ll. This job pays ten thousand a year, if you show us you're
worth it. Apply personally all day and bring references. This is
imperative. We want to see your past record of sales elsewhere. Ask
for Mr. Grattan, 1346 Broadway. If you haven't the experience, don't
come!'"

"Well?" I says.

He puts down the paper and reaches for his hat.

"They'll probably be a lot after that there job, hey?" he asks me.

"About four thousand, I'd say offhand!" I grins.

"Fine!" he says, rubbin' his hands and smilin', "I love competition
because it puts a feller on his mettle. Now look here, if I go down
there and secure that job this mornin', do I get your eight hundred
dollars?"

"What?" I hollers. "What d'ye mean, do you get my eight hundred?"

"Listen!" he says. "The bet was that I make good at the first thing I
tackle, wasn't it--all right! Now this here job looks good to me. Ten
thousand a year is nice money to start. If you're fair minded, you'll
admit that in goin' after this job I'm up against a pretty stiff
proposition. In the first place I don't know no more about automobiles
than you do about raisin' hogs. I never sold one in my life. I don't
know a soul in New York outside of you, Cousin Alice and that girl I
took home last night, so I can't furnish no references on my ability as
a salesman. The advertisement says you have to have 'em. As you say,
they'll be thousands after that job. Fellers with swell fronts, high
soundin' records in back of 'em and gilt-edged references. Now under
all that handicap, if I walk in there and get the job, won't you admit
I made good?"

"If you go down and ask for that job and they turn you down, you'll pay
me, eh?" I asks him.

"At once!" he says, firmly.

"C'mon, Alex!" I tells him, puttin' on my hat. "I hate to cop a sucker
bet like this, but maybe losin' it will reduce the size of your head a
trifle and do you good!"

Once out in the street, he stretches his arms, pulls his hat down hard
over his dome and stamps his feet.

"Watch me close!" he says. "Watch me close and you'll get some
valuable tips on how to put yourself over. I told you I was gonna be
new--just observe how I go after this job. The average New Yorker who
wanted it would go right down to the office, present his, now,
credentials and ask for it, wouldn't he?"

I nodded.

"The early worm catches the fish, y'know!" I says; "and in New York
here--the town that made pep and hustle famous--a