And those lines of the night before stood out for all to see.
In the stillness of the place the big revolving door turned once more, complainingly. For the thousandth time Jock"s eyes lifted heavily. Then they flew wide open. The drooping figure straightened electrically. Half a dozen quick steps and Jock stood in the pathway of Ben Griebler who, rather ruffled and untidy, had blown in on the wings of the morning.
He stared a moment. "Well, what--"
"I"ve been waiting for you here since five o"clock last evening.
It will soon be five o"clock again. Will you let me show you those plans now?"
Ben Griebler had surveyed Jock with the stony calm of the out-of-town visitor who is prepared to show surprise at nothing in New York.
"There"s nothing like getting an early start," said Ben Griebler.
"Come on up to my room." Key in hand, he made for the elevator.
For an almost imperceptible moment Jock paused. Then, with a little rush, he followed the short, thick-set figure. "I knew you had it in you, McChesney. I said you looked like a comer, didn"t I?"
Jock said nothing. He was silent while Griebler unlocked his door, turned on the light, fumbled at the windows and shades, picked up the telephone receiver. "What"ll you have?"
"Nothing." Jock had cleared the center table and was opening his flat bundle of papers. He drew up two chairs. "Let"s not waste any time," he said. "I"ve had a twelve-hour wait for this." He seemed to control the situation. Obediently Ben Griebler hung up the receiver, came over, and took the chair very close to Jock.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ""Let"s not waste any time," he said"]
"There"s nothing artistic about gum," began Jock McChesney; and his manner was that of a man who is sure of himself. "It"s a shirt-sleeve product, and it ought to be handled from a shirt-sleeve standpoint. Every gum concern in the country has spent thousands on a "better-than-candy" campaign before it realized that gum is a candy and drug store article, and that no man is going to push a five-cent package of gum at the sacrifice of the sale of an eighty-cent box of candy. But the health note is there, if only you strike it right. Now, here"s my idea--"
At six o"clock Ben Griebler, his little shrewd eyes sparkling, his voice more squeakily falsetto than ever, surveyed the youngster before him with a certain awe.
"This--this thing will actually sell our stuff in Europe! No gum concern has ever been able to make the stuff go outside of this country. Why, inside of three years every "Arry and "Arriet in England"ll be chewing it on bank holidays. I don"t know about Germany, but--" He pushed back his chair and got up. "Well, I"m solid on that. And what I say goes. Now I"ll tell you what I"ll do, kid. I"ll take you down to St. Louis with me, at a figure that"ll make your--"
Jock looked up.
"Or if you don"t want the Berg, Shriner crowd to get wise, I"ll fix it this way. I"ll go over there this morning and tell "em I"ve changed my mind, see? The campaign"s theirs, see? Then I refuse to consider any of their suggestions until I see your plan. And when I see it I fall for it like a ton of bricks. Old Berg"ll never know. He"s so darned high-principled--"
Jock McChesney stood up. The little drawn pinched look which had made his face so queerly old was gone. His eyes were bright. His face was flushed.
"There! You"ve said it. I didn"t realize how raw this deal was until you put it into words for me. I want to thank you. You"re right. Bartholomew Berg is so darned high-principled that two muckers like you and me, groveling around in the dirt, can"t even see the tips of the heights to which his ideals have soared. Don"t stop me. I know I"m talking like a book. But I feel like something that has just been kicked out into the sunshine after having been in jail."
"You"re tired," said Ben Griebler. "It"s been a strain. Something always snaps after a long tension."
Jock"s flat palm came down among the papers with a crack.
"You bet something snaps! It has just snapped inside me." He began quietly to gather up the papers in an orderly little way.
"What"s that for?" inquired Griebler, coming forward. "You don"t mean--"
"I mean that I"m going to go home and square this thing with a lady you"ve never met. You and she wouldn"t get on if you did. You don"t talk the same language. Then I"m going to have a cold bath, and a hot breakfast. And then, Griebler, I"m going to take this stuff to Bartholomew Berg and tell him the whole nasty business.
