h2>LAID UP.</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Harriet Holden was sitting in Elizabeth’s boudoir. +“And he had the effrontery,” the latter was saying, +“to tell me what I must do and must not do! The idea! A +miserable little milk-wagon driver dictating to me!”</p> +<p>Miss Holden smiled.</p> +<p>“I should not call him very little,” she +remarked.</p> +<p>“I didn’t mean physically,” retorted +Elizabeth. “It is absolutely insufferable. I am going to +demand that father discharge the man.”</p> +<p>“And suppose he asks you why?” asked Harriet. +“You will tell him, of course, that you want this person +discharged because he protected you from the insults and attacks of +a ruffian while you were dining in Feinheimer’s at +night—is that it?”</p> +<p>“You are utterly impossible, Harriet!” cried +Elizabeth, stamping her foot. “You are as bad as that +efficiency person. But, then, I might have expected it! You have +always, it seems to me, shown a great deal more interest in the +fellow than necessary, and probably the fact that Harold +doesn’t like him is enough to make you partial toward him, +for you have never tried to hide the fact that you don’t like +Harold.”</p> +<p>“If you’re going to be cross,” said Harriet, +“I think I shall go home.”</p> +<p>At about the same time the Lizard entered Feinheimer’s. In +the far corner of the room Murray was seated at a table. The Lizard +approached and sat down opposite him. “Here I am,” he +said. “What do you want, and how did you know I was in +town?”</p> +<p>“I didn’t know,” said Murray. “I got a +swell job for you, and so I sent out word to get you.”</p> +<p>“You’re in luck then,” said the Lizard. +“I just blew in this morning. What kind of a job you +got?”</p> +<p>Murray explained at length.</p> +<p>“They got a watchman,” he concluded, “but +I’ve got a guy on de inside that’ll fix him.”</p> +<p>“When do I pull this off?” asked the Lizard.</p> +<p>“In about a week. I’ll let you know the night later. +Dey ordinarily draw the payroll money Monday, the same day dey pay, +but dis week they’ll draw it Saturday and leave it in the +safe. It’ll be layin’ on top of a bunch of books and +papers. Dey’re de t’ings you’re to destroy. As I +told you, it will all be fixed from de inside. Dere’s no +danger of a pinch. All you gotta do is crack de safe, put about a +four or five t’ousand dollar roll in your pocket, and as you +cross de river drop a handful of books and papers in. Nothin’ +to it—it’s the easiest graft you ever had.”</p> +<p>“You’re sure dat’s all?” asked the +Lizard.</p> +<p>“Sure thing!” replied Murray.</p> +<p>“Where’s de place?”</p> +<p>“Dat I can’t tell you until the day we’re +ready to pull off de job.”</p> +<p>At four o’clock that afternoon Jimmy Torrance collapsed at +his desk. The flu had struck him as suddenly and as unexpectedly as +it had attacked many of its victims. Edith Hudson found him, and +immediately notified Mr. Compton, with the result that half an hour +later Jimmy Torrance was in a small private hospital in Park +Avenue.</p> +<p>That night Bince got Murray over the phone. He told him of +Jimmy’s sickness.</p> +<p>“He’s balled up the whole plan,” he +complained. “We’ve either got to wait until he croaks +or is out again before we can go ahead, unless something else +arises to make it necessary to act before. I think I can hold +things off, though, at this end, all right.”</p> +<p>For four or five days Jimmy was a pretty sick man. He was +allowed to see no one, but even if Jimmy had been in condition to +give the matter any thought he would not have expected to see any +one, for who was there to visit him in the hospital, who was there +who knew of his illness, to care whether he was sick or well, alive +or dead? It was on the fifth day that Jimmy commenced to take +notice of anything. At Compton’s orders he had been placed in +a private room and given a special nurse, and to-day for the first +time he learned of Mr. Compton’s kindness and the fact that +the nurse was instructed to call Jimmy’s employer twice a day +and report the patient’s condition.</p> +<p>“Mighty nice of him,” thought Jimmy, and then to the +nurse: “And the flowers, too? Does he send those?”</p> +<p>The young woman shook her head negatively.</p> +<p>“No,” she said; “a young lady comes every +evening about six and leaves the flowers. She always asks about +your condition and when she may see you.”</p> +<p>Jimmy was silent for some time. “She comes every +evening?” he asked.</p> +<p>“Yes,” replied the nurse.</p> +<p>“May I see her this evening?” asked Jimmy.</p> +<p>“We’ll ask the doctor,” she replied; and the +doctor must have given consent, for at six o’clock that +evening the nurse brought Edith Hudson to his bedside.</p> +<p>The girl came every evening thereafter and sat with Jimmy as +long as the nurse would permit her to remain. Jimmy discovered +during those periods a new side to her character, a mothering +tenderness that filled him with a feeling of content and happiness +the moment that she entered the room, and which doubtless aided +materially in his rapid convalescence, for until she had been +permitted to see him Jimmy had suffered as much from mental +depression as from any other of the symptoms of his disease.</p> +<p>He had felt utterly alone and uncared for, and in this mental +state he had brooded over his failures to such an extent that he +had reached a point where he felt that death would be something of +a relief. Militating against his recovery had been the parting +words of Elizabeth Compton the evening that he had dined at her +father’s home, but now all that was very nearly +forgotten—at least crowded into the dim vistas of +recollection by the unselfish friendship of this girl of the +streets.</p> +<p>Jimmy’s nurse quite fell in love with Edith.</p> +<p>“She is such a sweet girl,” she said, “and +always so cheerful. She is going to make some one a mighty good +wife,” and she smiled knowingly at Jimmy.</p> +<p>The suggestion which her words implied came to Jimmy as a +distinct shock. He had never thought of Edith Hudson in the light +of this suggestion, and now he wondered if there could be any such +sentiment as it implied in Edith’s heart, but finally he put +the idea away with a shrug.</p> +<p>“Impossible,” he thought. “She thinks of me as +I think of her, only as a good friend.”</p> +<h3><a id="Ch_XXIV" name="Ch_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h3> +<h2>IN THE TOILS.</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>At the office of the International Machine Company the work of +the C.P.A.’s was drawing to a close. Their report would soon +be ready to submit to Mr. Compton, and as the time approached +Bince’s nervousness and irritability increased. Edith noticed +that he inquired each day with growing solicitude as to the reports +from the hospital relative to Jimmy’s condition. She knew +that Bince disliked Jimmy, and yet the man seemed strangely anxious +for his recovery and return to work.</p> +<p>In accordance with Jimmy’s plan, the C.P.A.’s were +to give out no information to any one, even to Mr. Compton, until +their investigation and report were entirely completed. This plan +had been approved by Mr. Compton, although he professed to be at +considerable loss to understand why it was necessary. It was, +however, in accordance with Jimmy’s plan to prevent, if +possible, any interference with the work of the auditors until +every available fact in the case had been ascertained and +recorded.</p> +<p>In the investigation of the pay-roll Bince had worked diligently +with the accountants. As a matter of fact, he had never left them a +moment while the pay-roll records were in their hands, and had gone +to much pain to explain in detail every question arising +therefrom.</p> +<p>Although the investigators seemed to accept his statements at +their face value, the assistant general manager was far from being +assured that their final report would redound to his credit.