Torchy, Private Sec.

it make you dizzy in the head. And, believe me, I was near it! You see, bein' jump

on the new nine o'clock schedule and finds this raw recruit holdin' down my old chair behind the rail. Nice, smooth-haired, bright-eyed y

s I, "what does

, Sir,"

do you know, Vincent, that I'm one of the re

"until I see if you kno

says I. "On that I'm bac

ays he. "I told Mot

rchy or Boy to all hands in the shop, from Old Hickory down; and now all of a sudden I finds there's one party at least that rates m

really is that I'm supposed to be workin' for, I needed some papers from the document safe. And

Mr. Piddie, d

, Sir,"

need those-no, better ask hi

t for anything else than to let him show his authority; but I didn't hold any grudge. I'd squared the account in my own wa

s as a rule? Well, as he marches in over the rug and comes to a parade rest by the desk, he's about

ttle husky, like it was bein' filtered through strong emot

He's one of the kind that was born to be "our Mr. Piddie"; the sort that takes off his hat to a vice-presiden

ddie," says I

eg pardon

e brass rail don't make me a sacred being, or you a lobbygow, does it? I guess w

now where to strike it. The cast-iron effect comes out of hi

ys he. "I-er-my congrat

nd proceed to show the Corrugated some teamwo

he time he'd beat into my head all he knew about the Fundin' Comp'ny we was as chummy as two survivors of the same steamer w

development manager, who makes preliminary reports on new deals. One of these cold-eyed, ch

he desk. "I heard of this out in Chicago thr

hings straight now and t

norts. "Philip wr

I. "Cousin

ege discard that Willis G. had been nursin' along in the bondroom, waitin' for a better

only temporary,

n' in eight or ten years, I expect, and then they

as they say in the movie scripts. "You'l

he swings off with a final glar

scoe might get it away from me, or he might not; but I w

Rowley matter: you know, the old inventor guy with the mill-tailings scheme. And the first hint I had that he was wise to tha

better turn it ove

old gent is due at two-fifteen,

-thirty-five Briscoe br

ked ideas about briquets and retort recoveries, and talks vaguely

was promised that his schemes should

'em a report next meeting. Wednesday, isn't it?

I was smeared, that's all! My first stab at makin' myself useful in my new swing-chair job has been brushed aside as a

but race my thinkin' gears tryin' to find out where I was at. This dummy act that I'd been le

e me long to locate him in a fifth-story loft down on lower Sixth-ave. It's an odd joint too, with a cot bed in one corner, a work bench along the avenue side, a cook-stove in the middle, and a kit

l trot right back to the Corrugated Trust and tell 'em that

get on so well with

that! He knew it all before I'd begun. You'd think I was trying to sell him

efore you get the

he. "Briscoe is fi

"or else you're easy beat. I didn

've been giving it all my time, day in and day out, and many a night as well. I've been living with it, in this loft here, like a blessed hermit; testing

some," says I. "Think you've go

ink," says

n, "if you can't make other fol

Why, any person with even o

ize, six and seven-eighths, or maybe seven. Come, try it on

e neck-deep in the science of makin' an ore puddin', doin' stunts with th

nd work up to it gradual. Course, I was keepin' him jollied along too, and while it must have been sort of hopeless at the start, inoculatin' a cauliflower like mine with higher chemistry,

uffed sausage. A little more, and I won't know whether I'm a nitrous sulphid

uared, tryin' to write out as much of that chemistry dope as I could remember. And it's surprising ain't it, what a lot of information you can sop up when you do t

n' my bean full of all this science dope just to see if it would stand the strain. Not so, Clarice! I'd woke up to the fact that I was bein

I has I tackles Mr.

owley proposi

fear Mr. Briscoe thin

ruity in the

accepting his judgment in su

n he's handin' you a stall. And you'r

ly?" says he. "Perhaps you would l

t may listen like a joke, but

of the leading mining authorities in the country, I suppose

ever got to seein' a mine was watchin' 'em ex

rt, "that he has a way of stating

f I think he's bilkin' you on this, is it

top. "You shall have your chance, Torchy. The directors shall hea

then," says I, "if it'll b

"and rather more amusing,

ley on the side lines, in

owley if you wish. And if there are an

rtin' for the door; "so mark me

flypaper didn't have anything on me. I streaks it for

up?" s

to be threshed out before the full Corrugated board to-

at of it?

Exhibit A," says I, "i

he. "I'll go alo

e hard part. "Rowley," I goes on

that to do wit

d sports, most of 'em; and they're apt to size up strangers a good deal by their haberdashery.

ancin' at his gray flannel w

or have it landscaped into a Vandyke, eh?" says I. "You kno

being manicured too?"

s I. "And this would

est in Old Hen Rowley. Seems nice too. I suppose I am rather a shabby old duffer to be visiting the offices of great and go

rn-tinted kale the size of your wrist. Maybe they wa'n't all h

o near the bread line; but by your campin' in a

've no business going about so. The whiskers shall be trimmed. But your peo

p decision of Briscoe's. And unless I get tongue tied at

hand stuff! I'd got to know in advance what I meant to feed 'em, line for line and word for word. By ten o'clock that nig

h. Not that I was tryin' to chuck any flowers of oratory. What I aimed to do was to tell 'em about Rowley's schemes as simple and straight away as I could, usin' one-syllable words for the most p

t when the whistle blows he can wipe his trowel on his overalls and forget it all until next day. But here I tosses around restless in the feathers, and am u

ould say 'em backwards or forwards. How they was goin' to sound outside of my room was another

is smooth-faced party in the sporty Scotch tweed suit and the new model pearl gray lid shows up, I has to gasp! He's had himself ta

s? Say, you look like you was about to dump a trunkful of

ice a thorough trial

led up gets the dollars these days. Be su

d vigorous, and when he's through it didn't listen like anything more could be said. He humps his eyebrow

Mr. Robert, "you

ne dry and I had a panicky notion that my brain had ossified. Then I got a glimpse of them shrewd blue eyes of Rowley's smilin

mes, explainin' the chemical process that produced 'em, and how they could be caught on the fly and canned in carboys for the trade, I galloped through the whole proposition, backin' up every item with figures and formulas; until I showed 'em how the slag that now cost 'em so much to get rid of could be sold for road b

methylcalcites from a stein of Hoboken beer; but I'm willin' to believe there's big money in handling either, providing you don't spill too much on the inside. Mr. Rowley claims you're throwing away millions a y

kin' big option check in his fist, and a resolution had gone through to install an experiment plan as soon as

e with the fraternal grip

p a job for myself, or else four-flushin' along until you

suspect," says he, "than

for an amateur private sec