bein' ruined for life. In another minute, Alex is
announcin' to somebody that Mr. Jared Rushton wishes to speak to Mr.
Hamilton on a matter of the greatest importance. Jared lets forth a
wail like a dyin' fish or the like, and then Alex grabs him by the arms.

"Now, go to it!" he says. "Tell him you want a chance at this contract
yourself. Say you know more about it than anyone else and have been
plannin' the thing for weeks. You don't _think_ you can land this
contract--you _know_ it!"

"But," wails Jared, "I _don't_ know--"

Alex shoves him over to the phone.

Well, the funniest conversation you, I, or anybody else ever heard
begins right then and there. Jared starts off kinda weak and tremblin'
and I felt sorry for him, because from his answers it looked like a
cinch that he was fired. Pretty soon he gets a little stronger, and in
a few minutes he was talkin' like the boss was workin' for _him_! The
only way I can figure it is that Alex had hopped him up so much that he
got to where he believed himself that he was the only man on earth that
could land this contract. When Jared says if he don't get this chance
he's gonna quit his job right then and there and the boss can look
elsewhere for the estimate figures, I almost fell off the couch, and
Alex does a war dance.

Bang! Jared slams down the receiver and swings around on Alex.

"Well," he snaps out, "you've done it! I am to be at the Hotel Dubois
at eleven to-morrow to meet the representatives of one of the biggest
steel concerns in the country. I'm to take from them a contract
running into millions. If I don't get it, I'm fired. If I do get
it--well, there's no use talking about that part of it, because I
won't!"

With that he sinks into a chair and buries his head in his hands. Alex
keeps right on top of him.

"Fine!" he says, rubbin' his hands together. "Now call up Miss Evans
and ask her to marry you!"

"What?" shrieks Jared, bouncin' up from his chair. "What is this? A
nightmare? You've already probably cost me my job, and now you want to
wreck my happiness! I was a fool to listen to you. I--"

"Sure!" says Alex. "Let's get her on the phone right away."

Jared looks wildly around the room and grabs for his hat. Alex pushes
him back in a chair.

"Now, you listen to me!" he snarls, all the grin gone from him. "You
are at this minute facin' the biggest thing that's ever come into your
thirty-five-dollar-a-week life. You got