</p> +<p>On a Thursday they informed him that they had completed their +investigation, and the report would be submitted to Mr. Compton on +Saturday.</p> +<p>When Edith reached the hospital that evening she found Jimmy in +high spirits. He was dressed for the first time, and assured her +that he was quite able to return to work if the doctor would let +him, but the nurse shook her head. “You ought to stay here +for another week or ten days,” she admonished him.</p> +<p>“Nothing doing,”’ cried Jimmy. +“I’ll be out of here Monday at the latest.” But +when Edith told him that the C.P.A.’s had finished, and that +their report would be handed in Saturday, Jimmy announced that he +would leave the hospital the following day.</p> +<p>“But you can’t do it,” said the nurse.</p> +<p>“Why not?” asked Jimmy.</p> +<p>“The doctor won’t permit it.”</p> +<p>Edith tried to dissuade him, but he insisted that it was +absolutely necessary for him to be at the office when the +C.P.A.’s report was made.</p> +<p>“I’ll be over there Friday evening or Saturday +morning at the latest,” he said as she bid him good-bye.</p> +<p>And so it was that, despite the pleas of his nurse and the +orders of his physician, Jimmy appeared at the plant Friday +afternoon. Bince greeted him almost effusively, and Mr. Compton +seemed glad to see him out again.</p> +<p>That evening Harold Bince met Murray at Feinheimer’s, and +still later the Lizard received word that Murray wanted to see +him.</p> +<p>“Everything’s ready,” the boss explained to +the Lizard. “The whole thing’s framed for to-morrow +night. The watchman was discharged to-day. Another man is supposed +to have been hired to take the job, but of course he won’t +show up. You meet me here at seven thirty to-morrow night, and +I’ll give you your final instructions and tell you how to get +to the plant.” The C.P.A.’s were slow in completing +their report. At noon on Saturday it looked very much to Bince that +there would be no report ready before Monday. He had spent most of +the forenoon pacing his office, and at last, unable longer to stand +the strain, he had announced that he was going out to his country +club for a game of golf.</p> +<p>He returned to his down-town club about dinner-time, and at +eight o’clock he called up Elizabeth Compton.</p> +<p>“Come on up,” said the girl. “I’m all +alone this evening. Father went back to the office to examine some +reports that were just finished up late this afternoon.”</p> +<p>“I’ll be over,” said Bince, “as soon as +I dress.” If there was any trace of surprise or shock in his +tones the girl failed to notice it.</p> +<p>At ten o’clock that night a figure moved silently through +the dark shadows of an alleyway in the area of the International +Machine Company’s plant on West Superior Street. As he moved +along he counted the basement windows silently, and at the fifth +window he halted. Just a casual glance he cast up and down the +alley, and then, kneeling, he raised the sash and slipped quietly +into the darkness of the basement.</p> +<p>At about the same time Jimmy’s landlady called him to the +telephone, where a man’s voice asked if “this was Mr. +Torrance?” Assured that such was the fact, the voice +continued: “I am the new watchman at the plant. There’s +something wrong here. I can’t get hold of Mr. Compton. I +think you better come down. I’ll be in Mr. Compton’s +office—” The message ceased as though central had +disconnected them.</p> +<p>“Funny,” thought Jimmy, “that he should call +me up. I wonder what the trouble can be.” But he lost no time +in getting his hat and starting for the works.</p> +<p>Although the Lizard knew that there was no danger of detection, +yet from long habit he moved through the plant of the International +Machine Company with the noiselessness of a disembodied spirit. +Occasionally, and just for the briefest instant, he flashed his +lamp ahead of him, but though he had never been in the place before +he found it scarcely necessary, so minute had been his instructions +for reaching the office from the fifth basement window.</p> +<p>The room he sought was on the second floor, and the Lizard had +mounted the steps from the basement to the first floor when he was +brought to a sudden stop by a noise from the floor above him. The +Lizard listened intently. No, he could not be mistaken. Too often +had he heard a similar sound.</p> +<p>Some one was tiptoeing across the floor above. The Lizard was in +the hallway close beside the stairs when he realized the footsteps +were coming toward the stairway, and a moment later that they were +cautiously descending. The Lizard flattened himself against the +wall, and if he breathed his lungs gave forth no sound.</p> +<p>If one may interpret footsteps—and the Lizard, from the +fund of a great experience, felt that he could—those +descending the stairway from above him might have been described as +nervous and repressed; for at least they gave the Lizard the +impression of one who desired to flee in haste and yet dared not do +so, for fear of attracting attention by the increased noise that +greater speed might entail.</p> +<p>At least the Lizard knew that those were the footsteps of no +watchman, but whether it be guardian of the law or fellow criminal +the Lizard had no wish to be discovered. He wondered what had gone +wrong with Murray’s plans, and, suddenly imbued with the +natural suspicion of the criminal, it occurred to him that the +whole thing might be a frame-up to get him; and yet why Murray +should wish to get him he could not imagine. He ran over in his +mind a list of all those who might feel enmity toward him, but among +them all the Lizard could cast upon none who might have sufficient +against him to warrant such an elaborate scheme of revenge.</p> +<p>The footsteps passed him and continued on toward the foot of the +stairs where was the main entrance which opened upon the street. At +the door the footsteps halted, and as the Lizard’s eyes bored +through the darkness in the direction of the other prowler the +latter struck a match upon the panel of the door and lighted a +cigarette, revealing his features momentarily but distinctly to the +watcher in the shadow of the stairway. Then he opened the door and +passed out into the night.</p> +<p>The Lizard, listening intently for a few moments to assure +himself that there was no one else above, and that the man who had +just departed was not returning, at last continued his way to the +foot of the stairs, which he ascended to the second floor. Passing +through the outer office, he paused a moment before the door to +Compton’s private office, and then silently turning the knob +he gently pushed the door open and stepped into the room.</p> +<p>Beyond the threshold he halted and pressed the button of his +flash-lamp. For just an instant its faint rays illumined the +interior of the room, and then darkness blotted out the scene. But +whatever it was that the little flash-lamp had revealed was +evidently in the nature of a surprise, and perhaps something of a +shock, to the Lizard, for he drew back with a muttered oath, backed +quietly out of the room, closed the door after him, and, moving +much more swiftly than he had entered, retraced his steps to the +fifth window on the alley, and was gone from the scene with +whatever job he had contemplated unexecuted.</p> +<p>A half-hour later detective headquarters at the Central Station +received an anonymous tip: “Send some one to the office of +the International Machine Company, on the second floor of West +Superior Street.”</p> +<p>It was ten thirty when Jimmy reached the plant. He entered the +front door with his own latchkey, pressed the button which lighted +the stairway and the landing above, and, ascending, went straight +to Mr. Compton’s office, turned the knob, and opened the +door, to find that the interior was dark.</p> +<p>“Strange,” he thought, “that after sending for +me the fellow didn’t wait.” As these thoughts passed +through his mind he fumbled on the wall for the switch, and, +finding it, flooded the office with light.