Still, he looked a merry sort of lad with a good sense of humor, and not every fanatic had a sense of humor. Perhaps it would be as well to send Kurt after him tomorrow and let him sound him out about a better-paying job.

Lacey was back in his room a good half hour before the expected phone call came.

“Well, Lacey, size yer man up?” came the boss’s sneering voice.

“Yeah. I looked him over. He may be all right, but he looks mighty soft to me.”

“You’re mistaken. Nothing soft about him. I’ve been watching him for several months. Got a lot of character, that kid.”

“Well, mebbe so, but the girl I’m thinking of is a regular. If you had time I could tell you a lot of jobs that dame’s pulled off, and she’s pretty as all git out. If I know anything at all about that young guy you say is to have charge of his dad’s plant, she could work him for almost anything you want. Like to have you see her. She’s worth looking at. If you could drop in anywhere you want to suggest, I could have her there and introduce you. You wouldn’t need to commit yourself in her presence. She knows the score.”

“You haven’t told her anything about this affair, have you?”

“What do you take me for? I should say not. But I’ve tried her out already on so many other jobs, I know just how she’ll react, and this would be right up her alley. She’d eat it up. She’s plenty proud of her past record.”

“I see,” said the grim, heavy voice of the boss. “But I tell you, this is no lady’s job. It wouldn’t be permitted.”

“Okay! But I’d like you to meet the lady now she’s in the vicinity. You’ll need her sometime, even if you don’t need her now.”

“Well,” said Weaver after an instant’s pause, “I’ll be at the restaurant at the corner of Tenth and Harper at twelve sharp tomorrow. If she’s there, all right, and if not, that’s the end. This, you understand, is a man’s job. Get to work on your man as soon as possible. I’ll have the job rounded up for him by morning. That’s all!” And the boss hung up.

But about that time Kurt Entry lurched across the pile of rubble at the curb and fell into step behind the young man John Sargent, whom he had been watching carefully for the last hour.

And a little later a girl in a grubby room of a cheap hotel received a phone call.

“That you, Erda?”

“The same.”

“We’ll make it twelve sharp tomorrow. Tenth and Harper.”

“Very well. Any special line?”

“Nothing new yet.”

“Okay!”

Chapter 2

Lisle went through the outer room where stenographers and clerks were already hard at work. She smiled at one and another of them, and they all smiled back as if they liked her. She had a habit of making even a smile seem an honor.

Lisle had not long to wait. Her mother soon came out of her father’s inner office, and they started out together on their shopping expedition.

“I think we had better go to the tailor’s first, dear, and get that fitting out of the way, don’t you?” said her mother.