mpossible! Why--"

"Never let me hear you use that word impossible' again!" snorts Alex.
"Speak United States! I spent a half hour to-night tellin' you that a
man can do _anything_ if he wants to. Now look here, they ain't no
time to lose. I'll land you and your coats in Washington to-morrow on
time. That will cost your firm around a thousand dollars--the same
bein' the price of the means of locomotion. I will take your word of
honor that you will pay me twenty per cent of any profits you make on
any order you take as a result of my efforts. Is it a bargain? Speak
quick!"

"If you are thinking of getting a special train," says Wilkinson, "it
can't be--"

"Yes or no!" hollers Alex. "I'll take care of the rest!"

"Yes!" yells the lovely Wilkinson, jumpin' around like some of Alex's
pep has entered his system. "If you put this over for me, I'll give
you _half_ of anything I get!"

"You're gonna put it over yourself!" says Alex. "Now listen to me.
You grab a taxi and beat it down to your stock room. Get them
overcoats ready and in about a hour I'll call there for you. We're
goin' to Washington to-night and don't be over five minutes sayin'
good-by to your wife!"

"But--" says Wilkinson, lookin' like Alex had him hypnotized.

"Git!" bawls Alex, and slams a hat on the lovely Wilkinson's head.

Well, within four minutes the lovely Wilkinson has beat it, leavin'
behind a astounded and weepin' wife and Alex is on the phone callin' up
the Gaflooey Auto Company's service station and in ten minutes more he
has arranged to have a truck and a mechanic chug-chuggin' outside the
house. Then he turns to me.

"Here is another chance for you to lose some dough," he says. "I'm
gonna take Wilkinson and his trick overcoats down to Washington by way
of a auto truck. If we leave here at midnight, we got about seventeen
hours to make 225 miles, that's an average of around thirteen miles a
hour. The Gaflooey one-ton truck can make twenty, if chased. Of
course we may hit some bum roads or lose the carburetor and so forth,
which might delay us some. What'll you bet I don't put this over?"

I walked over to the window and looked out at New York. They is one of
them rains fallin' that generally plays a week stand before passin' on
to the next village. I figured that trip in the middle of the night,
the rain and the tough goin'.

"Gimme a proposition," I says.

"All right," says Alex. "Me and Eve needs some furnit