</p> +<p>As he turned again toward the room he voiced a sudden +exclamation of horror, for on the floor beside his desk lay the +body of Mason Compton! As Jimmy stepped quickly toward +Compton’s body and kneeled beside it a man tiptoed quietly up +the front stairway, while another, having ascended from the rear, +was crossing the outer office with equal stealth.</p> +<p>Jimmy felt of Compton’s face and hands. They were warm. +And then he placed his ear close against the man’s breast, in +order to see if he could detect the beating of the heart. He was in +this position when he was startled by a gruff voice behind him.</p> +<p>“Put ‘em up!” it admonished curtly, and Jimmy +turned to see two men standing in the doorway with pistols leveled +at him.</p> +<h3><a id="Ch_XXV" name="Ch_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h3> +<h2>CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE.</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>At first Jimmy thought they were the perpetrators of the deed, +but almost immediately he recognized one of them as +O’Donnell, the erstwhile traffic officer who had been +promoted to a detective sergeancy since Jimmy had first met +him.</p> +<p>“Compton has been murdered,” said Jimmy dully. +“He is dead.”</p> +<p>“Put up your hands,” snapped O’Donnell for the +second time, “and be quick about it!”</p> +<p>It was then for the first time that Jimmy realized the meaning +that might be put upon his presence alone in the office with his +dead employer. O’Donnell’s partner searched him, but +found no weapon upon him.</p> +<p>“Where’s the gat?” he asked.</p> +<p>“Whoever did this probably took it with him,” said +Jimmy. “Find the watchman.”</p> +<p>They made Jimmy sit down in a corner, and while one of them +guarded him the other called up central, made his report, and asked +for an ambulance and the wagon. Then O’Donnell commenced to +examine the room. A moment later he found an automatic behind the +door across the room from where Compton’s body lay.</p> +<p>“Ever see this before?” asked O’Donnell, +holding the pistol up to Jimmy.</p> +<p>“If you’re asking me if it’s mine, no,” +said Jimmy. “I have a gun, but it’s home. I never carry +it. I didn’t do this, O’Donnell,” he continued. +“There was no reason why I should do it, so instead of +wasting your time on me while the murderer escapes you’d +better get busy on some other theory, too. It won’t do any +harm, anyway.”</p> +<p>The wagon came and took Jimmy to the station, and later he was +questioned by the lieutenant in charge.</p> +<p>“You say this is not your pistol?” asked the police +officer.</p> +<p>“It is not,” replied Jimmy.</p> +<p>“You never saw it before?”</p> +<p>“No, I have not.”</p> +<p>The lieutenant turned to one of his men, who went to the door, +and, opening it, returned almost immediately with Bince.</p> +<p>“Do you know this man, Mr. Bince?” asked the +lieutenant.</p> +<p>“I certainly do,” said Bince.</p> +<p>“Did you ever see this pistol before?”</p> +<p>Bince took the weapon and examined it.</p> +<p>“Yes,” he said.</p> +<p>“Under what circumstances?” asked the +lieutenant.</p> +<p>“It was one of two that Mr. Compton had in his desk. This +one he loaned to Torrance two or three weeks ago. I was in the +office at the time.”</p> +<p>The officer turned toward Jimmy.</p> +<p>“Now do you recognize it?” he asked.</p> +<p>“I haven’t denied,” said Jimmy, “that +Mr. Compton had loaned me a pistol. As a matter of fact, I had +forgotten all about it. I do not particularly recognize this one as +the weapon he loaned me, though it is of the same type. There is no +way that I could identify the particular weapon he handed +me.”</p> +<p>“But you admit he loaned you one?”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Jimmy.</p> +<p>“What did you do with it?” asked the policeman.</p> +<p>“I put it in my desk within five minutes after he gave it +to me, and I haven’t seen it since.”</p> +<p>“You say you couldn’t identify the pistol?” +said the officer.</p> +<p>Jimmy nodded.</p> +<p>“Well, we can, and have. The number of this pistol was +recorded when Mr. Compton bought it, as was the number of the other +one which is still in his desk. They were the only two pistols he +ever bought, according to Mr. Bince, and his daughter, aside from +one which he had at home, which has also been accounted for. The +drawer in which Mr. Bince saw you place this pistol we found open +and the pistol gone. It looks pretty bad for you, young fellow, and +if you want a chance to dodge the rope you’d better plead +guilty and tell us why you did it.”</p> +<p>Jimmy was given little opportunity for sleep that night. A +half-dozen times he was called back to the lieutenant’s +office for further questioning. He commenced to realize that the +circumstantial evidence was strongly against him, and now, as the +girl had warned him, his entirely innocent past was brought up +against him simply because his existence had been called to the +attention of a policeman, and the same policeman an inscrutable +Fate had ordained should discover him alone with a murdered +man.</p> +<p>O’Donnell made the most of his meager knowledge of Jimmy. +He told the lieutenant with embellishments of Jimmy’s +association with such characters as the Lizard and Little Eva; but +the police were still at a loss to discover a motive.</p> +<p>This, however, was furnished the next morning, when Elizabeth +Compton, white and heavy-eyed, was brought to the station to +identify Jimmy. There was deep compassion in the young man’s +face as he was ushered into the presence of the stricken girl, +while at sight of him hers mirrored horror, contempt, and +hatred.</p> +<p>“You know this man?” asked the lieutenant.</p> +<p>“Yes,” she replied. “His name is Torrance. I +have seen him a number of times in the past year. He worked as a +clerk in a store, in the hosiery department, and waited on me +there. Later I”—she hesitated—“I saw him +in a place called Feinheimer’s. He was a waiter. Then he was +a sparring partner, I think they call it, for a prizefighter. Some +of my friends took me to a gymnasium to see the fighter training, +and I recognized this man.</p> +<p>“I saw him again when he was driving a milk-wagon. He +delivered milk at a friend’s house where I chanced to be. The +last time I saw him was at my father’s home. He had obtained +employment in my father’s plant as an efficiency expert. He +seemed to exercise some strange power over father, who believed +implicitly in him, until recently, when he evidently commenced to +have doubts; for the night that the man was at our house I was +sitting in the music-room when they passed through the hallway, and +I heard father discharge him. But the fellow pleaded to be +retained, and finally father promised to keep him for a while +longer, as I recall it, at least until certain work was completed +at the plant. This work was completed yesterday. That’s all I +know. I do not know whether father discharged him again or +not.”</p> +<p>Harriet Holden had accompanied her friend to the police station, +and was sitting close beside her during the examination, her eyes +almost constantly upon the face of the prisoner. She saw no fear +there, only an expression of deep-seated sorrow for her friend.</p> +<p>The lieutenant was still asking questions when there came a +knock at the door, which was immediately opened, revealing +O’Donnell with a young woman, whom he brought inside.</p> +<p>“I guess we’re getting to the bottom of it,” +announced the sergeant. “Look who I found workin’ over +there as Compton’s stenographer.”</p> +<p>“Well, who is she?” demanded the lieutenant.</p> +<p>“A jane who used to hang out at Feinheimer’s. She +has been runnin’ around with this bird. They tell me over +there that Compton hired her on this fellow’s recommendation. +Get hold of the Lizard now, and you’ll have the whole +bunch.”</p> +<p>Thus did Sergeant Patrick O’Donnell solve the entire +mystery with Sherlockian ease and despatch.