Joan and Co.

The thing Devons had evolved was a patent-leather finish at least fifty per cent less liable to crack than any on the market, produced at four fifths the cost of the Burnett product. But it was one thing to claim this and another to prove or even to get a chance to prove it. At the end of a week he had enough to allow a manufacturer to give it a fair trial. Armed with letters he had from his professors at Tech—letters intended for the benefit of teaching staffs rather than business men—he left Joan in charge of the office one day, looking very important with this new responsibility, and crossed the city in search of the manager of the Doggett Shoe Company. He waited two hours in an outer office after filling out the slip giving his name and business, and when finally ushered into the presence of A.E. Hartley found the man still too busy even to glance up from his desk as he entered. It was not an encouraging reception, and Devons had not had sufficient experience to accept the situation calmly. He had ventured forth with an enthusiasm which he expected to find reflected in every one he met, without stopping to consider that this was rather an unreasonable presumption in view of the fact that the world at large knew as yet nothing about the Devons process, and probably if informed would care scarcely more. The case of Hartley, however, was different. He should have been immediately interested, though, perhaps, it was not fair to expect him to get excited before he heard of it.

Devons studied the man behind the desk—a man of fifty with a square, non-committal face. He had a short, iron-gray mustache and a square jaw, a sharp nose and well-set eyes. With his head on his hand he was figuring rapidly. Finally he pressed a button, to which a boy responded instantly. With a quick, nervous movement he handed the lad a sheet of paper with the single word:

“Henderson.”

Then he looked up at Devons.

“Well?” he inquired, as though resenting the interruption.

Devons felt his heart leap to his mouth. He was as excited as he had been when he stepped before the examiners for his oral examination.

“I understand you use considerable patent leather in your factory.”

“Yes.”

“I have perfected a new process—”

“Not interested!” snapped Hartley.

Devons flushed.

“You won’t even let me tell you about it?”

Hartley, who had started about his work, looked up again. There was a note of such deep disappointment in Devons’s voice that his attention was attracted once more. It was quite evident that he was not dealing with the professional salesman.

“Who do you represent?” asked Hartley.

“Myself.”

“If your time is valuable, let me tell you this: we purchase our entire supply of the Burnett people.”

“Yes, sir. All I was going to ask was that you give my process a trial.”

“We have no time to experiment.”

“The experimenting has been all done. I have some letters—”

Fumbling in his pocket Devons produced them. Hartley indifferently unfolded the first.

“Tech?” he asked.

“Yes, sir.”

Devons named his class.

As it happened, Hartley had preceded him at the same institution fifteen years before. He had been under this same professor who testified as to Devons’s ability.

“Bring up a chair and sit down,” Hartley invited him as he finished the letter.

Devons hastily complied.

“Now, tell me about it.”

Hartley sat back in his chair with the tips of the fingers of his right hand matched against the tips of the fingers of his left hand. He listened without comment of any kind as Devons began at the beginning and sketched his early laboratory work leading him to his later task.

“I saw that the older the oil the more perfect the result. It seemed that some change took place in the maturing process. I experimented to discover what that was and found out. Then I devised a way of maturing the oil more rapidly and more completely. This allows the skin to absorb more of it. That’s all.”

“That’s enough,” smiled Hartley, “if you’ve done it.”

“You mean you doubt it?”

“I admit I’m skeptical. My boy, I’ve looked into at least fifty such claims personally. I’ve spent at least twenty thousand dollars right here trying to achieve that result. Burnett has spent five times as much, and every manufacturer of patent leather in the country an equal amount. An uncrackable patent leather has been the dream of manufacturers from the first.”

“I don’t claim it is absolutely uncrackable.”

“Merely fifty per cent better,” nodded Hartley. “It is well to be modest. If you could show me something only ten per cent more pliable I should feel repaid.”

“I can,” declared Devons. “Will you give it a trial?”

Hartley considered a moment.

“State just what your proposition is,” he said cautiously.

“That you let me furnish enough of the dressing for your test.”

“You are not asking for a contract of any sort?”

“If the process makes good, that won’t be necessary, will it?”

“No,” admitted Hartley, “if the price is right.”

“I haven’t worked that out carefully yet, but I figure it should be less than the present product.”

“Good Lord!” exclaimed Hartley: “how do you get that result?”

“Less oil,” answered Devons.

Hartley shook his head skeptically.

“Send it on,” he concluded; “but frankly I don’t believe it.”

