Skinner's Dress Suit Part 22

"Yes--that is, most other men--middle-aged men."

"Why middle-aged men?"

"Because they're married--most middle-aged men are."

McLaughlin turned to Perkins. "I'm darned if he ain't gone and mashed the climber. That's what I think!"

Skinner thrust his hands into his pockets, walked over to the window, then turned and slowly came back to within a few feet of where McLaughlin was sitting.

"On my way back from St. Paul, Mr. McLaughlin," he said--and Perkins, recognizing the premonitory symptoms, crossed to the window and stood with his back to his partner and "the cage man"--"Mr. McLaughlin,"

Skinner repeated after a pause, "I've been thinking that the most valuable man to any concern is the one that gets the business for it."

"Right-o!" said McLaughlin.

"And the hardest man to get," Skinner went on, "is the customer you get back. You not only have to pry him loose from some other concern with better figures, but you have his personal pride to overcome. To come back is a surrender."

"All of which means that you expect a raise, eh, Skinner?"

"I was only going to suggest--"

"You don't have to suggest. We've already decided to raise you twenty-five dollars a week. How does that strike you? Just as a mark of appreciation."

"I can't see any appreciation in it unless you take me out of the cage--for this reason," said Skinner. "As a 'cage man' I'm not worth much more than I 've been getting. In order to earn that extra twenty-five dollars a week I 've got to have a chance to show what I can do further. Take me out of the cage."

"Skinner," said McLaughlin, "you didn't for a minute think that we were going to keep a man that could pull off such a trick as that in a cage, did you? We're going to make you a salesman."

The idea of going on the road did n't appeal to Skinner.

"To be frank, Mr. McLaughlin, I want something better than that."

"Better?"

"Yes. I want to be put in charge of the sales department. You see, I not only know the business from beginning to end, but I want to show our salesmen that selling goods means something more than rattling off a list of what you've got, dilating like a parrot. I want to teach them the value of knowledge of the personal equation and how to apply that knowledge effectively. Does n't that telegram from Jackson show that I know something about it?"

"What do you think of Skinner's proposition?" McLaughlin said to the junior partner.

Perkins turned and came back to the table. "Skinner seems to have the goods."

"Mr. McLaughlin," Skinner urged, "it is n't that I feel big about what I've done, it is n't that I think I know more than anybody else, but I've had ideas about things I've always wanted to put into practice.

When you sent me out to St. Paul, I formulated a little scheme of attack on Jackson, and you saw how it worked. I think that ent.i.tles my opinion to some respect. I've got the good of this concern at heart and I want to show what can be done along original lines."

McLaughlin looked at Perkins and Perkins nodded affirmatively.

"Skinner, I 'm going to let you see what you can do," said the senior partner; then paused. He turned to Perkins. "The devil of it is, what to do with Hobson."

"Let him take charge of the San Francisco office," Perkins suggested.

"I don't like to hurt the old chap's feelings."

"Hurt his feelings? Why, he's always wanted to go back to the Coast--where he belongs."

All that day, while Skinner was instructing the young man who was to succeed him as "cage man," he was very happy. He was happy that the field of his activities was broadening, that he'd have a chance to show what was in him. But he was particularly happy that now he would never have to tell Honey that he'd deceived her.

This, however, would involve a negative deception, worse luck, he mused, for he would not be able to tell her about the twenty-five dollars advance he'd just got. He would go right along as he had been doing, each week giving Honey ten dollars to deposit in the Meadeville National. Then he, himself, would deposit ten dollars a week until he'd made up for the number of weeks that had elapsed since he'd promoted himself. Thus their little bank account would remain intact, and Honey would not know unless--his heart slowed down--McLaughlin should take to bragging about him and how they'd shown their appreciation of what he'd done in St. Paul, and Mrs. McLaughlin should get hold of it and pa.s.s it along to Honey--which would have the effect of perpetuating his original, devilish raise.

But he was n't going to cross that bridge yet!

And so it came about that eight months later, one beautiful morning in December, McLaughlin said to the junior partner, "That which I feared has come upon us!"

"What's the matter? Has Skinner asked for another raise?"

"Worse'n that. The Starr-Bacon people have made him an offer!"

"I see! That's because he pried Willard Jackson and others loose from that concern. Probably they want him to use the same method to get those people away from us and back in to the S.-B. fold."

"It's clear what _they_ want. It is n't so clear what we've got to do."

"Raise his pay again," Perkins suggested.

"That ain't enough. Skinner claims he wants broader fields of opportunity."

"I hope he's willing to let you and me run things a while longer."

"I don't know what to do. You see, Skinner proved to be an awfully good man, just so soon as we gave him his head. He's an all-round man.

When he was cas.h.i.+er, he not only could collect money from anybody who had a cent, and without losing business either, but he steered us away from some very bad risks that those two enterprising young salesmen, Briggs and Henderson, tried to 'put over' on us."

"That was his business. He was cas.h.i.+er."

"But see what he's done since we made him manager of the sales department," urged McLaughlin. "He has not only opened up new territory and got in new customers, but he's reclaimed old, abandoned fields of operation and got back a lot of old fellows. He's delivered the goods all along the line, Perk. Besides that, it was Skinner that got us to put in that new machinery over in Newark. Why, it's already saved a quarter of its cost in fuel. Also, Perk, he's a great little adviser."

"I know his value, Mac, as well as you do."

McLaughlin laughed. "We did n't either of us know it till we sent him out West. He kept his light under a bushel so long."

"Kept it in a cage, you mean."

"If he goes over to the Starr-Bacon people, he takes his methods with him, and you know--customers follow methods."

"What we want to do," said the junior, "is to offset the Starr-Bacon offer without you and me having to sell our machines and take to the subway in order to pay his salary. How would it do to make him general manager? Skinner's ambitious--he's looking for honor."

"No," said McLaughlin, after pondering a few moments, "if we keep him on a salary and he remains an employee only, he will still be susceptible to outside offers. The only thing to do is to make him a partner! That's the only way to keep him!"

"Make him a partner, Mac? This isn't a firm any more; it's a corporation."

"Same thing--you and I own it, don't we?"

"Quite so."

"Well, all we've got to do's to give him a block of stock--ain't it?"