</p> +<p>At Jimmy’s preliminary hearing he was held to the grand +jury, and on the strength of the circumstantial evidence against +him that body voted a true bill. Edith Hudson, against whom there +was no evidence of any nature, was held as a witness for the State, +and a net was thrown out for the Lizard which dragged in nearly +every pickpocket in town except the man they sought.</p> +<p>Jimmy had been in jail for about a week when he received a +visitor. A turnkey brought her to his cell. It was Harriet Holden. +She greeted him seriously but pleasantly, and then she asked the +turnkey if she might go inside.</p> +<p>“It’s against the rules, miss,” he said, +“but I guess it will be all right.” He recalled that +the sheriff had said that the girl’s father was a friend of +his, and so assumed that it would be safe to relax the rules in her +behalf. He had been too long an employee of the county not to know +that rules are often elastic to the proper pressure.</p> +<p>“I have been wanting to talk to you,” said the girl +to Jimmy, “ever since this terrible thing happened. Somehow I +can not believe that you are guilty, and there must be some way in +which you can prove your innocence.”</p> +<p>“I have been trying to think out how I might,” said +Jimmy, “but the more I think about it the more damning the +circumstantial evidence against me appears.”</p> +<p>“There must always be a motive for a crime like +that,” said Harriet. “I cannot believe that a simple +fear of his discharge would be sufficient motive for any man to +kill his employer.”</p> +<p>“Not to kill a man who had been as good to me as Mr. +Compton was,” said Jimmy, “or a man whom I admired so +much as I did him. As a matter of fact, he was not going to +discharge me, Miss Holden, and I had an opportunity there for a +very successful future; but now that he is dead there is no one who +could verify such a statement on my part.”</p> +<p>“Who could there be, then, who might wish to kill him, and +what could the motive be?”</p> +<p>“I can only think,” said Jimmy, “of one man; +and even in his case the idea is too horrible—too +preposterous to be entertained.”</p> +<p>Harriet Holden looked up at him quickly, a sudden light in her +eyes, and an expression of almost horrified incredulity upon her +face. “You don’t mean—” she started.</p> +<p>“I wouldn’t even use his name in connection with the +thought,” Jimmy interrupted; “but he is the only man of +whom I know who could have profited by Mr. Compton’s death, +and, on the other hand, whose entire future would have been blasted +possibly had Mr. Compton lived until the following +morning.”</p> +<p>The girl remained for half an hour longer, and when she left she +went directly to the home of Elizabeth Compton.</p> +<p>“I told you, Elizabeth,” she said, “that I was +going to see Mr. Torrance. You dissuaded me for some time, but I +finally went today, and I am glad that I went. No one except +yourself could have loved your father more than I, or have been +more horrified or grieved at his death; but that is no reason why +you should aid in the punishment of an innocent man, as I am +confident that this man Torrance is, and I tell you Elizabeth if +you were not prejudiced you would agree with me.</p> +<p>“I have talked with Torrance for over half an hour to-day, +and since then nothing can ever make me believe that that man could +commit a cold-blooded murder. Harold has always hated him—you +admit that yourself—and now you are permitting him to +prejudice you against the man purely on the strength of that +dislike. I am going to help him. I’m going to do it, not only +to obtain justice for him, but to assist in detecting and punishing +the true murderer.”</p> +<p>“I don’t see, Harriet, how you can take any interest +in such a creature,” said Elizabeth. “You know from the +circumstances under which we saw him before father employed him +what type of man he is, and it was further exemplified by the +evidence of his relationship with that common woman of the +streets.”</p> +<p>“He told me about her to-day,” replied Harriet. +“He had only known her very casually, but she helped him +once—loaned him some money when he needed it—-and when +he found that she had been a stenographer and wanted to give up the +life she had been leading and be straight again, he helped her.</p> +<p>“I asked Sergeant O’Donnell particularly about that, +and even he had to admit that there was no evidence whatever to +implicate the girl or show that the relations between her and Mr. +Torrance had been anything that was not right; and you know +yourself how anxious O’Donnell has been to dig up evidence of +any kind derogatory to either of them.”</p> +<p>“How are you going to help him?” asked Elizabeth. +“Take flowers and cake to him in jail?”</p> +<p>There was a sneer on her face and on her lips. “If he +cares for flowers and cakes,” replied Harriet, “I +probably shall; but I have another plan which will probably be more +practical.”</p> +<h3><a id="Ch_XXVI" name="Ch_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h3> +<h2>“THE ONLY FRIENDS HE HAS.”</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>So it befell that the next day a well-known criminal attorney +called on Jimmy Torrance at the county jail. “I +understand,” he said to Jimmy, “that you have retained +no attorney. I have been instructed by one of my clients to take +your case.”</p> +<p>Jimmy looked at him in silence for a moment.</p> +<p>“Who is going to pay you?” he asked with a smile. +“I understand attorneys expect to be paid.”</p> +<p>“That needn’t worry you!” replied the +lawyer.</p> +<p>“You mean that your client is going to pay for my defense? +What’s his name?”</p> +<p>“That I am not permitted to tell you,” replied the +lawyer.</p> +<p>“Very well. Tell your client that I appreciate his +kindness, but I cannot accept it.”</p> +<p>“Don’t be a fool,” said the attorney. +“This client of mine can well afford the expense, and anyway, +my instructions are to defend you whether you want me to or not, so +I guess you can’t help yourself.”</p> +<p>Jimmy laughed with the lawyer. “All right,” he said. +“The first thing I wish you’d do is to get Miss Hudson +out of jail. There is doubtless some reason for suspicion attaching +to me because I was found alone with Mr. Compton’s body, and +the pistol with which he was shot was one that had been given to me +and which I kept in my desk, but there is no earthly reason why she +should be detained. She could have had absolutely nothing to do +with it.”</p> +<p>“I will see what can be done,” replied the attorney, +“although I had no instructions to defend her +also.”</p> +<p>“I will make that one of the conditions under which I will +accept your services,” said Jimmy.</p> +<p>The result was that within a few days Edith was released. From +the moment that she left the jail she was aware that she was being +shadowed.</p> +<p>“I suppose,” she thought, “that they expect to +open up a fund of new clues through me,” but she was +disturbed nevertheless, because she realized that it was going to +make difficult a thing that she had been trying to find some means +to accomplish ever since she had been arrested.</p> +<p>She went directly to her apartment and presently took down the +telephone-receiver, and after calling a public phone in a building +down-town, she listened intently while the operator was getting her +connection, and before the connection was made she hung up the +receiver with a smile, for she had distinctly heard the sound of a +man’s breathing over the line, and she knew that in all +probability O’Donnell had tapped in immediately on learning +that she had been released from jail.</p> +<p>That evening she attended a local motion-picture theater which +she often frequented. It was one of those small affairs, the width +of a city block, with a narrow aisle running down either side and +an emergency exit upon the alley at the far end of each aisle. The +theater was darkened when she entered and, a quick glance apprizing +her that no one followed her in immediately, she continued on down +one of the side aisles and passed through the doorway into the +alley.