“I prefer to do it myself,” replied Bince.  “Everett has about all he can do, and anyway, I don’t like to trust it to any one else.”  And realizing that Compton did not care to discuss the matter of the efficiency expert further Bince returned to his own office.

The following afternoon the office boy entered Mr. Compton’s office.  “A gentleman to see you, Sir,” he announced.  “He said to tell you that he came in reply to your advertisement.”

“Show him in,” instructed Compton, and a moment later Jimmy entered—­a rehabilitated Jimmy.  Upon his excellent figure the ready-maid suit had all the appearance of faultlessly tailored garments.  Compton looked up at his visitor, and with the glance he swiftly appraised Jimmy—­a glance that assured him that here might be just the man he wanted, for intelligence, aggressiveness and efficiency were evidently the outstanding characteristics of the young man before him.  After Jimmy had presented himself the other motioned him to a chair.

“I am looking,” said Mr. Compton, “for an experienced man who can come in here and find out just what is wrong with us.  We have an old-established business which has been making money for years.  We are taking all the work that we can possibly handle at the highest prices we have ever received, and yet our profits are not at all commensurate with the volume of business.  It has occurred to me that an experienced man from the outside would be able to more quickly put his finger on the leaks and stop them.  Now tell me just what your experience has been and we will see if we can come to some understanding.”

From his pocket Jimmy drew a half-dozen envelopes, and taking the contents from them one by one laid them on the desk before Mr. Compton.  On the letter-heads of half a dozen large out-of-town manufacturers in various lines were brief but eulogistic comments upon the work done in their plants by Mr. James Torrance, Jr.  As he was reading them Mr. Compton glanced up by chance to see that the face of the applicant was slightly flushed, which he thought undoubtedly due to the fact that the other knew he was reading the words of praise contained in the letters, whereas the truth of the matter was that Jimmy’s color was heightened by a feeling of guilt.

“These are very good,” said Mr. Compton, looking up from the letters.  “I don’t know that I need go any further.  A great deal depends on a man’s personality in a position of this sort, and from your appearance I should imagine that you’re all right along that line and you seem to have had the right kind of experience.  Now, what arrangement can we make?”

Jimmy had given the matter of pay considerable thought, but the trouble was that he did not know what an efficiency expert might be expected to demand.  He recalled vaguely that the one his father had employed got something like ten dollars a day, or one hundred a day, Jimmy couldn’t remember which, and so he was afraid that he might ask too much and lose the opportunity, or too little and reveal that he had no knowledge of the value of such services.