“Carlow, Reed & Co. tested it.”

“Then why didn’t they buy it?”

“They were afraid of Burnett,” Devons answered.

He had the letter with him and handed it to Hartley. The latter read it through carefully and returned it.

“Well, I’m not afraid of Burnett,” was his comment. “Send the stuff down to-morrow.”

“I’ll have it here to-night,” answered Devons. “Good-day.”

“Good luck, my boy,” answered Hartley.

Not counting the wait the interview had not lasted ten minutes. When Devons came out on the street again he drew a long breath. If he had seen a taxi at that moment he would have been tempted to get in. Any other way of getting back to Joan with such news as this seemed clumsy and tedious.

But if he had only known it, Joan herself had not been idle in the meanwhile. She had done quite an unexpected and brilliant stroke of business on her own account. Devons had not been gone from the office a half-hour before the door opened and a middle-aged man entered, glanced around, caught sight of her, and removed his hat. His hair was swept back from his forehead as though he were facing a strong wind.

“It said Devons Manufacturing Company upon the door,” he explained, as though to account for having entered so unceremoniously.

“This is the Devons Manufacturing Company,” she assured him.

The chemicals and kettles bore out the statement which, considering the young woman herself, he would still have been inclined to doubt. Either she was out of place here or the kettles were.

“Is Mr. Devons in?”

“No,” answered Joan. “He may be gone several hours.”

Forsythe studied his watch a moment, and then raised his eyes and studied the girl another moment.

“I’m sorry,” he ventured as though feeling his way; “I wanted particularly to see him this morning.”

“Is there anything I can do?” inquired Joan.

“I don’t know,” smiled Forsythe. “May I ask if you are associated with the business?”

“I’m the bookkeeper,” she announced.

“I see. Then you are in charge of the plant?”

“Until Mr. Devons returns,” she admitted with a trace of color.

“Perhaps, then, you will do quite as well,” suggested Forsythe. “All I wanted was to inquire a little more fully into his product. I wonder if you yourself are posted enough to tell me.”

“I’m afraid I don’t know much about it except that it is very wonderful. If you could come back this afternoon, I’m sure he’ll be in then.”

Forsythe shook his head.

“I only have an hour.”

He turned eagerly once more toward the laboratory end of the office.

“He makes it over there,” Joan informed him.

“I see.”

He stepped nearer, and Joan sensed his unspoken question.

“If you’re interested, you might look about,” she suggested graciously.

He took advantage of her offer instantly.

“Thanks. I will.”

He appeared to be very much interested in every detail, even to the extent of investigating all the labeled bottles of chemicals and some that were not labeled. He removed the corks from these and smelled the contents, and once even poured some out into a graduating glass and held it to the light. Occasionally he asked her a question, but without any very satisfactory results.

So he came to several jugs of the finished product, and this appeared to interest him most of all.

“I don’t suppose that as yet he is ready to put this on the market?” he inquired.

“Why, yes,” she answered quickly; “that is just exactly what he is doing. He has gone to-day to try to sell the little he has ready.”

“This?” inquired Forsythe.

She nodded.

“There isn’t very much of it. We have only just started.”

Forsythe straightened.

“Then if he had happened to be in I could have bought some myself,” he said. “I only want enough to give it a trial.”

“Can’t you come again?”

“Possibly. But there is nothing like taking advantage of the present. If you could let me have—say this much.”

He held up a jug.

“But I haven’t the slightest idea how much he asks for it.”

“I’m in the business myself, so I can tell you roughly. Ten dollars would be an extravagant price. But for safety’s sake I’ll double that.”

She met the man’s eyes. She had no reason for doubting his word.

“If you are quite sure, I don’t see why you shouldn’t have it,” she replied.

“I’m quite sure my price is right,” he answered. “If Mr. Devons can sustain it his fortune is made.”

“Oh, you think so?”

“There is no doubt about it,” he nodded gravely.

Then he took a wallet from his pocket and presented her with two ten-dollar bills.

“I pay cash,” he said.

She accepted the bills eagerly.

Then with a smile Forsythe picked up his jug and went out leaving her staring a little breathlessly at the money. It was the first cash transaction made by the Devons Manufacturing Company.

She hurried to her desk in the corner and opened a brand-new ledger book which she had bought only the day before. In her very best handwriting she made this entry:

“By one jug dressing $20.00”

She wished there were some way she could reach Devons by telephone. It was difficult to wait for him with such news as this.