"I don't want you to take it unless you feel pretty sure you can
stick. I'm tired of sending men up there for a week or two and having
them phoning in here a dozen times a day about how lonesome it is,
then quitting cold. We can't undertake to furnish you with amusement,
and we are too busy to spend the day gossiping with you over the phone
just to help you pass the time." He snapped his mouth together as
though he meant every word of it and a great deal more. "Do you want
the job?" he asked grimly.

Jack heard a chuckle from the next room, and his own lips came
together with a snap.

"Lead me to it," he said cheerfully. "I'd stand on my head and point
the wind with my legs for seventy dollars a month! Sounds to me like a
good place to save money--what?"

"Don't know how you'd go about spending much as long as you stayed up
there," Ross retorted drily. "It's when a man comes down that his
wages begin to melt."

Jack considered this point, standing with his feet planted a little
apart and his hands in his pockets, which is the accepted pose of the
care-free scion of wealth who is about to distinguish himself. He
believed that he knew best how to ward off suspicion of his motives in
thus exiling himself to a mountain top. He therefore grinned amiably
at Ross.

"Well, then, I won't come down," he stated calmly. "What I'm looking
for is a chance to make some money without any chance of spending it.