</p> +<p>Five minutes later she was in a telephone-booth in a drug-store +two blocks away.</p> +<p>“Is this Feinheimer’s?” she asked after she +had got her connection. “I want to talk to Carl.” She +asked for Carl because she knew that this man who had been +head-waiter at Feinheimer’s for years would know her +voice.</p> +<p>“Is that you, Carl?” she asked as a man’s +voice finally answered the telephone. “This is Little +Eva.”</p> +<p>“Oh, hello!” said the man. “I thought you were +over at the county jail.”</p> +<p>“I was released to-day,” she explained. “Well, +listen, Carl; I’ve got to see the Lizard. I’ve simply +got to see him to-night. I was being shadowed, but I got away from +them. Do you know where he is?”</p> +<p>“I guess I could find him,” said Carl in a low +voice. “You go out to Mother Kruger’s. I’ll tell +him you’ll be there in about an hour.”</p> +<p>“I’ll be waiting in a taxi outside,” said the +girl.</p> +<p>“Good,” said Carl. “If he isn’t there in +an hour you can know that he was afraid to come. He’s +layin’ pretty low.”</p> +<p>“All right,” said the girl, “I’ll be +there. You tell him that he simply must come.” She hung up +the receiver and then called a taxi. She gave a number on a side +street about a half block away, where she knew it would be +reasonably dark, and consequently less danger of detection.</p> +<p>Three-quarters of an hour later her taxi drew up beside Mother +Kruger’s, but the girl did not alight. She had waited but a +short time when another taxi swung in beside the road-house, turned +around and backed up alongside hers. A man stepped out and peered +through the glass of her machine. It was the Lizard.</p> +<p>Recognizing the girl he opened the door and took a seat beside +her. “Well,” inquired the Lizard, “What’s +on your mind?”</p> +<p>“Jimmy,” replied the girl.</p> +<p>“I thought so,” returned the Lizard. “It looks +pretty bad for him, don’t it? I wish there was some way to +help him.”</p> +<p>“He did not do it,” said the girl.</p> +<p>“It didn’t seem like him,” said the Lizard, +“but I got it straight from a guy who knows that he done it +all right.”</p> +<p>“Who?” asked Edith.</p> +<p>“Murray.”</p> +<p>“I thought he knew a lot about it,” said the girl. +“That’s why I sent for you. You haven’t got any +love for Murray, have you?”</p> +<p>“No,” replied the Lizard; “not so you could +notice it.”</p> +<p>“I think Murray knows a lot about that job. If you want to +help Jimmy I know where you can get the dope that will start +something, anyway.”</p> +<p>“What is it?” asked the Lizard.</p> +<p>“This fellow Bince, who is assistant general manager for +Compton, got a letter from Murray two or three weeks before Compton +was killed. Murray enclosed a threat signed I.W.W., and his letter +instructed Bince to show the threat to Compton. I haven’t got +all the dope on it, but I’ve got a hunch that in some way it +is connected with this job. Anyway, I’ve got both +Murray’s letter and the threat he enclosed. They’re +hidden in my desk at the plant. I can’t get them, of course; +they wouldn’t let me in the place now, and Murray’s so +strong with the police that I wouldn’t trust them, so I +haven’t told any one. What I want is for you to go there +to-night and get them.”</p> +<p>The Lizard was thinking fast. The girl knew nothing of his +connection with the job. She did not know that he had entered +Compton’s office and had been first to find his dead body; in +fact, no one knew that. Even Murray did not know that the Lizard +had succeeded in entering the plant, as the latter had told him +that he was delayed, and that when he reached there a patrol and +ambulance were already backed up in front of the building. He felt +that he had enough knowledge, however, to make the conviction of +Jimmy a very difficult proposition, but if he divulged the +knowledge he had and explained how he came by it he could readily +see that suspicion would be at once transferred from Jimmy to +himself.</p> +<p>The Lizard therefore was in a quandary. Of course, if +Murray’s connection was ever discovered the Lizard might then +be drawn into it, but if he could keep Murray out the Lizard would +be reasonably safe from suspicion, and now the girl had shown him +how he might remove a damaging piece of evidence against +Murray.</p> +<p>“You will get it, won’t you?” asked the +girl.</p> +<p>“Where are these papers?” he asked.</p> +<p>“They are in the outer office which adjoins Mr. +Compton’s. My desk stands at the right of the door as you +enter from the main office. Remove the right-hand lower drawer and +you will find the papers lying on the little wooden partition +directly underneath the drawer.”</p> +<p>“All right,” said the Lizard; “I’ll get +them.”</p> +<p>“Bless you, Lizard,” cried the girl. “I knew +you would help. You and I are the only friends he has. If we went +back on him he’d be sent up, for there’s lots of money +being used against him. He might even be hanged. I know from what I +have heard that the prosecuting attorney intends to ask for the +death penalty.”</p> +<p>The Lizard made no reply as he started to leave the taxi.</p> +<p>“Take them to his attorney,” said the girl, and she +gave him the name and address.</p> +<p>The Lizard grunted and entered his own cab. As he did so a man +on a motorcycle drew up on the opposite side and peered through the +window. The driver had started his motor as the newcomer +approached. From her cab the girl saw the Lizard and the man on the +motorcycle look into each other’s face for a moment, then she +heard the Lizard’s quick admonition to his driver, +“Beat it, bo!”</p> +<p>A sharp “Halt!” came from the man on the motorcycle, +but the taxicab leaped forward, and, accelerating rapidly, turned +to the left into the road toward the city. The girl had guessed at +the first glance that the man on the motorcycle was a police +officer. As the Lizard’s taxi raced away the officer circled +quickly and started in pursuit. “No chance,” thought +the girl. “He’ll get caught sure.” She could hear +the staccato reports from the open exhaust of the motorcycle +diminishing rapidly in the distance, indicating the speed of the +pursued and the pursuer.</p> +<p>And then from the distance came a shot and then another and +another. She leaned forward and spoke to her own driver. “Go +on to Elmhurst,” she said, “and then come back to the +city on the St. Charles Road.”</p> +<p>It was after two o’clock in the morning when the Lizard +entered an apartment on Ashland Avenue which he had for several +years used as a hiding-place when the police were hot upon his +trail. The people from whom he rented the room were eminently +respectable Jews who thought their occasional roomer what he +represented himself to be, a special agent for one of the federal +departments, a vocation which naturally explained the +Lizard’s long absences and unusual hours.</p> +<p>Once within his room the Lizard sank into a chair and wiped the +perspiration from his forehead, although it was by no means a warm +night. He drew a folded paper from his inside pocket, which, when +opened, revealed a small piece of wrapping paper within. They were +Murray’s letter to Bince and the enclosure.</p> +<p>“Believe me,” muttered the Lizard, “that was +the toughest job I ever pulled off and all I gets is two pieces of +paper, but I don’t know but what they’re worth +it.”</p> +<p>He sat for a long time looking at the papers in his hand, but he +did not see them. He was thinking of other things: of prison walls +that he had eluded so far through years of crime; of +O’Donnell, whom he knew to be working on the Compton case and +whose boast it had been that sooner or later he would get the +Lizard; of what might naturally be expected were the papers in his +hands to fall into the possession of Torrance’s attorney. It +would mean that Murray would be immediately placed in jeopardy, and +the Lizard knew Murray well enough to know that he would sacrifice +his best friend to save himself, and the Lizard was by no means +Murray’s best friend.