e good lookers in my time, male and female, but this
baby had it on 'em all! His hair is that black, wavy kind that the
cabaret hounds wish they had and he's got a skin like a week old baby.
He must of painted his teeth with enamel twice a day and he's there
with a pair of eyelashes that would make a chorus girl take carbolic.
On the level, he's so handsome he don't look real--and that with all
the signs of honest toil at the truck on him, too! Alex taps him on
the shoulder and he swings around.

"What's yours?" he growls.

"I have come to make your fortune," announces Alex with a grin. Then
he turns to me. "Ain't he a peach, hey?" he says.

The big guy drops the pig iron and looks from Alex to me.

"What kinda stuff is this?" he growls. "What d'ye mean I'm a peach?"

"You are the luckiest man in New York," says Alex. "I have come to
make you famous and rich!"

The big guy grins.

"Listen!" he says. "They're awful tough on hop fiends in this burg now
and they'll be a copper along in a minute, so you better duck. I know
you guys is no less than J. P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller, if not
more, and you'll gimme a million dollars in nickels if I'll tell you
where to get a layout. But I ain't got the time, I gotta get this
stuff off here and--"

With that he turns around and goes to work again.

"Drop that iron!" says Alex. "You'll never soil your hands with manual
labor again."

"Hey!" snarls the big guy. "Git away, will you? I always feel sorry
for you dope fiends, but if you guys don't lay off me, I'll bounce the
two of you. Now, beat it!"

"Well," I says to Alex, "he's ignorant anyways. We got that part all
settled and--"

"Look here!" says Alex, darin'ly grabbin' the big guy by the arm.
"We're neither dope fiends nor maniacs. I want to ask you a few
questions and, if your answers suit me, I'll hire you for a hundred
dollars a week to do special work for me. To show you I'm not foolin',
take this for your trouble whether we do business or not."

With that he hands him a twenty dollar bill.

"Aha!" yells the big guy. "Coupla counterfeiters, hey?" He snatches
the bill and grabs Alex. "So you guys want me to pass this for you--I
got it!" He starts to drag Alex along the pavement and half Third
Avenue stops to watch it. "I'll git a reward for this!" I heard him
mutter.

Alex throws him off--he's stronger than he looks.

"You better not take that head of yours into no pool room," he