He"ll see the humor of it. But I don"t know whether he"ll fire me, or make me vice-president of the company. Now, if you want to come over and talk to him, fair and square, why come."
"Ten to one he fires you," remarked Griebler, as Jock reached the door.
"There"s only one person I know who"s game enough to take you up on that. And it"s going to take more nerve to face her at six-thirty than it will to tackle a whole battalion of Bartholomew Bergs at nine."
"Well, I guess I can get in a three-hour sleep before--er--"
"Before what?" said Jock McChesney from the door.
Ben Griebler laughed a little shamefaced laugh. "Before I see you at ten, sonny."
V
THE SELF-STARTER
There is nothing in the sound of the shrill little bell to warn us of the import of its message. More"s the pity. It may be that bore whose telephone conversation begins: "Well, what do you know to-day?" It may be your lawyer to say you"ve inherited a million.
Hence the arrogance of the instrument. It knows its voice will never wilfully go unanswered so long as the element of chance lies concealed within it.
Mrs. Emma McChesney heard the call of her telephone across the hall. Seated in the office of her business partner, T.A. Buck, she was fathoms deep in discussion of the T.A. Buck Featherloom Petticoat Company"s new spring line. The buzzer"s insistent voice brought her to her feet, even while she frowned at the interruption.
"That"ll be Baumgartner "phoning about those silk swatches. Back in a minute," said Emma McChesney and hurried across the hall just in time to break the second call.
The perfunctory "h.e.l.lo! Yes" was followed by a swift change of countenance, a surprised little cry, then,--in quite another tone--"Oh, it"s you, Jock! I wasn"t expecting ... No, not too busy to talk to you, you young chump! Go on." A moment of silence, while Mrs. McChesney"s face smiled and glowed like a girl"s as she listened to the voice of her son. Then suddenly glow and smile faded. She grew tense. Her head, that had been leaning so carelessly on the hand that held the receiver, came up with a jerk. "Jock McChesney!" she gasped, "you--why, you don"t mean!--"
Now, Emma McChesney was not a woman given to jerky conversations, interspersed with exclamation points. Her poise and balance had become a proverb in the business world. Yet her lips were trembling now. Her eyes were very round and bright. Her face had flushed, then grown white. Her voice shook a little. "Yes, of course I am. Only, I"m so surprised. Yes, I"ll be home early.
Five-thirty at the latest."
She hung up the receiver with a little fumbling gesture. Her hand dropped to her lap, then came up to her throat a moment, dropped again. She sat staring straight ahead with eyes that saw one thousand miles away.
From his office across the hall T.A. Buck strolled in casually.
"Did Baumgartner say he"d--?" He stopped as Mrs. McChesney looked up at him. A quick step forward--"What"s the matter, Emma?"
"Jock--Jock--"
"Jock! What"s happened to the boy?" Then, as she still stared at him, her face pitiful, his hand patted her shoulder. "Dear girl, tell me." He bent over her, all solicitude.
"Don"t!" said Emma McChesney faintly, and shook off his hand.
"Your stenographer can see--What will the office think? Please--"
"Oh, darn the stenographer! What"s this bad news of Jock?"
Emma McChesney sat up. She smiled a little nervously and pa.s.sed her handkerchief across her lips. "I didn"t say it was bad, did I?
That is, not exactly bad, I suppose."
T.A. Buck ran a frenzied hand over his head. "My dear child,"
with careful politeness, "will you please try to be sane? I find you sitting at your desk, staring into s.p.a.ce, your face white as a ghost"s, your whole appearance that of a person who has received a death-blow. And then you say, "Not exactly bad"!"
"It"s this," explained Emma McChesney in a hollow tone: "The Berg, Shriner Advertising Company has appointed Jock manager of their new Western branch. They"re opening offices in Chicago in March."
Her lower lip quivered. She caught it sharply between her teeth.