</p> +<p>He realized that he knew more about the Compton murder case than +any one else. He was of the opinion that he could clear it up if he +were almost any one other than the Lizard, but with the record of +his past life against him, would any one believe him? In order to +prove his assertion it would be necessary to make admissions that +might incriminate himself, and there would be Murray and the +Compton millions against him; and as he pondered these things there +ran always through his mind the words of the girl, “You and I +are the only friends he has.”</p> +<p>“Hell,” ejaculated the Lizard as he rose from his +chair and prepared for bed.</p> +<h3><a id="Ch_XXVII" name="Ch_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h3> +<h2>THE TRIAL.</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Edith Hudson spent a restless night, and early in the morning, +as early as she thought she could reach him, she called the office +of Jimmy’s attorney. She told the lawyer that some new +evidence was to have been brought in to him and asked if he had +received it. Receiving a negative reply she asked that she be +called the moment it was brought in.</p> +<p>All that day and the next she waited, scarcely leaving her room +for fear that the call might come while she was away. The days ran +into weeks and still there was no word from the Lizard.</p> +<p>Jimmy was brought to trial, and she saw him daily in the +courtroom and as often as they would let her she would visit him in +jail. On several occasions she met Harriet Holden, also visiting +him, and she saw that the other young woman was as constant an +attendant at court as she.</p> +<p>The State had established as unassailable a case as might be +built on circumstantial evidence. Krovac had testified that +Torrance had made threats against Compton in his presence, and +there was no way in which Jimmy’s attorneys could refute the +perjured statement. Jimmy himself had come to realize that his +attorney was fighting now for his life, that the verdict of the +jury was already a foregone conclusion and that the only thing left +to fight for now was the question of the penalty.</p> +<p>Daily he saw in the court-room the faces of the three girls who +had entered so strangely into his life. He noticed, with not a +little sorrow and regret, that Elizabeth Compton and Harriet Holden +always sat apart and that they no longer spoke. He saw the effect +of the strain of the long trial on Edith Hudson. She looked wan and +worried, and then finally she was not in court one day, and later, +through Harriet Holden, he learned that she was confined to her +room with a bad cold.</p> +<p>Jimmy’s sentiments toward the three women whose interests +brought them daily to the court-room had undergone considerable +change. The girl that he had put upon a pedestal to worship from +afar, the girl to whom he had given an idealistic love, he saw now +in another light. His reverence for her had died hard, but in the +face of her arrogance, her vindictiveness and her petty snobbery it +had finally succumbed, so that when he compared her with the girl +who had been of the street the latter suffered in no way by the +comparison.</p> +<p>Harriet Holden’s friendship and loyalty were a +never-ending source of wonderment to him, but he accepted her own +explanation, which, indeed, was fair enough, that her innate sense +of justice had compelled her to give him her sympathy and +assistance.</p> +<p>Just how far that assistance had gone Jimmy did not know, though +of late he had come to suspect that his attorney was being retained +by Harriet Holden’s father.</p> +<p>Bince appeared in the court-room only when necessity compelled +his presence on the witness stand. The nature of the man’s +testimony was such that, like Krovac’s, it was difficult of +impeachment, although Jimmy was positive that Bince perjured +himself, especially in a statement that he made of a conversation +he had with Mr. Compton the morning of the murder, in which he +swore that Compton stated that he intended to discharge Torrance +that day.</p> +<p>The effect of the trial seemed to have made greater inroads upon +Bince than upon Jimmy. The latter gave no indication of nervous +depression or of worry, while Bince, on the other hand, was thin, +pale and haggard. His hands and face continually moved and twitched +as he sat in the courtroom or on the witness chair. Never for an +instant was he at rest.</p> +<p>Elizabeth Compton had noticed this fact, too, and commented upon +it one evening when Bince was at her home.</p> +<p>“What’s the matter with you, Harold?” she +asked. “You look as though you are on the verge of nervous +prostration.”</p> +<p>“I’ve had enough to make any man nervous,” +retorted Bince irritably. “I can’t get over this +terrible affair, and in addition I have had all the weight and +responsibility of the business on my shoulders since, and the +straightening out of your father’s estate, which, by the way, +was in pretty bad shape.</p> +<p>“I wish, Elizabeth,” he went on, “that we +might be married immediately. I have asked you so many times +before, however, and you have always refused, that I suppose it is +useless now. I believe that I would get over this nervous condition +if you and I were settled down here together. I have no real home, +as you know—the club is just a stopping place. I might as +well be living at a hotel. If after the day’s work I could +come home to a regular home it would do me a world of good, I know. +We could be married quietly. There is every reason why we should, +especially now that you are left all alone.”</p> +<p>“Just what do you mean by immediately?” she +asked.</p> +<p>“To-morrow,” he replied.</p> +<p>For a long time she demurred, but finally she acceded to his +wishes, for an early marriage, though she would not listen to the +ceremony being performed the following day. They reached a +compromise on Friday morning, a delay of only a few days, and +Harold Bince breathed more freely thereafter than he had for a long +time before.</p> +<p>Mr. and Mrs. Harold Bince entered the court-room late on Friday +morning following the brief ceremony that had made them man and +wife. It had been generally supposed that to-day the case would go +to the jury as the evidence was all in, and the final arguments of +the attorneys, which had started the preceding day, would be +concluded during the morning session. It had been conceded that the +judge’s charge would be brief and perfunctory, and there was +even hope that the jury might return a verdict before the close of +the afternoon session, but when Bince and his bride entered the +court-room they found Torrance’s attorney making a motion for +the admission of new evidence on the strength of the recent +discovery of witnesses, the evidence of whom he claimed would +materially alter the aspect of the case.</p> +<p>An hour was consumed in argument before the judge finally +granted the motion. The first of the new witnesses called was an +employee of the International Machine Company. After the usual +preliminary questions the attorney for the defense asked him if he +was employed in the plant on the afternoon of March 24. The reply +was in the affirmative.</p> +<p>“Will you tell the jury, please, of any occurrence that +you witnessed there that afternoon out of the ordinary?”</p> +<p>“I was working at my machine,” said the witness, +“when Pete Krovac comes to me and asks me to hide behind a +big drill-press and watch what the assistant general manager done +when he comes through the shop again. So I hides there and I saw +this man Bince come along and drop an envelope beside +Krovac’s machine, and after he left I comes out as Krovac +picks it up, and I seen him take some money out of it.”</p> +<p>“How much money?” asked the attorney.</p> +<p>“There was fifty dollars there. He counted it in front of +me.”</p> +<p>“Did he say what it was for?”