"No," said Croly loudly.
For the briefest part of a second the spotter wavered between duty and discretion. Then the beady eyes dropped and he murmured, "Oh, I beg pahdun. I thought you was the guy that just got outside of a raft of strawb"ry shortcake and hamboiger. Guess I made a little mistake myself."
With the brisk firm step of a conqueror Croly Add.i.c.ks strode into the air, away from the scene he had once left so humiliated.
Again, for many reflective minutes he occupied one of those chairs of philosophy, a park bench, and revolved in his mind the problem, "Where do I go from here?" The vacuum in his pockets warned him that his need of a job was imperative. Suddenly he released his thoughtful clutch on his new jaw, and his eyes brightened and his spine straightened with a startling idea that at once fascinated and frightened him. He would try to get his old job back again.
Inside him the old shrinking Croly fought it out with the new Croly.
"Don"t be foolish!" bleated the old Croly. "You haven"t the nerve to face Cowdin again."
"Buck up!" argued back the new Croly. "You made that soda clerk hop, and that spotter quail. The worst Cowdin can say is "No!""
"You haven"t a chance in the piano company, anyhow," demurred the old Croly. "They know you too well; your old reputation is against you. The spineless jellyfish cla.s.s at twenty-two-fifty per is your limit there."
"Nonsense," declared the new Croly masterfully. "It"s the one job you know. Ten to one they need you this minute. You"ve invested eleven years of training in it. Make that experience count."
"But--but Cowdin may take a wallop at me," protested the old Croly.
"Not while you have a face like Kid McNulty, the Chelsea Bearcat,"
flashed back the new Croly. The new Croly won.
Ten minutes later Samuel Cowdin swiveled round in his chair to face a young man with a pale, grim face and an oversized jaw.
"Well?" demanded Cowdin.
"Mr. Cowdin," said Croly Add.i.c.ks, holding his tremors in check by a great effort of will, "I understand you need a man in the purchasing department. I want the job."
Cowdin shot him a puzzled look. The chief purchasing agent"s countenance wore the expression of one who says "Where have I seen that face before?"
"We do need a man," Cowdin admitted, staring hard at Croly, "though I don"t know how you knew it. Who are you?"
"I"m Add.i.c.ks," said Croly, thrusting out his new chin.
Cowdin started. His brow wrinkled in perplexity; he stared even more intently at the firm-visaged man, and then shook his head as if giving up a problem.
"That"s odd," he muttered, reminiscently stroking his chin. "There was a young fellow by that name here. Croly was his first name. You"re not related to him, I suppose?"
Croly, the unrecognized, straightened up in his chair as if he had sat on a hornet. With difficulty he gained control over his breathing, and managed to growl, "No, I"m not related to him."
Cowdin obviously was relieved.
"Didn"t think you were," he remarked, almost amiably. "You"re not the same type of man at all."
"Do I get that job?" asked Croly. In his own ears his voice sounded hard.
"What experience have you had?" questioned Cowdin briskly.
"Eleven years," replied Croly.
"With what company?"
"With this company," answered Croly evenly.
"With this company?" Cowdin"s voice jumped a full octave higher to an incredulous treble.
"Yes," said Croly. "You asked me if I was related to Croly Add.i.c.ks. I said "No." That"s true. I"m not related to him--because I am Croly Add.i.c.ks."
With a gasp of alarm Cowdin jumped to his feet and prepared to defend himself from instant onslaught.
"The devil you are!" he cried.
"Sit down, please," said Croly, quietly.
Cowdin in a daze sank back into his chair and sat staring, hypnotized, at the man opposite him as one might stare who found a young pink elephant in his bed.
"I"ll forget what happened if you will," said Croly. "Let"s talk about the future. Do I get the job?"
"Eh? What"s that?" Cowdin began to realize that he was not dreaming.
"Do I get the job?" Croly repeated.
A measure of his accustomed self-possession had returned to the chief purchasing agent and he answered with as much of his old manner as he could muster, "I"ll give you another chance if you think you can behave yourself."
"Thanks," said Croly, and inside his new self sn.i.g.g.e.red at his old self.
The chief purchasing agent was master of himself by now, and he rapped out in the voice that Croly knew only too well, "Get right to work. Same desk. Same salary. And remember, no more monkey business, Mr. Add.i.c.ks, because if----"
He stopped short. There was something in the face of Croly Add.i.c.ks that told him to stop. The big new jaw was pointing straight at him as if it were a pistol.
"You said, just now," said Croly, and his voice was hoa.r.s.e, "that I wasn"t the same type of man as the Croly Add.i.c.ks who worked here before.
I"m not. I"m no longer the sort of man it"s safe to ride. Please don"t call me Mister unless you mean it."
Cowdin"s eyes strayed from the snapping eyes of Croly Add.i.c.ks to the taut jaw; he shrugged his shoulders.
"Report to Baldwin," was all he said.
As Croly turned away, his back hid from Cowdin the smile that had come to his new face.
The reincarnated Croly had been back at his old job for ten days, or, more accurately, ten days and nights, for it had taken that long to straighten out the snarl in which Baldwin, not quite so sure of himself now, had been immersed to the eyebrows. Baldwin was watching, a species of awe in his eye, while Croly swiftly and expertly checked off a complicated price list. Croly looked up.
"Baldwin," he said, laying down the work, "I"m going to make a suggestion to you. It"s for your own good."
"Shoot!" said the a.s.sistant purchasing agent warily.
"You"re not cut out for this game," said Croly Add.i.c.ks.
"Wha-a-at?" sputtered Baldwin.