ked for one man
I didn't like, and he didn't like me; but we got along for the sole
reason that we both believed in his line of stuff because it was honest.
It was the only thing we ever did agree on. And I suppose I'd have been
with him yet if he hadn't sold out to a company that began to make
inferior stuff to add to the profits."

After luncheon they found a secluded corner and Martin said, "Well,
young man, now we shall get down to brass tacks. I read that report you
made and I can think of a few objections you might have to meet before
you can get the position, and there are some other points that might
come up and require explanation."

And then, with shrewdness, he began his discussion of Jimmy's plan, and
no expert investigator could have made a more exhaustive examination
than he did. Jimmy's wits were sharpened by this catechism, and his
ideas improved and grew apace. He even admitted that he had studied the
sales methods of other firms and apparently gained the elder man's
approval for his activity and judgment.

The afternoon daylight had waned before they realized the passage of
time, and Martin consulted his watch and said, "So far we seemed to
have threshed this matter out pretty thoroughly; but there's one very
important detail you've neglected, and that is to state what you expect
in the way of salary."

"By jingoes!" exclaimed Jimmy, straightening in his seat. "I forgot all
about that. Do you know, I got so interested in working out this project
that I never so much as gave the pay part of it a thought?"

Martin laughed as if delighted by such an absurdity.

"Well," he remarked, "if that's the way you handle your private affairs
it doesn't look promising for whoever employs you. No, I'll retract
that, and on second thought reverse that judgment. I'll say that if you
invariably put your employer's interests before your own your sole
chance to succeed is to become a member of any firm you work for. I
suggest that you put that up to--Sayers."

"Don't quite get you," said Jimmy, as if puzzled. "You aren't having fun
with me, are you?"

"I am not," asserted the shrewd old business man. "I'm in earnest."

"But mightn't Mr. Sayers think I had an awful nerve? Perhaps he'd not
give me a chance at all and--I want that job because I'd like to prove
that there's a little more to me than a comic supplement. I need money,
but about the biggest reward a man can get is the absolute conviction
that he made g