</p> +<p>“Yes, he said +Bince gave it to him to croak this fellow”—nodding +toward Jimmy.</p> +<p>“What fellow?” asked the attorney. “You mean +Mr. Torrance, the defendant?”</p> +<p>“Yes, sir.”</p> +<p>“And what else? What happened after that?”</p> +<p>“Krovac said he’d split it with me if I’d go +along and help him.”</p> +<p>“Did you?”</p> +<p>“Yes.”</p> +<p>“What happened?”</p> +<p>“The guy beat up Krovac and come near croaking me, and got +away.”</p> +<p>“That is all,” said the attorney.</p> +<p>The prosecuting attorney, whose repeated objections to the +testimony of the witness had been overruled, waived +cross-examination.</p> +<p>Turning to the clerk, “Please call Stephen Murray,” +said Jimmy’s attorney.</p> +<p>Murray, burly and swaggering, took the witness chair. The +attorney handed him a letter. It was the letter that Murray had +written Bince enclosing the supposed I.W.W. threat.</p> +<p>“Did you ever see that before?” he asked.</p> +<p>Murray took the letter and read it over several times. He was +trying to see in it anything which could possibly prove damaging to +him.</p> +<p>“Sure,” he said at last in a blustering tone of +voice. “I wrote it. But what of it?”</p> +<p>“And this +enclosure?” asked the attorney. He handed Murray the slip of +soiled wrapping paper with the threat lettered upon it. “This +was received with your letter.”</p> +<p>Murray hesitated before replying. “Oh,” he said, +“that ain’t nothing. That was just a little +joke.”</p> +<p>“You were seen in Feinheimer’s with Mr. Bince on +March—Do you recall the object of this meeting?”</p> +<p>“Mr. Bince thought there was going to be a strike at his +plant and he wanted me to fix it up for him,” replied +Murray.</p> +<p>“You know the defendant, James Torrance?”</p> +<p>“Yes.”</p> +<p>“Didn’t he knock you down once for insulting a +girl?” Murray flushed, but was compelled to admit the truth +of the allegation.</p> +<p>“You haven’t got much use for him, have you?” +continued the attorney.</p> +<p>“No, I haven’t,” replied Murray.</p> +<p>“You called the defendant on the telephone a half or +three-quarters of an hour before the police discovered Mr. +Compton’s body, did you not?”</p> +<p>Murray started to deny that he had done so. Jimmy’s +attorney stopped him. “Just a moment, Mr. Murray,” he +said, “if you will stop a moment and give the matter careful +thought I am sure you will recall that you telephoned Mr. Torrance +at that time, and that you did it in the presence of a +witness,” and the attorney pointed toward the back of the +court-room. Murray looked in the direction that the other indicated +and again he paled and his hand trembled where it rested on the arm +of his chair, for seated in the back of the courtroom was the +head-waiter from Feinheimer’s. “Now do you +recall?” asked the attorney.</p> +<p>Murray was silent for a moment. Suddenly he half rose from his +chair. “Yes I remember it,” he said. “They are +all trying to double-cross me. I had nothing to do with killing +Compton. That wasn’t in the deal at all. Ask that man there; +he will tell you that I had nothing to do with killing Compton. He +hired me and he knows,” and with shaking finger Murray +pointed at Mr. Harold Bince where he sat with his wife beside the +prosecuting attorney.</p> +<h3><a id="Ch_XXVIII" name="Ch_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h3> +<h2>THE VERDICT.</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>For a moment there was tense silence in the court-room which was +broken by the defense’s perfunctory “Take the +witness” to the prosecuting attorney, but again +cross-examination was waived.</p> +<p>“Call the next witness, please,” and a moment later +the Lizard emerged from the witness-room.</p> +<p>“I wish you would tell the jury,” said the counsel +for defense after the witness had been sworn, “just what you +told me in my office yesterday afternoon.”</p> +<p>“Yes, sir,” said the Lizard. “You see, it was +like this: Murray there sent for me and tells me that he’s +got a job for me. He wants me to go and crack a safe at the +International Machine Company’s plant. He said there was a +fellow on the inside helping him, that there wouldn’t be any +watchman there that night and that in the safe I was to crack was +some books and papers that was to be destroyed, and on top of it +was three or four thousand dollars in pay-roll money that I was to +have as my pay for the job. Murray told me that the guy on the +inside who wanted the job done had been working some kind of a +pay-roll graft and he wanted the records destroyed, and he also +wanted to get rid of the guy that was hep to what he had been +doin’. All that I had to do with it was go and crack the safe +and get the records, which I was to throw in the river, and keep +the money for myself, but the frame-up on the other guy was to send +him a phony message that would get him at the plant after I got +through, and then notify the police so they could catch him there +in the room with the cracked safe.</p> +<p>“I didn’t know who they were framin’ this job +on. If I had I wouldn’t have had nothin’ to do with +it.</p> +<p>“Well, I goes to the plant and finds a window in the +basement open just as they tells me it will be, but when I gets on +the first floor just before I go up-stairs to the office, which is +on the second floor, I heard some one walking around up-stairs. I +hid in the hallway while he came down. He stopped at the front door +and lighted a cigarette and then he went on out, and I went +up-stairs to finish the job.</p> +<p>“When I gets in Compton’s office where the safe is I +flashes my light and the first thing I sees is Compton’s body +on the floor beside his desk. That kind of stuff ain’t in my +line, so I beats it out without crackin’ the safe. +That’s all I know about it until I sees the papers, and then +for a while I was afraid to say anything because this guy +O’Donnell has it in for me, and I know enough about police +methods to know that they could frame up a good case of murder +against me. But after a while Miss Hudson finds me and puts it up +to me straight that this guy Torrance hasn’t got no friends +except me and her.</p> +<p>“Of course she didn’t know how much I knew, but I +did, and it’s been worryin’ me ever since. I was +waiting, though, hopin’ that something would turn up so that +he would be acquitted, but I been watchin’ the papers close, +and I seen yesterday that there wasn’t much chance, so here I +am.”</p> +<p>“You say that a man came down from Mr. Compton’s +office just before you went up? What time was that?”</p> +<p>“It was about ten o’clock, about half an hour before +the cops finds Torrance there.”</p> +<p>“And then you went upstairs and found Mr. Compton +dead?”</p> +<p>“Yes, sir.”</p> +<p>“You say this man that came +downstairs stopped and lighted a cigarette before he left the +building. Did you see his face?”</p> +<p>“Yes, I did.”</p> +<p>“Would you recognize him if you saw him again?”</p> +<p>“Sure.”</p> +<p>“Look around the court-room and see if you can find him +here.”</p> +<p>“Sure I can find him. I seen him when I first came in, but +I can’t see his face because he’s hiding behind the +prosecuting attorney.”</p> +<p>All eyes were turned in the direction of the prosecuting +attorney to see Bince leap suddenly to his feet and lean forward +upon the desk before him, supported by a trembling arm as he shook +his finger at the Lizard, and in high-pitched tones screamed, +“It’s a lie! It’s a lie!”</p> +<p>For a moment longer he stood looking wildly about the room, and +then with rapid strides he crossed it to an open window, and before +any one could interfere he vaulted out, to fall four stories to the +cement sidewalk below.</p> +<p>For several minutes pandemonium reigned in the court-room. +Elizabeth Compton Bince swooned, and when she regained +consciousness she found herself in the arms of Harriet Holden.</p> +<p>“Take me home, Harriet,” she asked; “take me +away from this place. Take me to your home. I do not want to go +back to mine yet.”