“Look here, let’s get together an’ frame it up.  Willin’ to listen?”

Martin nodded.

“This is a small laundry, up country, belongs to Shelly Hot Springs,—­hotel, you know.  Two men do the work, boss and assistant.  I’m the boss.  You don’t work for me, but you work under me.  Think you’d be willin’ to learn?”

Martin paused to think.  The prospect was alluring.  A few months of it, and he would have time to himself for study.  He could work hard and study hard.

“Good grub an’ a room to yourself,” Joe said.

That settled it.  A room to himself where he could burn the midnight oil unmolested.

“But work like hell,” the other added.

Martin caressed his swelling shoulder-muscles significantly.  “That came from hard work.”

“Then let’s get to it.”  Joe held his hand to his head for a moment.  “Gee, but it’s a stem-winder.  Can hardly see.  I went down the line last night—­everything—­everything.  Here’s the frame-up.  The wages for two is a hundred and board.  I’ve ben drawin’ down sixty, the second man forty.  But he knew the biz.  You’re green.  If I break you in, I’ll be doing plenty of your work at first.  Suppose you begin at thirty, an’ work up to the forty.  I’ll play fair.  Just as soon as you can do your share you get the forty.”

“I’ll go you,” Martin announced, stretching out his hand, which the other shook.  “Any advance?—­for rail-road ticket and extras?”

“I blew it in,” was Joe’s sad answer, with another reach at his aching head.  “All I got is a return ticket.”

“And I’m broke—­when I pay my board.”

“Jump it,” Joe advised.

“Can’t.  Owe it to my sister.”

Joe whistled a long, perplexed whistle, and racked his brains to little purpose.

“I’ve got the price of the drinks,” he said desperately.  “Come on, an’ mebbe we’ll cook up something.”

Martin declined.

“Water-wagon?”

This time Martin nodded, and Joe lamented, “Wish I was.”

“But I somehow just can’t,” he said in extenuation.  “After I’ve ben workin’ like hell all week I just got to booze up.  If I didn’t, I’d cut my throat or burn up the premises.  But I’m glad you’re on the wagon.  Stay with it.”

Martin knew of the enormous gulf between him and this man—­the gulf the books had made; but he found no difficulty in crossing back over that gulf.  He had lived all his life in the working-class world, and the camaraderie of labor was second nature with him.  He solved the difficulty of transportation that was too much for the other’s aching head.  He would send his trunk up to Shelly Hot Springs on Joe’s ticket.  As for himself, there was his wheel.  It was seventy miles, and he could ride it on Sunday and be ready for work Monday morning.  In the meantime he would go home and pack up.  There was no one to say good-by to.  Ruth and her whole family were spending the long summer in the Sierras, at Lake Tahoe.