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Here he hesitated a moment as though weighing his words, though as
a
matter of fact he had merely forgotten the title of the next chapter,
but presently he went on again:
"Later I shall start reducing costs by studying machines, handling
material economically and producing power at lowest costs: keeping
the
product moving, making environment count on the balance-sheet and
protecting against accident and fire."
"Is that all?" asked Mr. Bince.
"Oh, no, indeed!" said Jimmy. "That's just a very brief outline of the
way I shall start."
"Ah!" said Mr. Bince. "And just how, may I ask, do you make
environment
count on the balance-sheet? I do not quite understand."
Jimmy was mentally gasping and going down for the third time. He
had
wondered when he read that chapter title just what it might mean.
"Oh," he said, "you will understand that thoroughly when we reach
that
point. It is one of the steps in my method. Other things lead up to it.
It is really rather difficult to explain until we have a concrete
example, something that you can really visualize, you know. But I
assure
you that it will be perfectly plain to you when we arrive at that point.
"And now," he said, rising, "I must be going. I have a great deal to
attend to this afternoon and to-morrow, as I wish to get some
personal
matters out of the way before I start in here Thursday."
"All right," said Mr. Bince, "I suppose we shall see you Thursday, but
just bear in mind, please, that you and I can work better together than
at cross-purposes."
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CHAPTER XVII.
JIMMY ON THE JOB.
As Jimmy left the office he discovered that those last words of Bince's
had made a considerable and a rather unfavorable impression on
him. He
was sure that there was an underlying meaning, though just what it
portended he was unable to imagine.
From the International Machine Company Jimmy went directly to the
restaurant where he and Little Eva had dined the night before. He
found
her waiting for him, as they had agreed she would.
"Well, what luck?" she asked as he took the chair next to her.
"Oh, I landed the job all right," said Jimmy. "but I feel like a crook.
I don't know how in the world I ever came to stand for those letters of
recommendation. They were the things that got me the job all right,
but
I honestly feel just as though I had stolen something."
"Don't feel that way," said the girl. "You'll make good, I know, and
then it won t make any difference about the letters."
"And now," said Jimmy, "tell me where you got them. You promised
me that
you would tell me afterward."
"Oh," said the girl, "that was easy. A girl who rooms at the same place
I do works in a big printing and engraving plant and I got her to get
me
some samples of letterheads early this morning. In fact, I went
down-town with her when she went to work and then I went over to
the
Underwood offices and wrote the recommendations out on a
machine--I
used to be a stenographer."
"And you forged these names?" asked Jimmy, horrified.
"I didn't forge anybody's name," replied the girl. "I made them up."
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"You mean there are no such men?"
"As far as I know there are not," she replied, laughing.
Slowly Jimmy drew the letters from his inside pocket and read them
one
by one, spreading them out upon the table before him. Presently he
looked up at the girl.
"Why don't you get a position again as a stenographer?" he asked.
"I have been thinking of it," she said; "do you want me to?"
"Yes," he said, "I want you to very much."
"It will be easy," she said. "There is no reason why I shouldn't except
that there was no one ever cared what I did."
As she finished speaking they were both aware that a man had
approached
their table and stopped opposite them. Jimmy and the girl looked up
to
see a large man in a dark suit looking down at Eva. Jimmy did not
recognize the man, but he knew at once what he was.
"Well, O'Donnell, what's doing?" asked the girl.
"You know what's doing," said the officer. "How miny toimes do the
capt'in have to be afther isshuin' orrders tellin' you janes to kape out
uv dacent places?"
The girl flushed. "I'm not working here," she said.
"To hell ye ain't," sneered O'Donnell. "Didn't I see ye flag this guy
whin he came in?"
"This young lady is a friend of mine," said Jimmy. "I had an
appointment to meet her here."
O'Donnell shifted his gaze from the girl to her escort and for the first
time appraised Jimmy thoroughly. "Oh, it's you, is it?" he asked.
"It is," said Jimmy; "you guessed it the first time, but far be it from
me to know what you have guessed, as I never saw you before, my
friend."
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"Well, I've seen you before," said O'Donnell, "and ye put one over on
me
that time all roight, I can see now. I don't know what your game was,
but you and the Lizard played it pretty slick when you could pull the
wool over Patrick O'Donnell's eyes the way ye done."
"Oh," said Jimmy, "I've got you now. You're the bull who interfered
with my friend and me on Randolph and La Salle way back last July."
"I am," said O'Donnell, "and I thought ye was a foine young
gentleman,
and you are a foine one," he said with intense sarcasm.
"Go away and leave us alone," said the girl. "We're not doing
anything.
We ate in here last night together. This man is perfectly respectable.
He isn't what you think him, at all."
"I'm not going to pinch him," said O'Donnell; "I ain't got nothin' to
pinch him for, but the next time I see him I'll know him."
"Well," said the girl, "are you going to beat it or are you going to
stick around here bothering us all evening? There hasn't anybody
registered a complaint against me in here."
"Naw," said O'Donnell, "they ain't, but you want to watch your step or
they will."
"All right," said the girl, "run along and sell your papers." And she
turned again to Jimmy, and as though utterly unconscious of the
presence
of the police officer, she remarked, "That big stiff gives me a pain.
He's the original Buttinsky Kid."
O'Donnell flushed. "Watch your step, young lady," he said as he
turned
and walked away. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]