</p> +<p>Half an hour later, in accordance with the judge’s charge +to the jury, a verdict of “Not guilty” was rendered in +the case of the People of Illinois versus James Torrance, Jr.</p> +<p>Mr. +Holden and Jimmy’s attorney were the first to congratulate +him, and the former insisted that he come home with him to +dinner.</p> +<p>“I am sorry,” said Jimmy; “I should like to +immensely, but there is some one I must see first. If I may I +should like to come out later in the evening to thank you and Miss +Holden.”</p> +<p>Jimmy searched about the court-room until he found the Lizard. +“I don’t know how to thank you,” he said.</p> +<p>“Don’t then,” said the Lizard. “Who you +ought to thank is that little girl who is sick in bed up on the +north side.”</p> +<p>“That’s just where I am going now,” said +Jimmy. “Is she very sick?”</p> +<p>“Pneumonia,” said the Lizard. “I telephoned +her doctor just before I came over here, and I guess if you want to +see her at all you’d better hurry.”</p> +<p>“It’s not that had, is it?” Jimmy said.</p> +<p>“I’m afraid it is,” said the Lizard.</p> +<p>Jimmy lost no time in reaching the street and calling a taxi. A +nurse admitted him to the apartment. “How is she?” he +asked.</p> +<p>The nurse shook her head.</p> +<p>“Can she see any one?”</p> +<p>“It won’t make any difference now,” said the +nurse, and Jimmy was led into the room where the girl, wasted by +fever and suffering, lay in a half-comatose condition upon her +narrow bed. Jimmy crossed the room and laid his hand upon her +forehead and at the touch she opened her eyes and looked up at him. +He saw that she recognized him and was trying to say something, and +he kneeled beside the bed so that his ear might be closer to her +lips.</p> +<p>“Jimmy,” she whispered, “you are free? Tell +me.”</p> +<p>He told her briefly of what had happened. “I am so +happy,” she murmured. “Oh, Jimmy, I am so +happy!”</p> +<p>He took one of her wasted hands in his own and carried it to his +lips. “Not on the hand,” she said faintly. “Just +once, on the lips, before I die.”</p> +<p>He gathered her in his arms and lifted her face to his. +“Dear little girl,” he said, “you are not going +to die. It is not as bad as that.”</p> +<p>She did not reply, but only clung to him tightly, and against +his cheek he felt her tears and a little choking sob before she +relaxed, and he laid her back again on her pillow. He thought she +was dead then and he called the nurse, but she still breathed, +though her eyes were closed. Jimmy sat down on the edge of the bed +beside her and stroked her hand. After a while she roused again and +opened her eyes.</p> +<p>“Jimmy,” she said, “will you stay with me +until I go?” The man could make no articulate response, but +he pressed her hand reassuringly. She was silent again for some +time. Once more she whispered faintly, so faintly that he had to +lean close to catch her words:</p> +<p>“Miss Holden,” she whispered, “she is +a—good girl. It is—she—who hired—the +attorney for you. Go to her—Jimmy—when I—am +gone—she loves—you.” Again there was a long +pause.</p> +<p>“Good-by—Jimmy,” she whispered at +last.</p> +<p>The nurse was standing at the foot of the bed. She came and put +her hand on Jimmy’s shoulder. “It is too bad,” +she said; “she was such a good girl.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Jimmy, “I think she was the best +little girl I ever knew.”</p> +<p>It was after nine o’clock when Jimmy, depressed and +sorrowing, arrived at the Holden home. The houseman who admitted +him told him that Mr. Holden had been called out, but that Miss +Holden was expecting him, and he ushered Jimmy to the big +living-room, and to his consternation he saw that Elizabeth Compton +was there with Harriet. The latter came forward to greet him, and +to his surprise the other girl followed her.</p> +<p>“I discovered to-day, Mr. Torrance,” she said, +“that I have wronged you. However unintentionally it was the +fact remains that I might have done you a very great harm and +injustice. I realize now how very different things might have been +if I had listened to you and believed in you at first. Harriet told +me that you were coming tonight and I asked to see you for just a +moment to tell you this and also to ask you if you would continue +with the International Machine Company.</p> +<p>“There is no one now whom I feel I would have so much +confidence in as you. I wish you would come back and take charge +for me. If you will tell me that you will consider it we will +arrange the details later.”</p> +<p>If an archangel had suddenly condescended to honor him with an +invitation to assist in the management of Heaven Jimmy could not +have been more surprised. He realized at what cost of pride and +self-esteem the offer must have been made and acknowledgment of +error. He told her that he would be very glad to assist her for the +present, at least, and then she excused herself on the plea of +nervous exhaustion and went to her room.</p> +<p>“Do you know,” said Harriet, after Elizabeth had +gone, “she really feels worse over her past attitude toward +you than she does over Harold’s death? I think she realizes +now what I have told her from the first, that she never really +loved him. Of course, her pride has suffered terribly, but she will +get over that quickly enough.</p> +<p>“But do you know I have not had an opportunity before to +congratulate you? I wish that I might have been there to have heard +the verdict, but really you don’t look half as happy as I +should think you would feel.”</p> +<p>“I am happy about that,” said Jimmy, “but on +top of my happiness came a sorrow. I just came from Edith’s +apartment. She died while I was there.”</p> +<p>Harriet gave a little cry of shocked surprise. “Oh, +Jimmy,” she cried, laying her hand upon his arm. “Oh, +Jimmy, I am so sorry!” It was the first time that she had +ever addressed him by his given name, but there seemed nothing +strange or unusual in the occurrence.</p> +<p>“She was such a good little girl,” said Harriet.</p> +<p>It was strange that so many should use these same words in +connection with Edith Hudson, and even this girl, so far removed +from the sphere in which Little Eva had existed and who knew +something of her past, could yet call her “good.”</p> +<p>It gave Jimmy a new insight into the sweetness and charity of +Harriet Holden’s character. “Yes,” he said, +“her soul and her heart were good and pure.”</p> +<p>“She believed so in you,” said the girl. “She +thought you were the best man who ever lived. She told me that you +were the only really good man she had ever known, and her +confidence and belief in you were contagious. You will probably +never know all that she did for you. It was really she that imbued +my father and his attorney with a belief in your innocence, and it +was she who influenced the Lizard to take the stand in your behalf. +Yes, she was a very good friend.”</p> +<p>“And you have been a good friend,” said Jimmy. +“In the face of the same circumstances that turned Miss +Compton against me you believed in me. Your generosity made it +possible for me to be defended by the best attorney in Chicago, but +more than all that to me has been your friendship and the +consciousness of your sympathy at a time when, above all things, I +needed sympathy. And now, after all you have done for me I came to +ask still more of you.”</p> +<p>“What do you want?” she asked.</p> +<p>She was standing very close to him, looking up in his face.</p> +<p>“You, Harriet,” he said.</p> +<p>She smiled tremulously. “I have been yours for a long +time, Jimmy, but you didn’t know it.”</p> +<hr class="full" /> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Efficiency Expert, by Edgar Rice Burroughs + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EFFICIENCY EXPERT *** + +***** This file should be named 3475-h.htm or 3475-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/7/3475/ + +Produced by Fred M. 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